Now is the Time to Engineer Your Information
Phil Means Business
Arena Ideal PLM Solution for Navman Wireless
Oasis Enters New Market with Help of CFD
BlueCielo's Software Suite Major Upgrades
Solid Edge Fundamentals Training Course, 20-23 April
FEA Training Course, 28-29 April
Now is the Time to Engineer Your Information
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Most companies are feeling the stress of the economic downturn and other pressures.
Some are faced with redundancies and doing more work with less time and less people, within increasingly competitive global markets.
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Now is the time to better engineer your information with technical document management, product data management (Bill of Materials), or asset management; to get the 'Right Information to the right people at the right time'.
Specific real business benefits include:
- key staff loss protection
- product and asset management efficiencies
- reduced engineering cycle times
- security of key company knowledge
- global or departmental collaboration
- market compliance and liability protection
Matrix has much experience helping our customers like you with innovative, low risk and cost-effective solutions to information engineering.
For more information, contact us on 09 623 1223 or by email sales@matrix.co.nz
To learn more about engineering document mangement, click here
To learn more about product data management, click here
Phil Means Business
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Welcome Phil Schunk to Matrix.
Phil leads the Information Engineering team here focused on delivering engineering content management solutions within our target industries.
He brings 25 years multinational manufacturing and service management experience in the specialty chemicals, paints, coatings, and metals sectors and possesses an in-depth understanding of their operations. |
Phil utilises his extensive industrial experience to consult with Matrix clients assisting them to deliver value to their businesses. Phil and his family migrated to New Zealand from the USA in 2008, and enjoys the kiwi lifestyle.
Contact Phil Schunk at Matrix on 09 623 1223 or phil@matrix.co.nz to discuss your information engineering needs and how Matrix can help.
The Company
Navman Wireless has always been a pioneer in GPS technology. They are now a global provider operating in UK, USA (head office located in Chicago), NZ, Australia, Chile, Spain, Italy and Denmark. Their solution and product range includes GPS vehicle tracking, in-vehicle communication and navigation, driver hours logging, engine management and much more.
In July 2007, Navman Wireless separated from Navman and was sold by Brunswick Corporation. Now as a stand alone company, Navman Wireless has moved to private ownership backed by senior management and private investment firm Prairie Capital from Chicago.
The Challenge
Navman Wireless started looking for a solution to document and product data management issues in 2007. Because they had recently been separated from the Navman company they were looking to develop their own structure. They had file sharing and fragmentation everywhere. There were "systems in place, sort of, but they were clunky and hard to manage".
The Solution
In the process of researching options their quality manager, Graeme Preston, discovered something called "product lifecycle management" otherwise known as PLM. This initiated a change of focus when Graeme wrote a requirements specifications brief. The exercise was intended to primarily clarify their needs in his own mind but it also made it clear that they needed a specialist system to assist their design control. It was also needed to sort out the 'good ones' from the 'backyarders' from the myriad of vendors. The response was less than enlightening; all vendors came back with the perfect solution: we can do it all.
Demonstrations were called for from various vendors. The one that shone through was the one that could show complete functionality immediately and had an alignment with their business. That one was Arena.
Concerns over using a web based service were addressed when it was realised that the business would have much bigger issues than their product data management if they had no internet access. These days a growing business assumes it will be using the internet on a daily basis.
Justifying new technology is never easy but in a final attempt Graeme invited the president based in Chicago to a web based demonstration. A couple of days later he heard the magic words... "I like it." So how do you justify it? The question was asked, "How do you justify the value of a clean shop floor?" PLM for a modern design house with outsourced manufacturing is the "clean floor" compared with older technology.
The Result
The value became apparent as the first product was loaded in. The cleaning up of product data was a big job but is now done. And it stays done. Now everyone knows if the information isn't in the system it isn't lost or hiding somewhere; it needs to be sourced and added. Initial resistance from other parts of the business have now found their own advantages for using Arena and are proactively suggesting ways to integrate it into their own processes. It has provided some valuable simplification of business processes and because of the structure already in place it is keeping it simple.
Uptake by staff has been good but could have been enhanced by some hands on training initially. When Navman Wireless started implementing Arena there was no local support. The online support via Skype was excellent for key administrators but now getting all users to train hands on at the Matrix local support centre is even better. Nothing beats having local support and understanding backed up by an international support team.
Graeme can see that as Navman Wireless implements Arena further and is able to open it up to their contract manufacturers, the real value and power of Arena will be revealed. It will streamline their change management and create a sleeker, stronger, more efficient design and cost control for them. Arena has been the ideal PLM solution with a quick start up time, minimal risk and a growing return.
To learn more about product lifecycle management (PLM), click here
To learn more about Arena products, click here
The CompanyOasis Engineering is a 25 year veteran manufacturer specialising in very-high-pressure stainless steel valves for the compressed natural gas (CNG) industry.
The Challenge
The challenge was to design and build a check valve family suited to CNG service.
Natural gas is very heat absorbent and flow constrictions can "ice-up" dangerously if poorly designed flow control devices are used in the pipeline. The problem is especially important when the gas is being dispensed into cars as ice-ups can cause other flow control devices (solenoid valves, ball valves) to fail, preventing proper shut off of gas.
Oasis designed a prototype hydraulic check valve, but the question was how would it perform with natural gas and what modifications would make the valve perform better and minimise flow resistance?
The Solution
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) performed by Matrix confirmed the basic design was suitable for CNG. Analysis identified areas of worst flow disruption, and a modified poppet design was suggested and subjected to further CFD analysis.
The real advantage to Oasis was that CFD lets you see inside the flow -visualizing which parts of the valve induce turbulence, flow separation and recirculation. Oasis could then make better informed modifications to geometry to improve the design. Additionally, the design and verify process was greatly simplified. They could send a digital file to Matrix who could then return the simulation results! Without this technology, Oasis Engineering would have had to resort to physical testing which can be unreliable as well as it being difficult to obtain access to a suitable test rig.
The Result
Prototypes were made, field tested then put into commercial production and have been shipped to end customers. The key value to Oasis was Matrix providing timely results of CV values for the valves so that the end customer could make an informed decision about the suitability of the Oasis valve for their application. Additionally, Oasis Engineers gained insight into how the design of their valves could be improved.
To learn more about computational fluid dynamics (CFD), click here
To learn more about CD-adapco STAR-CAD products, click here
BlueCielo has recently released InnoCielo Meridian Enterprise 2008a and InnoCielo TeamWork 2008a.
InnoCielo Meridian Enterprise 2008a now adds support for the 64-bit version of AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor and SolidWorks, as well as simultaneous support for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows applications on the same workstation. Furthermore InnoCielo Meridian Enterprise 2008a completes the support of Microsoft Remote Desktop and Citrix Terminal Server, enabling subcontractors to access CAD documents via the internet, or for users at remote sites to access CAD documents stored centrally in an InnoCielo Meridian Enterprise vault. The new release of InnoCielo Meridian Enterprise adds client email integration with Lotus Notes to the integration with Microsoft Outlook released in InnoCielo Meridian Enterprise 2008.
Like InnoCielo Meridian Enterprise 2008a, InnoCielo TeamWork 2008a supports 64-bit AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor and SolidWorks, besides many smaller enhancements and fixes.
InnoCielo Global Collaboration Framework 2008a, the latest version of the InnoCielo Meridian Enterprise module that enables exchange of content and collaborative workflow between geographically dispersed engineering teams, has been released for InnoCielo Meridian Enterprise 2008a. The latest version of this module provides group support, enabling sites to be combined into groups, where enlistment is done per group. Ownership transfer is still to a specific site, but the entire group receives an update.
For further information on how Matrix can apply the BlueCielo technology to solve your engineering content management challenges, please contact us on 09 623 1223 or sales@matrix.co.nz.
To learn more about engineering document management, click here
To learn more about BlueCielo products, click here
Matrix is running a 4 day Solid Edge Fundamentals course in Auckland from 20-23 April 2009. The course focuses on making the novice user aware of the potential uses of production level solid modeling, and covers both fundamental skills and concepts central to the use of Solid Edge.
These courses are not to be missed and are an invaluable tool in maximising the potential from your Solid Edge product. To find out more, contact Klaus Lackemeier on 09 623 1223 or klaus@matrix.co.nz.
To learn more about CAD solutions, click here
To learn more about Solid Edge products, click here
FEA Training Course, Auckland 28-29 April
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With over 70 man-years of analysis experience in the marine, utility, biomedical, automotive and process industries, Matrix is offering a 2-day training workshop focussing on practical aspects of using Finite Element Analysis (FEA). A must for all engineers wishing to use FEA in real life applications and is independent of the package you may currently be using such as Abaqus, Nastran, Cosmos, Algor or some other FEA software.
Throughout the course, emphasis will be placed on the practical aspects of developing and validating models to obtain sensible results. Ample time will be available for discussion with the presenter and a set of course notes will be supplied. |
For more information, contact Don Campbell on 09 623 1223 or
don@matrix.co.nz.
To learn more about finite element analysis (FEA) solutions, click
here