Fastening & Assembly Solutions & Technology July 2012

FAST JULY 2012
TOP TIPS: DESIGNING IN HARDWARE
Sourcing fasteners and
standard parts gets
easier for designers
While smaller components such as fasteners are undoubtedly important to the overall quality of a
new machine, it is no great secret that design engineers don't spend weeks deliberating over the
correct toggle clamp or index plunger. FAST discovers the importance of computer aided design in
the supply of standard parts
WDS manufactures over 60% of its products at its production facilities located next to the stock room
When designing a new machine a
design engineer has to source and
specify many component parts. There is
an obvious choice when it comes to buying-in
key electromechanical components
such as motors, inverters, gearboxes and
roller chain. But in every machine there
are hundreds of smaller components that
literally hold the equipment together. The
temptation for design engineers may be to
start designing these, which can slowdown
the design process and ultimately
reduce the company's competitive edge.
44
Depending on the type of machine
being designed, there are any number of
fastening components and standard parts
that need to be considered to ensure that
the equipment will operate efficiently and
reliably. Each of these components is
designed to solve one of a thousand potential
problems the designer needs to overcome.
No design engineer can be expected
to have the required expertise to design
from scratch, or even source and specify,
each component on their own, especially
when you take into consideration the vari-
ations in size and materials that
each component has available.
Speeding up the machine design
process by sourcing readymade
components and standard parts
at the CAD stage can reduce the
potential time to market for any
new machine design.
Compressed design time can
also translate to reduced test and
production development time;
using components that are
already tried and tested, with
known performance envelopes
avoids additional testing and
prevents surprises further down
the line that can be time consuming
and costly to rectify.
Outsourcing the supply of fasteners
and small mechanical
standard parts at the design stage
has been made possible only by
accessibility to the instant download
of readymade computer
aided design (CAD) files. John
Blair, manufacturing manager
for WDS, commented: "Machine
designers are our entry point to
the market and so providing
fully annotated CAD drawings
was the only way forwards, we started
supplying the entire file on CDs, but even
that is slow compared to today's on-the-fly
web solution. CAD drawings have to be
provided instantly, any time of the day or
night. Once a product is designed-in, why
bother making it when we probably
already have it in stock? We will even
manufacture fasteners, fixtures and fittings
to order, one-at-a-time if needs be.
"Our sales and technical support teams
all have hands on experience in the manu-