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Die Casting System Builder Maintains Market Lead
For more than 30 years, Techmire has pioneered fast, efficient and accurate die casting systems. Its founders invented the original Dynacast machine, one of the forbears of high-volume die casting processes. The company also pioneered multiple-slide die-casting technology, which produces high-precision components faster, more efficiently and more affordably than traditional die-casting processes.
Montreal-based Techmire (techmire.com) is now one of the worldís leading manufacturers of multiple-slide die-casting systems that are used to make components found in such products as washing machines, cameras, telephones, automotive locks, construction door sets and electrical bushings.
 To maintain its market leadership and respond quickly to increasingly demanding customer delivery schedules, the company wanted to standardize on 3D modeling software that would streamline product design, reduce design cycles, simplify design revisions and improve the way engineers collaborated on designs. Its previous software complicated product development because engineers often had to recreate designs to modify them. Product assembly also often required a series of complex steps that extended design time, according to Techmire director of engineering Carl Thibault.
ìWe searched for 3D CAD software that would make our engineers more productive,î said Thibault. ìAfter evaluating several products, we chose SolidWorks (solidworks.com) because it is easy to use and fast. The software places all of its design features into one intuitive window, so that engineers donít have to jump between different screens to accomplish simple tasks. This kind of ease-of-use allows us to build precision into our custom machine designs while reducing our design cycles by as much as 10 percent.î
SolidWorksí short learning curve enabled Thibaultís team to quickly begin designing complex products, without spending weeks learning how to use the software. This also helps train newly hired engineers so that they step into their jobs more quickly.
Techmire also uses CosmosWorks design analysis software to ensure that its machines will stand up to the rigors of the high-speed die casting process while making accurate products. ìLike SolidWorks, CosmosWorks is very user friendly, and it provides fast results,î said Thibault. ìIt allows us to analyze components that we would not have had the time or the tools to analyze in the past. Using the analysis results from CosmosWorks, we can modify the design directly on the computer without spending the money and time building prototypes that would probably fail. This allows us to manufacture better products faster and more accurately than before.î
Aside from design and analysis software, Techmire relies on other SolidWorks products to accelerate new die casting machine development. The company uses SolidWorks PDMWorks product data management solution to manage all of the design data it generates. PDMWorks allows engineers to search, revise and vault CAD data while maintaining an accurate design history. Techmire also uses SolidWorks eDrawings, an e-mail-enabled design communication tool to share designs with its suppliers. The tool lets suppliers view, rotate, and edit 2D and 3D representations of Techmire products as if they were holding the products in their hands ñ all without downloading or buying additional software.
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