How Manufacturers in the Power & Plant Industry are Reducing Engineering and Project Lead Times with DriveWorks

Winder Power

Winder Power specializes in the design, build, deployment, and management of power transformers and distribution transformers. They serve a wide range of customers in the utilities, renewable energy, and industrial sectors across the UK and internationally.

Winder Power is using DriveWorks in its engineering department to generate models and drawings for several components within its design process.

The components include:

• Full transformer assemblies
• Transformer active part clamp systems
• Oil conservators
• Cooler bank a-frames
• Transformer rating plates

These components are all based on standardized design rules and are either generated complete with the drawings and assemblies, or partially generated. The partially generated projects are then developed to completion by their engineers.

Before using DriveWorks, Winder Power were designing to order using SOLIDWORKS, design tables, and equation-based parts.

DriveWorks Pro has allowed Winder Power to design components in much shorter time frames, with reduced errors due to the more rigid design process. They can now offer their customers a reduced product lead time.

Merging projects further and adding additional functionality is a continuous process for Winder Power now. They are also looking into what DriveWorks Pro can offer different departments outside of engineering, enabling all teams to benefit.

Learn more about how Winder Power is reducing product lead times with DriveWorks Pro:

“We have also taken advantage of the additional functionality available within DriveWorks Pro in order to directly extract information from excel spreadsheets that exist elsewhere in our organization.”

Luke Beeson, Mechanical Design Engineer at Winder Power

WEG Energia 

Headquartered in Jaraguá do Sul, Brazil, WEG operate worldwide with branches in 36 countries and manufacturing plants in 12 countries. Their portfolio of over 600 product lines includes electric motors, generators, transformers, drives, and coatings. WEG provides custom solutions for demanding and heavily regulated industry sectors, including oil & gas, marine, mining, and energy.

Typically each contract means a new and often complex product needs to be custom designed, complete with detailed SOLIDWORKS manufacturing data and drawings. Even with SOLIDWORKS, some customized WEG Energia projects took longer than desired to complete. These projects were liable to non-conformity and often did not include updates requested by manufacturing or the engineering department.

With DriveWorks’ rule-based software, their design process is faster. Calculations, databases, engineering procedures, and standards are set up by key users, allowing designers to reuse this captured knowledge every time they need to specify a new custom product.

Designers using DriveWorks can enter values into an interface that is easy to use and understand, and incorporate product improvements from across different departments. They are applied only once to the master product, ensuring that all future products respect the best existing practices.

WEG achieved a return on investment after just six months on the generator carcass product, the first to be automated. Savings came from reducing rework, errors, and development time. Each product can generate several different variations of the same product family.

Learn more about how WEG have reduced engineering time by 75% with DriveWorks Pro:

“With DriveWorks we can create all drawings and manufacturing data within one day. Using SOLIDWORKS alone this process used to take three to four days.”

Carlos Jose Bastos Grillo, Engineering Manager, WEG