Designs Of The Times

The tool of only the largest companies a few years ago, CAD/CAM systems are now giving smaller businesses a competitive edge.

Tweet

Hartzell Fan Inc., based in Piqua, Ohio, manufactures fans for industrial applications. It has no difficulty when a customer chooses an item from stock. "The problem, " explains Marshall Miller, Hartzell's engineering manager, "is when a guy comes in and says, 'Yeah, that's what I want, but could you give me a larger motor?"

Filling special orders like this is an important part of Hartzell's business. But redesigning a fan is time-consuming and expensive, especially if the customer insists on seeing an exact drawing before deciding to buy. In the past, Hartzell would even pass up a chance to bid on such a job because it couldn't afford the time to do design work on speculation. That, however, was before it bought a computer-aided design (CAD) system.

CAD systems, which can be used by any company involved in designing, are to the designer and draftsperson what the word processor is to the typist. lnstead of working at a drawing board, users sit in front of a screen and, generally using a keyboard, tell the computer what they want drawn. A designer can command the computer to draw a line, say, from one sector of the screen to another, or to draw an arc beginning at one point, rising until it reaches a second point, and ending at a third point.

Hartzell bought its Hewlett-Packard CAD system last February for about $150,000. Hartzell hoped the system would help it speed up the design process so it could take on more work and provide more of its customers with precise drawings of the fans they requested. Miller found, however, that it takes almost as long, initially, to enter a design into the computer as it takes to draw it with pencil and paper. But, he adds, the pictures drawn by his plotter (the device that prints the picture after it is entered on the screen) are crisper and neater looking And once the overall dimensions of the fan are entered into the computer, the system will automatically calculate and label the measurements for motors, propellers, and other parts. This capacity alone eliminates frequent errors.

Since a CAD system can store component designs in its memory, the more Hartzell can collect these "standards" in the CAD database, the more it can accelerate the design stage. Now, if most of the components are in memory, a drawing that used to take eight hours takes only one. Because of the recession, Miller feels, Hartzell has not yet realized an increase in business from its investment. But the company is using this slow time to enter as many standards into the system as possible. "When business picks up," says Miller, "we will be ready for it."

A CAD system has other benefits besides its capacity to remember standards. If a designer makes a mistake, or wants to try out an idea and then remove it, one command will eliminate any unwanted material. Another command will rearrange a design -- and, with some systems, flip the whole drawing over so it can be examined from the back.

When a design is final, systems with computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) capability help plan the manufacturing process. These systems will determine, for example, the best way to lay out patterns for cutting pieces from large sheets of material. Or, if automated tooling is involved, they will calculate the most efficient movements for such instruments as cutters, drills, and punches.

Higher costs of CAD/CAM systems -- as much as three times that of CAD-only systems -- have so far kept them out of the reach of most small businesses. But recent price trends should soon make them more affordable. A few small companies have taken the plunge, buying a system while prices are still high. Jackson Jordan lnc., a $30 million-a-year manufacturer of railroad maintenance equipment, bought an lBM Corp unit last January for $500,000.

"We had to gulp hard to swallow that price," says Bruce Bradshaw, vice-president of engineering at the Ludington, Mich.-based company, "but we are committed to automate as many of our operations as possible." Like most new users of CAD or CAD/CAM, Jackson Jordan has been loading designs into the system. Already, using just the CAD system, the company's design productivity has increased 2 to 10 times. Bradshaw says the company is waiting for the economy to improve before it starts using CAM. He expects, however, that CAM will eventually allow Jackson Jordan to slash the number of hours it takes to program its computer-controlled machinery for making each design. With 25,000 designs on file, the company foresees an excellent return on its investment.

"Four years ago, CAD/CAM systems cost a quarter of a million and up and were used primarily by large companies," says Sam Holland, a CAD/CAM industry consultant now working for Calma Co., a CAD/CAM manufacturer based in Sunnyvale, Calif. "In two to four years they will cost from $20,000 to $60,000, and those who don't have one will be at a distinct competitive disadvantage. "

CAD systems are still relatively rare. Only about 9,000 units are in use in the United States, and fewer than 1,000 of these have been bought by small companies CAD units range in price from $55,000 to $200,000, while CAD/CAM systems range from $200,000 to $750,000. This year, a few manufacturers will market CAD/CAM units for a little more than $100,000, although these "stand-alone" systems won't allow the addition of extra terminals.

 1 | 2  NEXT