Zodiac hurricane case study

ZODIAC HURRICANE TECHNOLOGIES, INC. ACCELERATING CUSTOM, RIGID-HULL, INFLATABLE BOAT DEVELOPMENT WITH SOLIDWORKS SOLUTIONS

Using SOLIDWORKS design, simulation, and technical communication solutions, Zodiac Hurricane Technologies has accelerated development and increased throughput of its industry-leading inflatable and semi-rigid boats.

Challenge:

Streamline the design and manufacture of custom, rigid-hulled, inflatable boats to meet increasing customer demand without adding resources.

Solution:

Implement SOLIDWORKS Professional design software, SOLIDWORKS Simulation analysis software, and SOLIDWORKS Composer technical communication software solutions.

Results: • Cut development time by half • Shortened illustration creation time by 75 percent • Reduced scrap with design for manufacturability tools • Improved visualization with PhotoView 360

After evaluating the Autodesk® Inventor®, Pro/ENGINEER®, and SOLIDWORKS® design systems, Zodiac Hurricane chose SOLIDWORKS Professional software for its ease of use, design configuration automation, and inclusion of mold design, sheet metal development, and design for manufacturability tools.

Since the initial installation of 15 SOLIDWORKS Professional licenses, Zodiac Hurricane has also added SOLIDWORKS Simulation analysis and SOLIDWORKS Composer™ technical communication software.

“Zodiac Hurricane chose SOLIDWORKS as our main CAD tool because it best suits our needs in terms of development and production,” Burnaci says. “We are a fully custom boat builder that needed to respond to growing customer demand by boosting throughput. SOLIDWORKS helped us achieve our goals.”

FASTER DEVELOPMENT DRIVES INCREASED THROUGHPUT Zodiac Hurricane Technologies, Inc., the world’s leading innovator, developer, and manufacturer of semi-rigid boats, has built a reputation for excellence through its market-leading Zodiac Hurricane® brand. Founded in 1896, Zodiac Hurricane conceived of most of the major concepts that have driven modern rigid-hull inflatable boat development since the 1930s.

Part of Zodiac Milpro, world leader in inflatable boats and rigidhull inflatable boats, Zodiac Hurricane Technologies focuses on boats for military and professional roles such as military special operations, maritime border security, search and rescue, and harbor patrol applications.

Zodiac Hurricane’s Canadian development center is focused entirely on designing and manufacturing custom rigid-hulled inflatable boats—known as RIBs. For many years, Zodiac Hurricane engineers used AutoCAD® 2D design tools to develop the company’s custom RIB designs. However, in 2003 Zodiac Hurricane moved to a 3D design platform to shorten delivery time and improve design for manufacturability.

“Zodiac Hurricane decided to move to 3D parametric modeling because we wanted to speed up our development and manufacturing processes,” explains Zodiac Hurricane Engineering Manager Xhevit Burnaci. “We were especially interested in improving our flexibility and efficiency in customizing boats for different customers. Boat requirements and ergonomics vary depending on intended usage and geographic location, and we wanted to leverage 3D to build a library of component designs that we could tweak to fit the full range of configurations required—taking advantage of parametric design capabilities.”

Since implementing SOLIDWORKS Professional software, Zodiac Hurricane has cut development time in half and dramatically boosted throughput without the need for additional resources. Burnaci credits the use of SOLIDWORKS design configurations with helping Zodiac Hurricane attain these significant productivity gains.

“Whether we are using simulation to meet restrictive weight requirements, PhotoView 360 to create photorealistic renderings, SOLIDWORKS eDrawings to communicate with customers, or SOLIDWORKS Composer to accelerate documentation development, SOLIDWORKS provides us with the full range of tools that we need to continue leading the way in the development of innovative inflatable and semi-rigid boats.”

— Xhevit Burnaci, Engineering Manager

“We have many types of components that are used in all of our custom designs,” Burnaci points out. “These parts need to be altered slightly for different boat designs, and SOLIDWORKS design configurations enable us to automate the development of complete families of parts—with variations in lengths, thicknesses, and capacities—which really speeds up the process. With a complete library of parts and design configurations, we can quickly create a modular boat design selecting the right combination of configurable parts to build a custom design.”

ENHANCING PRODUCTION PERFORMANCE In addition to accelerating development cycles, Zodiac Hurricane’s implementation of SOLIDWORKS design for manufacturability and analysis tools has allowed the boat manufacturer to substantially reduce the volume of scrap generated during production. Using SOLIDWORKS sheet metal and mold design tools, Zodiac Hurricane produces increasingly accurate designs and detailed production drawings, resulting in less scrap. The company also uses SOLIDWORKS to create nested files for machining, which wastes less material, and SOLIDWORKS Simulation to validate design performance.

“Essentially, our products are big assemblies of many individual parts and subsystems,” Burnaci notes. “With SOLIDWORKS design for manufacturability tools, we can ensure that components not only can be manufactured costeffectively but also come together more accurately, resulting in less scrap and rework.”

With SOLIDWORKS design for manufacturability and analysis solutions, including sheet metal and mold design tools, Zodiac Hurricane Technologies has improved production accuracy and quality, resulting in more optimized material usage, less scrap and rework, and production cost savings.

With the addition of SOLIDWORKS Composer technical communication software, Zodiac Hurricane realized additional time savings during development of technical illustrations for boat user manuals. Burnaci says that SOLIDWORKS Composer allows Zodiac Hurricane’s technical writer to create exploded views and other technical illustrations, cutting illustration development time by 75 percent and freeing up engineering resources.

“Whether we are using simulation to meet restrictive weight requirements, PhotoView 360 to create photorealistic renderings, SOLIDWORKS eDrawings® to communicate with customers, or SOLIDWORKS Composer to accelerate documentation development, SOLIDWORKS provides us with the full range of tools that we need to continue leading the way in the development of innovative inflatable and semi-rigid boats,” Burnaci stresses.

Focus on Zodiac Hurricane Technologies, Inc. VAR: Hawk Ridge Systems, Richmond, British Columbia, CANADA Headquarters: 7830 Vantage Way Delta, British Columbia V4G 1A7 CANADA Phone: +1 604 940 2999 For more information www.zodiacmilpro.com

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