2018 brought us so many great stories from our customers we’ve shared with you through our newsletters. Looking back on 2018, here are the top five stories our customers shared with us, from custom-built Formula race cars to custom greenhouses, and more, as chosen by you, the reader, from our top clicks of 2018:
Nexans Autoelectric of America, Inc.
Nexans Autoelectric of America, Inc. is known internationally by automakers for vehicle electrical wiring systems, molded components, and clocksprings. Jeremy Richardson is a component designer that supports wire harness development at Nexans Autoelectric. Initially, Jeremy’s team purchased the SOLIDWORKS Simulation package through Computer Aided Technology as a cost-savings move to help with engagement force predictions and stress analysis. Continue reading.
WallX
Creative problem-solving is at the heart of what it means to be an entrepreneur. That’s what Greg Dempsey sought to do when he came up with WallX: solve a problem. “I built homes for a long time, and I always had trouble hanging things on walls,” Greg says. “You kept seeing new products come out, but none of them were a one-stop solution. So I thought, hey, let’s figure this out.” And figure it out he did. It may have taken several years, but finally, Greg designed a universal hub wall hanging solution, which is now patent-pending, the xHang Picture Hanging System. “Sometimes we call it an operating system for walls. Once you learn how to install the hub, you can hang anything on the wall. You just decide whether it’ll need a nail, a screw, or an adhesive, based on how much it weighs. Once you’ve done that, it becomes a really easy thing to do.” Continue reading.
Rough Brothers, Inc.
Rough Brothers, Inc. (RBI) is the largest greenhouse design, engineering, and manufacturing company in North America. RBI uses SOLIDWORKS to create the most economical, durable, and robust greenhouse structures for their clients. They pride themselves on their long-standing reputation for superior quality.
Chris Gullett, Design Manager at RBI, says SOLIDWORKS has changed the game for his team. “With the demand for more complex greenhouse systems growing, the CAD system we were using just wasn’t able to do all of it,” Chris says. Systems design engineers at RBI are working with SOLIDWORKS and SOLIDWORKS Simulation to create complex greenhouse designs with built-in hydroponic or self-watering systems, particularly since the legalization of medical marijuana. In the past year, RBI has upgraded to SOLIDWORKS Premium to keep with the demand they’ve been seeing. Continue reading.
Lynx Motorsports
Lynx Motorsports is a student engineering team from the University of Colorado Denver that designs and races Formula race cars as a part of Formula SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers). Each year, Lynx Motorsports designs, builds, and tests a prototype to be judged against their peers in engineering across the US. They will compete in the Formula SAE Lincoln race and design competition in Lincoln, Neb. June 20–23. We spoke to students Robert Wiley, Wesley Kaiser, and Slade Mills about their progress in preparing for this week’s competition.
At CU Denver, it’s part of the senior design class to design a car and compete on the team in order to graduate. “It’s pretty much a rite of passage,” says Robert Wiley. “We start our design process in August and go from 3D models, run calculations and stress analysis in SOLIDWORKS FEA, and then, come springtime, we actually manufacture the parts.” The team’s car performed well in last year’s competition, earning them a spot in the top 40; it was also the first year since the team’s formation in 2014 that they competed in all the dynamic events. Continue reading.
Sperling Railway
At Sperling Railway Services, Inc., designing on-track railroad maintenance equipment doesn’t typically present a challenge when it comes to weight. However, when the objective is to pick up tons of railway spikes, elevate them on an extended arm, and dump them a safe distance from the tracks, that’s where it gets tricky. “Normally on the railroad, we’re able to overbuild due to the fact that weight isn’t really an issue,” Scott Lanz says, Design Engineer at Sperling. “With this, we were already working with a limited area since it was going on an existing machine, so there was only so much room we could use,” he adds. That’s where the powerful tools of SOLIDWORKS Simulation can do some of the heavy lifting for him. Continue reading.
