For more than 70 years C. H. Evensen Industriovner AS has been providing innovative technologies and methods to the heat treatment industry.
Company
CHE develops designs and manufactures industrial heat treatment furnaces and heating equipment for a variety of industrial processes. They use modern construction tools such as SolidWorks, Cosmos Flowworks and elecworks™, and their products combine the highest performance with outstanding reliability.
Customers can be found in a wide range of industries, such as manufacturing, metallurgical, ceramic, photovoltaic, chemical, polymer, and surface treatment industries.
CHE supply everything from small hardening furnaces to large turn-key heat treatment lines.
The Challenge
After having used several different CAD systems CHE switched to SolidWorks as their MCAD system 7 years ago.
A year ago CHE used a «typical» electrical CAE software from one of the major CAE software vendors. The problems with this software were among other things, that it had high user threshold, which also entailed a lot of training. The software was not integrated with the MCAD (SolidWorks) system at large, which meant that review, revisions and updates were more problematic. (Not adequate support from the previous vendor was also a factor)
In internal meetings last year CHE decided that a better solution had to be found. If a better flow of information between the various departments was to be achieved, they had to find a ECAD system that integrated with SolidWorks. This new system also had to be easier to use than the previous system.
The Solution
After talks with ProNor AS and Trace Software, CHE decided to use elecworks™ for their ECAD tasks. The ECAD department of CHE has, for the last year, used three licenses of elecworks™. These are used for engineering work to the supply major industrial furnaces abroad.
Benefits
Andreas Frebrich is in charge of CHE for the use and implementation of elecworks™.
«elecworks™ is very easy to both learn and use. It is also easy to customize elecworks™ to our tasks. With elecworks™ it is easy to make connections between the different windows/ dialog boxes. You can see data items side by side, which means that it is easy to keep track of developments.» says Andreas as he enthusiastically explains one of the projects where they have used elecworks™.
Andreas tells us about the benefits of his experience with the system:
«elecworks™ also keeps control of 230V and 400V so you do not connect them by mistake. Since the interface is both visual and logical it is very easy to get things right. The visual user interface also makes it easy to explain to customers.»
Most of the parts they use are available as 3D models from the supplier. Components can be easily downloaded from the Internet and inserted into the project. Custom components are of course also easy to add into the library, ready for later use. The electrical drawings from the previous system are often drawn again since elecworks™ is so easy to work with.
Depending upon what is most convenient they sometimes also import previous drawings, which is also an option in elecworks™. Andreas often work with customers abroad for commissioning phase of industrial furnaces. From here he works with elecworks™ via VPN to Norway.
Andreas goes on to explain a few of the positive experiences they have had with elecworks™. When they pick up new symbols, the symbols they use the most appear first. They are very satisfied with the Library features in elecworks™. Bill of Materials are also easy to generate from elecworks™.
Among the technical features that CHE have used and are most satisfied with are:
• Two windows interface make it easy and straightforward to connect.
• Keep track so one does not connect 230 and 400V
• Easy to change the name of the connection point.
elecworks™ has been a good strategic choice for CHE. The integration with SolidWorks means that those working with ECAD are integrated into the design and construction process along with the mechanical department. The departments are now working more closely than before with a greatly reduced risk of errors.
CHE gets more work done in less time, because elecworks™ is easy to learn and use and because the ECAD and MCAD are now integrated with each other.
«Since the interface is both visual and logical it is very easy to get things right. The visual user interface also makes it easy to explain to customers.»
Andreas Frebrich. Electrical Engineer. Responsible of elecworks implementation.
About Pronor
ProNor AS is a SolidWorks’ software suite supplier, which includes tools for design and construction, analysis and calculation, document management, and product documentation.
In addition to sales, their main task is support, training and customization of their solutions. With over 400 commercial customers and a total of 11,000 SolidWorks licenses sold, they are one of the largest CAD systems resellers.
More information is available at www.pronor.com