IMA Engineers Productivity with PTC Creo FMX

Working with design files you didn’t create can be painful if you are a product development engineer. When your partners and suppliers use different CAD file formats, or when you need to edit a legacy model that you have little information about, you can spend more time recreating models than designing them. That’s one reason IMA added PTC Creo Flexible Modeling Extension (FMX) to its software environment.

IMA Behind the Scenes

With the motto “We Engineer Your Productivity,” IMA designs products that make its clients more successful. For example, the company designed a machine for automatic lamp assembly for Philips Lighting. Working closely with Philips, IMA created a complex system that includes a turntable with mixers, a vibration feeder for parts, a tray warehouse for lamp bases, laser welding capabilities, and quality control components.

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IMA’s lamp assembly machine for Philips Lighting

The machine was integrated into Philips’ production line, significantly reducing manual operations. You can see the overall line in the video below:

CAD Collaboration Challenges

For companies like IMA that collaborate with clients like Philips on complex projects, some predictable challenges arise. Teams inevitably deal with:

• Incompatible CAD files they didn’t create
• Legacy data and sources
• Late-stage design changes

By adding the direct modeling features of PTC Creo FMX, the company can now address each of these issues:

With PTC Creo FMX, they can import and modify models from neutral file formats (STEP, IGES) and CAD systems like SolidWorks, Solid Edge, and Autodesk Inventor, without worrying about design constraints. The flexible modeling approach makes it easy to quickly modify the geometry and adjust to client feedback, so engineers can concentrate on the design.

With PTC Creo FMX, they can also build on models from any source and develop new concepts. It’s easy to work through design ideas and consider more alternatives.

Direct modeling makes it faster and less frustrating to accommodate changes that crop up at the end of the design cycle, too. “Implementing PTC Creo Flexible Modeling Extension reduced late stage design changes by 15%,” says Bart Aerens, Managing Director at IMA.

Parametric and Direct Modeling Made Easy

By adding PTC Creo FMX to PTC Creo Parametric, IMA now has the flexibility to handle client and partner source files, with the advantage of seamless interoperability between parametric and direct modeling methods. The company now works more easily with multi-CAD and legacy data, enjoys faster, more flexible 3D editing, and has engineered its own productivity by streamlining the product development process.

Want to learn more about how adding PTC Creo FMX can help you? Visit the PTC Flexible Modeling page.

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Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.