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Aratron AB has been supplying linear systems and transmissions to Sweden’s manufacturing industry since 1971. The company serves as an application expert in the fields of packaging, material handling, medical technology, automation, and ergonomics, and maintains offices in Solna and Jönköping, as well as a warehouse, logistics, and production facility in Järfälla.
They are part of the Addtech engineering supply group, which has approximately 150 subsidiaries and annual sales of around 21 billion Swedish kronor, and they work closely with the Swedish OEM industry to help designers and buyers find technically and economically optimal solutions.
The design department includes Cattis Eriksson, who is very pleased with the versatility of IRONCAD offers. Here’s what Cattis says: “Our customers need to move and perhaps even rotate their products from point A to point B within a limited area, often with a maximum weight they must stay within. They first get in touch with our sales team, which has full access to IRONCAD, where together they develop a simple draft or a more complete proposal for a system solution. The customer might want to move their 38.2-kilogram product 5 meters to the right in 2 seconds, or simply have a product lifted onto a pallet.”
Cattis continues: “We then develop a solution consisting of our components, such as a gantry with a linear system and running plates. It may require a belt drive, rack-and-pinion, or a ball screw with bearing blocks at the ends. We also include gearboxes and motors, which the customer can either select and install themselves or ask us to include.” It’s easy to import components from different suppliers directly into the assembly and rotate and position them in the right place with TriBall. Given how our systems look and function, we always try to keep them parallel to the XYZ axes. If something imported is misaligned in space, it’s very easy to fix with TriBall.
The functional solution we ultimately deliver to the customer will, in turn, be used as "one component" in their overall solution. In addition, there are various types of grippers "at the end" of our systems that we ourselves are rarely, if ever, directly involved in or even see. All components that the seller has used in their solution are saved in a compilation that, thanks to IRONCAD ingenuity, is maintained as a single IRONCAD. Each project is thus saved as a single file that is easy to manage, copy, and move without the risk of anything being missing when someone opens it at a later time.
Since no two solutions are really alike, we rarely reuse entire projects. However, we often reuse parts of solutions from other projects by opening and saving a copy of all or part of that model. We always check for any external links, which we first make sure to break, and then we can easily make changes to the new copy without risking damage to previous projects.
We often joke that we work in a very flexible and dynamic way (after all, we have IRONCAD!) and that we have a very open-minded approach when it comes to both internal jargon and the creativity we need to come up with smart solutions. That’s where IRONCAD user-friendly flexibility fits in perfectly, since the initial sales pitch needs to go smoothly while also looking “finished” in front of the customer—even though there’s often some design work involved to ensure that minor details, like hole patterns, are correctly aligned or that the running plate is properly shaped. It’s quite common for us to add gearboxes and motors, which is why we need to adapt the cutouts in the rails to accommodate them.
When we in the design department take over the sales representative’s CAD model, we can easily make the necessary changes and adjustments without having to wonder what the sales representative was actually thinking when they developed the solution with the customer. We identify the function the gate or rail system is intended to fulfill and the components required to achieve it, and of course we consult with the sales representative regarding their solution. Sometimes we may need to replace certain parts with others, and that’s easily done—either by simply “deleting” a component and inserting another one in its place, or by dragging and dropping components from our saved catalogs. This allows us to quickly generate a complete set of production drawings in a short amount of time.
Since the models don’t rely on any relationships to keep them in the right place, there’s no risk of causing problems if you suddenly need to remove a component. That’s not to say we don’t use constraints and relationships between certain models when necessary. We create some simple mechanisms or animations to show the customer how their solution moves, which sometimes leads to further changes when the customer realizes that what they said and what they actually meant aren’t always the same thing! We then make the necessary adjustments exactly when and where they’re needed, without having to think too much more about it. My colleagues in design and I have extensive experience with another parameter-driven 3D CAD system, and we appreciate that with IRONCAD , we can IRONCAD choose how the models are structured and enjoy all the freedom that comes with it.
As mentioned, we have developed a catalog system that contains a large number of our components. The idea is to continue expanding this, as we have an enormous number of alternative solution combinations that would require a tremendous amount of time if we were to try to build fully predictable and parameter-driven configurators. It would probably never be completely finished! That is why we are working on building smaller configurators for subsystems, such as linear units with customizable travel plates.
Also on the design team is our colleague Niklas Nilsson, who, in addition to his design work, is also developing the in-house, web-based sales configurator. By exporting 3D models in the open, web-based GLB format from IRONCAD, he has been able to streamline key steps by displaying completely accurate models directly in the configurator.
“We’ll also be investing in DesignDataManager soon to start managing revisions for certain projects and to make it easier to track where specific components are used,” says Niklas. “The production department will be able to find the latest drawings for active projects on their own, without having to wait for a response from someone who’s sick or out of the office. I’ve gotten help from Solidmakarna to install DDM on min so I could test and configure it, and I’ll then move it over to our file server once it’s up and running. We’ve also received an introductory course from CSI, which gave us a good start. But we’ll probably need a proper refresher through basic training once we have our new server in place,” concludes Niklas.
We at Solidmakarna are very proud to have such a well-known and established Swedish technology company as Aratron as a satisfied customer and long-time IRONCAD. We truly see that IRONCAD them IRONCAD numerous benefits, both during the crucial sales moment—where their vast array of components can be quickly and easily displayed and placed exactly where they need to be, right in front of the customer—and in the more precise design work that follows. Concludes Henrik Andersson, CEO of Solidmakarna
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