May 2001
Info Provided By:
Ken Baker
For the past 32 years, Gruber Tool and Die, Inc. has been designing and building
sheet metal stamping dies. Their business philosophy hasn’t changed over
those years, but the way they design those sheet metal stamping dies has. They’re
now using SolidWorks.
Gruber’s philosophy is simple. Set the standards
for efficiency, precision and service. Using SolidWorks
couldn’t have been a better choice when keeping
that in mind. According to Ken Baker, designer for
Gruber, the two largest factors in switching to SolidWorks
were its ease of use and efficiency. Designers have
been able to save time on projects that would have
taken much longer in AutoCAD, their 2D system. The
shorter the design time, the more productive Gruber’s
engineers and designers can be. He added that the more
they use SolidWorks, the more productive they become
because they learn more about the software as they
work with it. SolidWorks’ ease of use lends itself
to a relatively short “learning curve,” according
to Ken, getting the department trained and running
relatively quickly.
There are currently eight people in the design department
using SolidWorks, but only two are using it full-time.
The process of implementing SolidWorks has been in
process for a year and a half now, although some projects
are still done in AutoCAD while the transition takes
place. The goal, according to Ken, is to eventually
to have the entire design department using SolidWorks.
“With AutoCAD, I felt as though we’d reached
our peak,” Ken said, referring to the places
that AutoCAD could take Gruber. “With SolidWorks,
we can go much further.” SolidWorks has allowed
Gruber to design surfaces that they could not before
because of 2D limitations.
Another thing that really drew Gruber toward SolidWorks
(they had reviewed many 3D packages, including Inventor
and SolidEdge) was its concentration on mechanical
design. “SolidWorks focuses on itself and lets
the partners handle the other products.” (i.e. – PDM
and FEA systems) Ken feels that by funneling all of
its efforts into its main product SolidWorks can produce
the best product possible. He said that companies such
as AutoDesk who manufacture multiple CAD programs cannot
focus as clearly.
As for Graphics Systems Corporation, Gruber said they
are very pleased with the service and support. “Technical
support is great. And if they don’t know the
answer to something right away, they get right back
to you. It’s great.”
Gruber Tool and Die, Inc. is located in West Bend,
Wisconsin. The company has approximately 75 employees.
Visit www.GruberTool.com for
more information.
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Customer
contact us by email
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