Using SolidWorks and Tacton we have improved quality
Minimization of construction errors
Modularization of products and facilitating last minute changes
Massive time savings in production
“The biggest benefits from using 3D Design with SOLIDWORKS has been achieved in the production where the cycle time has been reduced significantly, because all the parts are ready made and fit perfectly together. We no longer have to wait for missing parts or make engineering changes during the production phase.”
THE CHALLENGE
VAK Oy is one of the largest transport equipment manufacturers in the Nordic countries. VAK Oy develops, produces and sells delivery cargo spaces, trailers, and semi-trailers for general carriage of goods. To the untrained eye, VAK’s products look pretty much alike, but in reality they are almost always customized to meet the different needs of the customers. It is often a great challenge to make customized changes to so-called “simple structures” and the changes can easily cause design errors.
THE SOLUTION
VAK’s solution includes five SolidWorks Standard licenses and one SolidWorks Premium license with five Design configuration licenses. Everything is tied together with the PDM system.
“Although our products may seem simple, they often contain complex solutions. This applies for instance to our solutions that enables transportation of goods in two layers. These include use of hydraulics and pneumatics in the construction,” says Design Manager Juho Sipilä, VAK Oy.
“It is often a great challenge to make customized changes to so-called “simple structures” and the changes can easily cause design errors. SolidWorks has helped us to reduce these errors to a minimum. Furthermore, 3D design made it possible to integrate and modularize our products.”
Juho Sipilä also points out that while it not practically possible to build physical prototypes of every specialized product, 3D modeling with SolidWorks has enabled VAK to assess the functionality of new products already in the design phase.
”The biggest benefits from using 3D Design with SolidWorks, has been achieved in the production where the cycle time has been reduced significantly because all the parts are ready made and fit perfectly together. We no longer have to wait for missing parts or make engineering changes during the production phase,” says Juho Sipilä.
VAK’s products are primarily laser cut and bent metal parts, which would be hard or even impossible to design with a 2D CAD system. With 3D CAD the correct parts can be created when they are needed. VAK’s assemblies include up to almost 1,000 individual parts, and matchingthem to ensure that they fittogether would be almost impossible without using 3D CAD.