Our new designs - test the Ceramicx claim
08 July, 2011
The past few months have seen Ceramicx engineers and designers working overtime in order to satisfy demand for new designs and new uses of infrared heating. I guess that it's mostly all our own fault - seeing as we asked for this shock of the new: Our recent marketing efforts and our new magazine HeatWorks have gone down a storm. The appetite of many industries and customers, old and new has been whetted for the benefits of the infrared heating approach. We're now in the business of faster-delivery designs and systems. When we launched the Ceramicx Online Shop with many of our infrared heating elements depicted in 3D graphics I noted then that 'seeing is believing'. The same principle is at work with our new customers and new infrared systems. The customer wants to see - as soon as humanly possible - an approximation of what his/her new product, new design might look like. And
thanks largely to information technology the world has become much smaller - and much faster. Customer expectations for viewing initial results have been raised. As an innovator and supplier, we stand in need of a package that can provide a 'fast and dirty' product modelling system with most dimensional and engineering features settled, but with room for quick changes and adaptations. We need the design to be open - not just to the CAD department - but to input from all corners of the business. Many engineers are calling this the establishment of the Release to CAD milestone. For project managers it makes a lot of sense. Against this dynamic background, the relatively sedate world of the Computer Aided Design (CAD) package - then interfacing with Computer Aided Manufacturing - is under stress. Many Engineering CAD packages were developed back in the day for the needs of their host industry - automotive or aerospace. Like mobile phones or media systems, no common platform or architecture was developed or agreed and many tool designers were required to buy system after system in order to be able to compete in various markets. CAD Product design those days was, to be sure, 'computerised' and somewhat 'automated' but in many ways remained a black art - and at most stages only accessible and visible through a specialised CAD design department. Nowadays, the appetite for product innovations means more visibility of process and more transparency of design. Traditional 3D CAD based on the Feature History paradigm has proven itself to be too cumbersome for day-to-day engineering at the customer interface. At Ceramicx - and particularly in recent months - our engineers have been investing in a product modelling approach which is better - for available time and resource - to investigate options of geometry and stress and so forth before the release to CAD stage. This approach removes the Feature History mode in favour of Direct Modelling and so allows a faster and more flexible design before the CAD proper stage. Ceramicx doesn't ordinarily do testimonials or product placement - but our new direct modelling abilities have been greatly enhanced by deploying software developed by leading US-based innovator SpaceClaim. You can see the evidence for some of this work in the next issue of our HeatWorks magazine - 3rd edition If you aren't receiving a copy just go through the website to get one. Happy designing!
08 July, 2011
The past few months have seen Ceramicx engineers and designers working overtime in order to satisfy demand for new designs and new uses of infrared heating. I guess that it's mostly all our own fault - seeing as we asked for this shock of the new: Our recent marketing efforts and our new magazine HeatWorks have gone down a storm. The appetite of many industries and customers, old and new has been whetted for the benefits of the infrared heating approach. We're now in the business of faster-delivery designs and systems. When we launched the Ceramicx Online Shop with many of our infrared heating elements depicted in 3D graphics I noted then that 'seeing is believing'. The same principle is at work with our new customers and new infrared systems. The customer wants to see - as soon as humanly possible - an approximation of what his/her new product, new design might look like. And thanks largely to information technology the world has become much smaller - and much faster. Customer expectations for viewing initial results have been raised. As an innovator and supplier, we stand in need of a package that can provide a 'fast and dirty' product modelling system with most dimensional and engineering features settled, but with room for quick changes and adaptations. We need the design to be open - not just to the CAD department - but to input from all corners of the business. Many engineers are calling this the establishment of the Release to CAD milestone. For project managers it makes a lot of sense. Against this dynamic background, the relatively sedate world of the Computer Aided Design (CAD) package - then interfacing with Computer Aided Manufacturing - is under stress. Many Engineering CAD packages were developed back in the day for the needs of their host industry - automotive or aerospace. Like mobile phones or media systems, no common platform or architecture was developed or agreed and many tool designers were required to buy system after system in order to be able to compete in various markets. CAD Product design those days was, to be sure, 'computerised' and somewhat 'automated' but in many ways remained a black art - and at most stages only accessible and visible through a specialised CAD design department. Nowadays, the appetite for product innovations means more visibility of process and more transparency of design. Traditional 3D CAD based on the Feature History paradigm has proven itself to be too cumbersome for day-to-day engineering at the customer interface. At Ceramicx - and particularly in recent months - our engineers have been investing in a product modelling approach which is better - for available time and resource - to investigate options of geometry and stress and so forth before the release to CAD stage. This approach removes the Feature History mode in favour of Direct Modelling and so allows a faster and more flexible design before the CAD proper stage. Ceramicx doesn't ordinarily do testimonials or product placement - but our new direct modelling abilities have been greatly enhanced by deploying software developed by leading US-based innovator SpaceClaim. You can see the evidence for some of this work in the next issue of our HeatWorks magazine - 3rd edition If you aren't receiving a copy just go through the website to get one. Happy designing!
