SCIENCE

CONCORD, Mass., - Clamp and gripping device manufacturer DE-STA-CO Industries is using SolidWorks 3D PartStream.NET(r) Internet technology to provide customers with millions of easily downloadable three-dimensional computer-aided design (3D CAD) models of products from its online catalog, SolidWorks announced today. Providing these models online helps customers of DE-STA-CO and its Robohand, Inc. business unit quickly evaluate how a robotic gripper or clamp will operate in their designs, reducing design time and accelerating time to market. The world's leading manufacturer of manual toggle clamps (used as workholding devices that hold items in place during the manufacturing process), DE-STA-CO makes a wide range of products used in automotive, machine tooling, and electronics industries around the world. Robohand makes robotic tooling used in such industries as automotive, aerospace, and medical technology. Automobile manufacturers might use a Robohand gripper to pick up a door panel, so that it can be moved to a position in an assembly line, and then DE-STA-CO clamps to hold the panel in place during assembly. Those manufacturers can easily find the right gripper and clamp on the companies' online catalogs and use 3D PartStream.NET to download solid models of those products to make sure they'll fit into their own tooling design schemes. "Our customers are global manufacturing enterprises that have very strict production schedules," said Dennis Gustafson, e-business manager at DE-STA-CO Industries. "They don't have time to waste creating CAD models of our workholding products from scratch. 3D PartStream.NET allows them to configure components to their specifications and download them into their designs to check compatibility with only a couple of mouse clicks. Offering our customers these kind of productivity enhancing tools is how we will stay on top of the global market." This direct Web access to product models helps DE-STA-CO and Robohand attract new customers and increase revenue by encouraging thousands of engineers to "design in" (check compatibility and subsequently purchase) their products. 3D PartStream.NET is flexible enough to allow DE-STA-CO and Robohand to easily offer 3D CAD models of their products for use with all major CAD systems and in hundreds of thousands of configurations. Sungrace Group, a 3D PartStream.NET partner, designed a custom online catalog and built the 3D models for the Robohand Web site, as well as integrated 3D PartStream.NET technology with the DE-STA-CO and Robohand sites. Now customers looking for a robotic gripper can easily specify the exact gripper configuration they need from the Robohand site and download it directly into their designs. In addition to offering convenient access to CAD models through their corporate Web sites, DE-STA-CO and Robohand offer the same capabilities through SolidWorks 3D ContentCentralSM, a new online resource that gives users access to hundreds of millions of solid models from leading component manufacturers worldwide. The site can be launched via a browser (www.3dcontentcentral.com) or directly from SolidWorks CAD software - offering suppliers an opportunity to reach thousands of new customers including more than 213,000 SolidWorks CAD software users. "DE-STA-CO and Robohand clamps and robotic grippers are found in assembly lines all over the world," said Bob Noftle, general manager of 3D content solutions at SolidWorks Corporation. "They've maintained market leadership by meeting customer demands for dependable products. 3D PartStream.NET puts the muscle in their 3D-powered catalogs so that customers can focus on production, and not worry about creating the right part. Reducing design cycles in this way gives DE-STA-CO's customers a competitive advantage, and ensures they'll continue to build DE-STA-CO and Robohand products into their assembly lines."