Case Study:

Quicker CAD for MaXfield

12 March 2008

Tank trailer manufacturer MaXfield implemented SolidWorks’ CAD solution to expand its efficiencies in tank trailer development.

MaXfield is a major supplier of pressurised tank trailers for hauling a variety of liquefied gases. The company also manufactures a range of custom-fabricated products, such as piping systems, for use in the oil, gas and energy industries. In 2000, the company transitioned to a 3D design platform, acquiring Autodesk Inventor 3D CAD software. However, the software proved inadequate and after five years the company decided to reevaluate the situation.

“We attempted to utilise Inventor software, but never fully implemented it in our development processes,” says engineering manager Daryl Bast. “There are many reasons why we were not successful, including a lack of support and ineffective training. We had to use a separate 3D program for piping and found ourselves going back to AutoCAD instead of moving forward with 3D. We decided to look at another 3D CAD system, one that had more comprehensive capabilities.”

Ultimately, MaXfield decided to transition to SolidWorks, a subsidiary of Dassault Systèmes, and implemented six seats of SolidWorks Office Premium software in early 2006. MaXfield now uses SolidWorks software to accelerate the development of its tank trailers, which account for half of the company’s business. A tank trailer includes between 500 and 750 individual components, and each customer requests some degree of customisation.

“Developing our tank trailers was really the driving force that led us into 3D because they present the more challenging engineering problems,” explained Bast. “In addition to creating parts and assemblies, we also design and install our own piping. Moving to SolidWorks has made us more efficient. We can do all facets of our development on a single 3D platform, while combining the piping systems we develop via SolidWorks Routing with our SolidWorks assembly models.”

With SolidWorks software, MaXfield engineers can develop tank trailer designs with a single set of tools instead of jumping between different applications. Because SolidWorks provides a complete set of integrated capabilities, it is easier to make design changes and resolve issues before entering production. This, in turn, leads to reduced scrap and rework costs.

The move to SolidWorks Office Premium software also provided integrated CosmosWorks Designer analysis and PDMWorks Workgroup solutions. “We use CosmosWorks to run structural analyses on certain tank assemblies,” says Bast. “Combined with our SolidWorks assembly visualisation tools, integrated CosmosWorks analysis helps us to evaluate alternate engineered designs and then choose the best one.”

With the addition of PDMWorks software, MaXfield has integrated product data management with its Intuitive enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. “Now that we have PDMWorks, we have implemented a part assembly library so we can always locate designs quickly. The tie-in with our ERP system enables us to use bills of materials associated with our design work to automate purchasing and sourcing functions,” concludes Bast.

This article first appeared in the Spring 2008 issue of Prime magazine.