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The Challenge
- Continue to deliver highly innovative
products
- Comply with stringent FDA regulations
- Get to market quicker than the competition
- Maintain the highest standard for reliability
- And all the while, save time and money
Those
are the challenges that many medical device manufacturers
face
in today's market. Pioneer Surgical Technology,
a Marquette, Michigan based company that designs and manufactures
complex medical implants and instruments, relies on it's engineering
tools to help balance the load.
The
Solution
By
partnering with Computer Aided Technology Inc., Pioneer Surgical
has readily equipped its Biomedical Engineers with industry-leading
tools for both 3D solid modeling and finite element analysis
(FEA).
For Pioneer Surgical Project Engineer, Greg Berrevoets, choosing
a 3D CAD package with FEA was a no brainer for Pioneer Surgical.
“We
were building physical prototypes, testing it and doing several
iterations,” Berrevoets explained. “We thought
that acquiring an FEA tool would be a significant time-saver,
and it has proven out. For key components, it saves
an enormous amount of time on creating prototypes.”
The
next task would be obtaining the right tools for the Pioneer
Surgical Engineering Group. After investigating all of the
major 3D mechanical design players and their associated FEA
modules, Berrevoets said they swiftly chose SolidWorks and
SolidWorks Simulation Software for two primary reasons: single-window interface
between the two applications,
and ease-of-use.
“SolidWorks Simulation
is a true Windows-based application and the user interface
is quite easy to learn. The SolidWorks partnership with SolidWorks Simulation
was a definite deciding factor,” said Berrevoets, who
helped Pioneer Surgical obtain SolidWorks and SolidWorks Simulation back
in 1998. “The complete integration between SolidWorks
and SolidWorks Simulation is excellent. It’s a big benefit to be able
to easily switch between the two applications. I run the FEA,
go back and tweak minor features and check the results immediately.
It's very beneficial."
Berrevoets
also explained how their use of SolidWorks Simulation for FEA has helped
adhere to FDA regulations in certain cases, like documenting
effects of simple modifications without physical testing to
prove the safety and efficacy of the product, for example.
But ultimately, Berrevoets says that reducing the number of
prototypes helps to save time and money, and that’s
key for a company like Pioneer Surgical.
“We provide unique devices that compete with other medical
device manufacturers. We develop original designs where everything
is not already proven. For our company, the benefit of using
SolidWorks Simulation for FEA is huge. We continually reduce the number of
prototypes and that saves a large amount of time in getting
out to market.”
Summary &
Metrics
- Combination of SolidWorks and SolidWorks Simulation
= at least 25% time savings
- "If you can save just one iteration
of a prototype, you're probably in the neighborhood of saving
50% in time"
- Reduction in number of prototypes = significant
cost savings for each project
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