Autoclimate has been involved exclusively within the air conditioning and transport refrigeration markets since it was founded in 1984. The company produces mounting brackets for vehicle air-conditioning and refrigeration systems. Today, Autoclimate is a recommended equipment supplier to 95% of vehicle OEMs. In many cases, Autoclimate has been involved in the development of equipment operation guides and OEM training initiatives. The last 16 years have seen massive developments in the company and rapid growth. These changes have, to some extent, mirrored wider changes within the market place.

CATIA V5 INSTALLED MID 2005

After an evaluation of various systems, CATIA V5 licenses were purchased from IBM/DS Business Partner Applied to replace an incumbent system. Engineering Manager, Andrew Bailey says, “Applied have been very helpful. We told them of our training requirements and they offered us a course, plus on-site assistance that exactly met our requirements. This meant that we became productive very quickly. The licenses were installed mid 2005, and by the end of that year we had completed over 25 different projects.”

MOUNTING BRACKETS NOW TAKE TWO DAYS

Each project typically takes one week for the component design work, from which, molds are produced and then cast parts, typically in batches of between 100 to 500. Continues Mr Bailey, “With our previous system, the design of each mounting bracket took five to six days. With CATIA V5, we typically do it in two. From the CATIA V5 master model, we produce input files for Finite Element simulations for stress and frequency analysis. Also, we produce SLA (SterioLithography) prototypes. These prototypes are made overnight and enable us to do test fit and performance analysis to optimise the design prior to production tooling. For us, the result is reduced time to market and problems emerging after tooling and production are reduced.” Typically, an engine bay of a vehicle is ‘measured’ using a Faro contact measuring device. This system generates point data and resulting surfaces.

Implementing CATIA V5 has resulted in reduced design times, and brought many other benefits for this supplier of automotive castings. Now, numerous design options can be quickly explored for every project. Information about Autoclimate is available at www.autoclimate.com CATIA V5 Makes Life Easier for Autoclimate in practice Dassault Systèmes Supporting Business Partners in the UK By David Treacher which are imported into CATIA V5 and form the basis of a space envelope within which the mounting bracket must be developed. All design work is done in-house up to, and including, the determination of component split lines. Then sub-contactors are used for the actual patternmaking and mold production. Autoclimate has a network of partnerships with specialist manufacturers to produce the final castings.

MULTIPLE USES

Concludes Mr Bailey, “We find CATIA V5 offers great visualization options. What we see on the screen is what we can actually produce. Plus we use these images for assembly instructions and technical documentation. Clash detection is so simple, and we can try so many design options very quickly. CATIA V5 really makes life easier •”)

Information about Autoclimate is available at www.autoclimate.com