SolidWorks UK: 19 November, 2008

Walk into any hospital, factory, or large institution’s physical plant where pipes stretch like metal tentacles from large steam or water boilers, and you’ll likely see Spirax Sarco’s equipment. Its control valves, humidifiers, flow meters, compressed air components, and other steam control and process equipment play crucial roles in the lifeblood of industrial steam generation and process management.

For more than 100 years, Spirax Sarco, Ltd. has provided companies, hospitals, and large industrial plants with products to ensure the efficient generation and use of steam, hot water, and other industrial fluids. Spirax products are used on systems to heat large buildings, general manufacturing processes, and sterile processes used to develop new medicine.

The company’s innovation and expertise have helped it become one of the world’s leaders for the control and efficient use of steam and industrial fluids. It has over 100,000 customers around the world and either a manufacturing or sales presence in 90 countries. When executives asked engineers to design a new range of higher performing steam valves, the engineers decided they needed a more robust CAD platform for the job. They needed 3D CAD software that would make it easy for them to constantly modify designs because the specifications were going to change frequently as the product line’s requirements changed. They also wanted to reduce prototyping time and costs. Spirax Sarco ultimately chose SolidWorks 3D mechanical design and COSMOSWorks design analysis software to streamline product design, improve design communication with partners, and speed time to market.

Spirax Sarco’s engineers struggled to implement design changes quickly using the company’s other design software. Every time the design changed, they would have to work backward to carry out the change throughout the design. SolidWorks’ associativity cut days out of developing hundreds of new valves by automating frequent changes throughout the design, eliminating the manual work and reducing the risk of errors.

 “SolidWorks gives us the 3D visualization and the tools to modify changes on the fly so that we can stay current with product designers’ modifications,” said Spirax Sarco Central Services Manager Robbie Robertson. “We had to start over from scratch three times, and still completed the project in under 18 months. We would not have completed this project with the other software.”

SolidWorks allowed engineers to meet the complex surfacing requirements from the design team in fewer steps than the other software, further cutting design time. Spirax Sarco uses COSMOSWorks software to test the structural integrity of its solid models to ensure they will stand up to the rigors of industrial use. The integration between design and analysis means engineers can frequently test the valves and other products they’re designing without having to hop between different applications, increasing accuracy and speeding design time.

Spirax Sarco engineers use computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software to simulate fluid flow and heat transfer of SolidWorks 3D models to see how they will perform under complex, real-world conditions early in the design cycle. “Understanding the flows and capacity through valves prior to prototyping saves us a lot of money,” said Spirax Sarco Senior Draughtsman Nick Johnson. “We need to make sure that we’re getting the proper output performance in the design phase, not after manufacturing begins.” Spirax Sarco effectively communicates design information with manufacturers and suppliers abroad using SolidWorks’ eDrawings™ e-mail-enabled design collaboration tool. Recipients can review, annotate, and share solid models and 2D drawings with Spirax Sarco much faster than if they were exchanging hand sketches.

The combination of SolidWorks, COSMOSWorks, and eDrawings enables Spirax Sarco to reduce prototyping costs and time to market for new products. “SolidWorks lets us get to something we can prototype with confidence faster,” said Robertson. “The solid models, which have been tested for accuracy and performance, help us eliminate the costs and time of cutting wood and shaping clay. Instead, we can send the models directly to our manufacturers to begin production and deliver products to customers faster.”