Positive News for Michigan! Midland-based Macomb Group expanding their pipe, valve and fitting facilities

(Midland, Michigan) Pipe, valve and fitting distributor Macomb Group plans to expand operations here. The company recently acquired a 25,000 square foot facility less than a mile from its current operation and will add employees as it adds product lines.

“(This will) facilitate some moves into product categories that are successful components of other Macomb locations, but due to space constraints we have been reluctant to pursue in the mid-Michigan market,” said Scott Henegar, operations manager for the Midland facility. “These moves will require not only warehouse staff but also sales and support staff as well.”

Macomb officials are still developing a budget to renovate and equip the new facility.

“We are seeing an emphasis in the commercial and institutional spending that is a direct result of the stimulus money being pumped into the state economies,” Henegar said. “These market segments have complimenting but different product needs that require a substantial investment of inventory and space to properly serve our targeted customer base.”

The company also plans to spend about $500,000 to renovate its existing offices in Midland.

Macomb is a distributor of pipe, valve, and fittings along with related products such as plumbing, heating, boilers, instrumentation, steam products, hose assembly, AWWA, fire protection and fabrication. The coverage area for Macomb Group- Midland spans the Tri-City area of Saginaw, Bay City, and Midland and its service area extends into the Thumb area of the state and west into Mt. Pleasant and Cadillac.

Indiana’s Kimball Electronics Lands Three-Year Deal to Manufacture Bluetooth Technologies for Auto Market

(Jasper, Indiana) – Kimball Electronics Group, a subsidiary of Kimball International (NASDAQ: KBALB), says it has signed a new three-year contract to produce Automotive Bluetooth hands-free radio devices. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but annual production at the Jasper plant is expected to exceed 500,000 units, according to a news release.

The devices wirelessly pair to Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones and provide drivers with “hands free” cell phone calls through the vehicle’s audio system and are available on a number of global automotive brand vehicle platforms. The new contract was awarded by an existing customer, a top five North American tier-one automotive supplier, who named Kimball Electronics Group among their primary EMS suppliers.

Kimball has been manufacturing Bluetooth devices since 2007 at its Jasper, Indiana production facility.

Kimball Electronics Group is a global contract electronic manufacturing services company that specializes in electronics for the automotive, medical, industrial and public safety markets. The company has manufacturing operations in the U.S., Mexico, Thailand, Poland, Wales, and China. Kimball Electronics Group is a business unit of Kimball International, a $1.4 billion dollar publicly held company headquartered in Jasper, Indiana.

For more information about Kimball Electronics Group visit http://www.kegroup.com

SolidWorks Education Edition 2009 Includes Expanded Functionality

May 27, 2009 — Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp. ( DS SolidWorks) today announced a new version of its SolidWorks^® Education Edition 3D CAD software that features a 65 percent performance boost and new resources that help educators use the software as an effective tool for teaching math, science, and technical concepts.

SolidWorks Education Edition 2009 also streamlines licensing procedures to give learning institutions easy access to the software and supporting materials. A Web-based licensing system, the Student Access Module, enables schools to more easily acquire and manage large numbers of SolidWorks software licenses to meet their students’ needs. Once they have the software, new training and curriculum help educators teach academic subjects and engineering skills students need in the professional world. These new resources are:

• An expanded teacher’s guide to help prepare students for the Certified SolidWorks Associate (CSWA) exam. CSWA certification improves students’ marketability because the certification demonstrates proficiency and job-ready skill sets with SolidWorks software, the world’s most widely adopted 3D CAD software.
• Built-in student guides accessible by clicking on the SolidWorks Resources button in the user interface.
• A teacher training course through SolidWorks resellers on using the software as part of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) lessons. Students learn skills such as applying forces and evaluating material properties by working with CAD models of a hook, a wooden bridge, and a car’s control arm.
• Downloadable textbooks and guides for each SolidWorks Simulation product help instructors explain Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) concepts.
• A complete update of all curricula based on user feedback.

“SolidWorks has a good ear for what we need to make 3D CAD software an effective learning tool,” said Stefano Tornincasa, a professor at Politecnico di Torino in Turin, Italy. “The software is a phenomenal teaching tool on its own. However, the quality of SolidWorks’ curricula, training materials and CSWA certification are key to us using the software to its best effect in the classroom. They make the software a more accessible resource.”

More speed for advanced learning

SolidWorks Education Edition 2009’s 65 percent performance improvement makes working with complex designs faster and more efficient. The improved performance comes from integrated workflows, adapted from real-world situations that help students quickly transform their ideas into 3D models.

In addition to the performance boost, Education Edition 2009 includes 260 technical improvements. Among the most significant are:

• Support for Windows Vista 32 and 64-bit applications.
• The PhotoView 360 rendering tool, based on SolidWorks Intelligent Feature Technology (SWIFT), which lets students render a photorealistic scene while they’re working on it. Most software forces users to wait until scenes are complete.
• A Simulation Advisor for finding hidden flaws by guiding users through every stage of analysis.
• Simulation Sensors that alert users when parts and assemblies deviate from user-defined limits. Users set goals such as allowable stress, displacement, part weight, measurement, and interference, and the sensors react when users exceed the limits, providing a competitive advantage for FSAE, Formula Student, and robot teams.

“Between Education Edition 2009’s power and the high premium we put on easy access in this release, we feel that we’ve gone to a new level in developing SolidWorks as an educational asset,” said Marie Planchard, director of worldwide education markets for DS SolidWorks. “We approached access on the two levels that matter most to educators: getting software licenses without a lot of hassle, then using the licenses as a teaching tool as effectively as possible. Educators can concentrate on using SolidWorks to bring subjects like math, physics, and engineering to life for their students.”

Digital Manufacturing and New Materials Plus Superior CAD Systems = New Opps

Doug Smock, Contributing Editor — Design News, May 18, 2009

Someday a jogger may walk into a shoe store, pick out a style, and then order specific soles and other shoe components based on their weight, running style and other factors.

There’s an emerging convergence of computer-aided design, digital manufacturing and materials technology that may be bringing very personal athletic shoes closer to reality.

A close look at advanced product engineering at New Balance Athletic Shoe Co. in Boston, MA, gives some insight into why. A single shoe sole may have 1,300 features, requiring a like number of molds and dies. Some sole designs may contain up to 1,800 features.

“The complexity at New Balance is due, in part, to the large number of sizes for each shoe, thanks in part, to an insight to offer wide sizes,” says Sean Murphy, manager of advanced product engineering. New Balance is unusual among shoe manufacturers in offering the majority of its shoes in a wide range of widths. For example, men’s sizes range from six to 20 with a width range of 2A to 6E. Styles include: running, walking, tennis, training, basketball, sandals and cleated.

“For the 993 (a men’s running shoe with a blown rubber outsole), we offer 156 unique sizes,” says Matt Dunbar, senior CAD designer for New Balance. “Even infant sizes are offered in wide and narrow.”

That’s when it gets interesting because molds and dies are produced for every unique size. What’s even more interesting is that New Balance cuts steel molds even for prototype parts. “We have rapid prototyping equipment, but they are used more for look and feel prototypes,” says Dunbar.

Look and feel doesn’t cut it for athletic shoe prototype testing. To say they take a pounding would be an understatement. “We will test a design where the runner may land farther forward, and possibly even roll in from the side as their foot lands,” says Pedro Rodrigues, one of the experts in biomechanics who runs New Balances’ brand-new $2 million Sports Research lab in the basement of the former mill building located next to the Merrimack River.

The number of molds and dies cut just for prototype purposes is mind blowing. More than 1,000 for a single shoe sole? It’s possible because New Balance uses tool builders in China, and tools aren’t built for large part runs like they are for most injection molded parts. A single tool may only need to produce a few thousand parts. And the prototype tools aren’t built with a lot of bells and whistles, or even cooling for that matter.

Murphy attended a mold cost estimating program at nearby UMass Lowell’s Plastics Education Dept. recently, and laughingly recalled the high numbers being discussed for tools, like $150,000 and up. New Balance pays a very small fraction of that for its prototype tools.

The New Balance system clearly works and its approach to shoes is a winning model. New Balance is one of the largest suppliers of sports footwear in the world, with global sales of $1.63 billion in fiscal 2007. But it doesn’t run with the pack in many important respects. According to Reuters, Nike spent $260 million on sponsorships last year. The Adidas Group, which includes Reebok, spent $90 million sponsoring the Beijing Olympics last year. New Balance eschews expensive sponsorship programs. New Balance also makes a different mark through a substantial U.S. manufacturing presence, even though much of the manufacturing and materials technology has migrated to the Far East.

The New Balance World Design Center is located in Lawrence, MA, and also features shoe manufacturing. Other manufacturing plants are located in Norway, ME, Skowhegan, ME and Norridgewock, ME. The company was founded in 1903 in Boston by an English immigrant named William J. Riley. Shoes don’t have jazzy names, just numbers like the 1500 and the 1306. The strategy helps gives the feel of an old-fashioned company that puts emphasis on products and good engineering.

Next Step: Direct Digital Manufacturing

One of the hottest areas of technology development that could impact design and manufacturing at a company, such as New Balance, is direct digital manufacturing. It’s based on the idea that you can develop short run parts with complex designs using additive fabrication technology that work directly from CAD files. As Murphy and Dunbar indicate, New Balance has significant complexity in its shoe sole designs alone.

Murphy was asked if New Balance considered using the approach as an alternative to making short-run steel molds. To date, it wasn’t part of the New Balance plan. And given the deals in China today, maybe the economics aren’t quite there yet. But they soon may be. At least that’s the impression given by executives at companies that make the equipment and the materials.

The capabilities of the equipment rise exponentially almost yearly. And the big-name players in the materials’ business are getting interested, developing special grades for the technology.

The key material for athletic shoe soles is thermoplastic polyurethane. There are several important product lines such as Estane (Lubrizol), Elastallon (BASF), and Desmopan, Texin and Utechllan (Bayer MaterialScience). Dow sold its TPU business to Lubrizol in January.

BASF has been partnering with Adidas to develop an improved cooling effect through use of fine-mesh ventilation panels. A special TPU insole performs like a fan, reducing heat generation by 20 percent while fine membranes allow any moisture build-up to escape.

Another trend for athletic footwear is the use of different TPUs in the same part, such as a shoe sole, through a co-molding or other assembly process. “Engineers now have more flexibility in design,” says Tim Jacobs, NAFTA TPU market channel manger for Bayer MaterialScience. For example, there are new grades of Texin TPU that have a very high modulus that can be mated with soft grades. The stiffer material forms the structural backbone, while the softer material provides cushioning. Some of the co-molded parts even use micro sections that can be soft or hard, depending on the requirement.

“Engineers are also pushing the envelope to find material that is as soft and clear as possible,” says Jacobs. A new Utechllan grade, for example, is transparent even in a 100 mm section used for testing.

None of the sources contacted by Design News; however, see development of a TPU for direct digital manufacturing on the near-term horizon.

However, considering the complexity of sole designs, relatively short product life and huge range of prototype tools required, it just may be coming some day.

New Balance Takes off with 3-D CAD

To accommodate the complexity of organic shapes, SolidWorks’ models can have up to 3,000 features

Think about a running shoe and the construction seems pretty basic — there’s the upper part, complete with laces, the side walls and, of course, the rubber sole. Building a 3-D CAD model of this configuration has to be a far simpler task, as conventional wisdom would have it, than creating a similar 3-D model for a complex engine or machine part.

Well, that’s not necessarily the case. New Balance, which had global sales of $1.63 billion in fiscal 2007, can have anywhere from 500 to 3,000 features in a single 3-D model, and that’s mostly to accommodate the rubber sole on the bottom of its athletic shoes. A typical CAD model, which New Balance produces in SolidWorks, has anywhere from 1,300 to 1,800 features — a striking number, due to the increasingly complex nature of today’s footwear designs.

“No one is really doing a single SolidWorks’ part file that has anywhere close to that many features,” says Matt Dunbar, senior CAD designer for New Balance’s Advanced Products Div. “Even though there are only a few components in a shoe sole, they are really organic shapes and that means a high level of complexity.”

The growing complexity in footwear design and the need for faster turnaround pushed New Balance to move from 2-D design to 3-D CAD design nearly eight years ago. Prior to using SolidWorks, it could take up to 15 days to create a 2-D drawing of a shoe design. Today, with 3-D CAD, that same process takes about five days. “Given the complexity of modern shoe soles, 2-D CAD is not an option,” Dunbar says. “2-D data would have so many cross sections that it wouldn’t be practical.”

Taking Shape

One of the primary challenges to building a shoe sole in CAD has to do with organic shapes. Companies like New Balance are continually pushing the envelope in terms of shape and construction as a means of creating visual interest in their shoes in addition to the features that enhance performance. “Twenty to 30 years ago, athletic shoe soles were straight walls and a die-cut piece of foam cemented to the upper with a slab of rubber,” Dunbar says. “That design has progressed with the evolution of 3-D CAD and CAM. Now we can model and mill all these organic shapes to add value.”

Because there are few flat surfaces with today’s designs, the organic shapes mean little tiny features, many of which aren’t noticeable to the untrained eye. Closers, different slopes and countless nooks and crannies are what constitute the different features in a typical New Balance SolidWorks’ 3-D model, Dunbar says. For example, consider the bottom of a typical running shoe sole, which has dozens, maybe hundreds, of little lugs. Each lug might be made up of five to 20 features and the lug sizes will vary, depending on where they are located on the shoe.

This variability adds to the difficulty of using 3-D CAD, Dunbar says, because his team can’t take advantage of patterning or other capabilities offered by parametric 3-D modeling programs like SolidWorks. “It’s difficult to use patterning, not just because 3-D patterning tools could use some work, but because each of these lugs is not identical, on purpose,” he says. The feature tree adds another layer of complexity. If you have a feature tree with 1,300 features, and you need to make a change to feature 12, you could be asking for trouble. “You have to hope the software can rebuild the other features and maintain some relationship to the original underlying surfaces,” Dunbar says.

In addition to SolidWorks, New Balance employs Rhino, which is more of a free-form 3-D modeler, to handle some of the more difficult organic shapes. For instance, Rhino is better suited for modeling the “stability web” area of the shoe, which is the raised area under the arch. “It’s more in tune with doing an organic shape like that because you don’t have to worry about the history tree,” Dunbar says.

Local Suppliers Won’t Suffer with Chrysler Changes

Chrysler-Fiat to pick up local suppliers contracts

More than 200 local auto suppliers will see their Chrysler LLC contracts picked up and will be paid more than $320 million when the automaker links with Fiat S.p.A.

The companies are among 1,200 Chrysler suppliers that have their contracts transferred to the new Chrysler-Fiat entity expected to rise out of Chrysler’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceededings. Suppliers will be paid for what they were owed before Chrysler filed for bankruptcy – 40 percent before the sale to Fiat and 60 percent after. A list of the local suppliers and how much their owed is at www.crainsdetroit.com/multimedia.

The transferred contracts do not guarantee future business. Fiat could opt to source from other suppliers in the future, but re-sourcing is likely to be a challenge in the near term, said William Kohler of Butzel Long P.C.’s automotive practice.

The First High-Quality 3D Model Desktop Printer – the Objet Alaris30

Scene: Your boss has asked for a digital prototype of the planetary gear your company has been working on for one of the OEMs. However, he wants it printed and ready for presentation in 3 hours!?

Simply hit Ctrl+P, and the CAD design is generated as a 3D model to a 3D printer sitting right next to you.

The print heads go to work as your brand new 3D desktop printer creates a high-resolution, fully cured, resin model of your design.

Sound nice?

The Objet Alaris30 aims to introduce you to the reality of high quality, rapid-prototyped 3D models combined with an office sized network printer that’s clean, efficient and extremely accurate. Would you something like this?

Here’s the Specs…

Printer Dimensions (WxDxH) – 825mm x 620mm x 590mm (32.25 x 33.85 x 40.94 in)
Printer Weight – 83kg (183 lbs)
Tray size (XxYxZ) – 300 x 200 x 150mm (11.81 x 7.87 x 5.9 in)
Build size (XxYxZ) – 294 x 196 x 150mm (11.57 x 7.72 x 5.9 in)
Build Resolution (XYZ) – 600 dpi x 600 dpi x 900 dpi
Layer thickness – 28µm (0.0011 in)
Material – VeroWhite FullCure830, FullCure705 gel-like
Cartridges – sealed 1kg (2.2 lb.) – 2 per model & 2 per support
Power Requirements – 110 – 240 VAC 50/60 Hz 1.5 KW single phase
Input Format – STL, and SLC File

Keeping Your System Safe and Healthy

Microsoft® Windows® is a complex environment that allows a greater level of functionality, ease-of-use, and power that also can be a challenge to manage. Systems can be affected in a variety of ways each time software is installed and uninstalled, as well as in-to-day activities of using your computer.

Anti-Virus

Anti-virus and anti-spyware are two areas that should be addressed from an IT side to balance protection from virus/spy ware and performance for the users. The main issues with anti-virus are:

Important issues to address:

• Updated virus definition files. If the definition files are out of date, your protection is limited at best.
• The ability to real time scan files, web pages, email, and more as they are being used. The disadvantage from a SolidWorks user’s perspective is that it will take longer to open a document if it needs to be scanned. One potential solution to this is to omit .SLDPRT, .SLDASM, and .SLDDRW files from the real time scan. The risk in doing so is if a SolidWorks file would become infected. The SolidWorks files could be scanned at nights and over the weekend to reduce this risk.
• Keep your Anti-virus application version up-to-date. The versions listed below are recent versions. If your organization is using an anti-virus application that is a number of years old, this could be the source of your anti-virus issues.

 

Hard Disks

The following are the important aspects for your disk storage (local and network):

•  

  Disk type, speed, and RAID configuration. See the following two Tech Tips for more information; Selecting a CAD Workstation and How using RAID arrays can improve system performance for more details.

• Disk defragmentation is a key element in keeping your system performing well and stable. The disk defragmenter that comes with Windows will defragment any active files or the Windows virtual memory. Note: Performing regular disk defragmentation can dramatically improve the performance and stability of your system.
• Create a regular schedule using the defragmentation tool or the Windows Scheduler.
• You need sufficient disk space on your local drive. At a minimum, 500MB.

 

Keeping your system clean

As time goes on, you will find that your computer start to fill-up the local hard disk. It is a good practice to remove these files on a regular basis (Windows XP only):

• C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\TempSWBackupDirectory
• C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Temp
• C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files

 

Third party Utilities

Disclaimer:

SolidWorks accepts no responsibility for the use of, or any subsequent damage or loss of data, due to use of non-SolidWorks applications. Several solutions outlined below are third-party applications which carry their own warranty and are therefore not supported by SolidWorks Corporation or by SolidWorks value-added resellers. Use of third-party applications is done strictly at the user’s risk.

 

CheckIt Pro

When evaluating system problems or determining the general performance of a machine, not directly related to use of SolidWorks software, CheckIt can be used to perform burn-in and diagnostics testing. This utility can be used to test new machine and ones that may be problematic. To find out more, visit http://www.smithmicro.com/default.tpl?group=product_full&sku=CPRWINEE

 

Ace Utilities

Ace Utilities, performs a wide range of system clean-up functions. Outside of disk de-fragmentation, this utility can perform a wide range of system maintenance functions. This utilities functions and disk de-fragmentation should be set as a regular, scheduled task using the Windows Task Scheduler and the scheduling options in this utility. For more information, visit http://www.acelogix.com/index.html

 

Notes:

• Always have a backup made prior to using these types of utilities. (see System Restore)
• Turn on System Restore (My Computer\Properties\System Restore)

 

Conclusion

These tools and utilities can be employed to make SolidWorks users more productive and lessen the support requirements.

SolidWorks Extends Support for SolidWorks 3D CAD Software

CONCORD, Mass. — May 11, 2009 — While many companies are reducing service levels, Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp. (DS SolidWorks) is now extending support for SolidWorks^® 3D CAD software versions by a full year.

This means that DS SolidWorks will directly address and remedy any Subscription Services member’s confirmed business-critical issue with SolidWorks 2008 through the announcement of SolidWorks 2010 in September – in fact, all the way to December 2009. Until now, SolidWorks ended these remedies three months after the introduction of a new SolidWorks version. With today’s announcement, subscribers are eligible for 15 months of updates.

“Although our subscribers have upgraded early to SolidWorks 2009 at a record pace, there are some issues outside of our customers’ control that prevent a timely upgrade to take advantage of the new capabilities of our latest software version,” explained Richard Welch, vice president of customer services for DS SolidWorks. “We find that some companies may be in the midst of large-scale projects or want to upgrade hardware along with their software when the timing is more appropriate for their businesses. Knowing that, we want to be a good business partner and offer them the flexibility that they require.”

Requests for DS SolidWorks to address business-critical issues are submitted normally through SolidWorks resellers. The extension is available to subscription customers and helps ensure optimal business performance for organizations and individuals who use SolidWorks.

“The support I have received has been impressive,” said mechanical engineer and longtime SolidWorks user Deepak Gupta, author of the Boxer’s Blog, featuring SolidWorks tips, tricks and tutorials. “And with the extended support for SolidWorks, one can see the importance of SolidWorks Subscription Services and the value to customers.”

Subscription Service customers already receive:

Technical benefits

• Automatic upgrades to new versions;
• Access to premium information on the SolidWorks Customer Portal ( https://customerportal.solidworks.com/eservice_enu);
• Downloads of service packs;
• Access to an extensive support knowledge base; and
• Real-time, hands-on help from trained technicians using a remote log-in.

Business Benefits

• A wealth of technical expertise and mentoring from the SolidWorks community;
• Direct, local reseller support;
• Free certification testing and efficiency reporting;
• Predictable costs, flexible purchase options, and discounts; and
• Assurance that engineers stay current and productive.

For those interested in taking advantage of this new program, please contact a local reseller or local SolidWorks Subscription manager, Nellie Darbyshire at 248-819-1783 or nellie@dasi-solutions.com or call DASI directly at 888-327-2974.

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