STORAGE

Global cam manufacturer Colombo Filippetti is helping customers cut a month from their production schedules by offering downloadable 3D product models from its online catalog using SolidWorks 3D PartStream.NET(r) service. Colombo Filippetti provides an interactive catalog that enables customers to download 3D cam models into designs for everything from packaging systems to nautical motors to ensure exact fit and function. Headquartered in Casirate d'Adda, Italy, Colombo Filippetti wanted to extend its more than 50-year tradition of serving customers and support its collaborative engineering strategy by building a self-service online product catalog driven by 3D PartStream.NET. Customers in all industries relying on continuous or indexing motion mechanical assemblies can now quickly find and configure the right Colombo Filippetti cam for their applications. Colombo Filippetti's products date back to the small cam that controlled the perforating hammers that punched cards processed by the first computers. The company's cams now drive applications in a variety of industries, including automotive, shipbuilding, aeronautics, printing, textile, assembly line, welding and varnishing, and machine tools. Customers such as Kraft Foods, Ford Motor Company, and General Electric use 3D PartStream.NET to download and configure the right cam model for their needs from the online catalog - in the file format of their choice - with just a few mouse clicks. Colombo Filippetti cut weeks from product delivery by building a multi-language 3D PartStream.NET interface so customers can configure parts without the delays that static online catalogs and language barriers create. "3D PartStream.NET is the means by which Colombo Filippetti and its customers speak the same language," said Gianfranco Colombo, CEO of Colombo Filippetti. "Improved communication allows us to ship products in half the time it took with our previous system. That helps us keep our customers happy because they can meet their production deadlines." Previously, Colombo Filippetti customers downloaded Adobe portable document format (PDF) files to see a close-up of a cam. They had to call customer service to configure the part for their designs, adding time to their production schedule. 3D PartStream.NET allows customers to dynamically visualize 3D cam models from any angle and configure them precisely to their designs. This self-service configuration reduces the time spent asking Colombo Filippetti's customer service teams for help. Customers can now deliver products to market in 10 days rather than 40. "3D PartStream.NET recorded more than 1.6 million product downloads and configurations in 2003 and continues to build momentum around the world because it solves problems that suppliers and customers have long faced," said Bob Noftle, general manager of 3D content solutions at SolidWorks Corporation. "Customers have mouse-click access to interactive paperless catalogs and suppliers increase the chance that customers will buy their products by reducing their product searches and overall development times." Colombo Filippetti works with SolidWorks reseller Exis for ongoing software training, implementation, and support.