LFE enclosures slashes 40% off its design cycle time

The company has standardised on PTC Pro/Engineer Wildfire 3.0 3D CAD/CAM/CAE and visualisation software, as well as Pro/Intralink 8.0 product data management (PDM) to eliminate data inconsistencies. Po Hu, general manager at LFE, explains that prior to PTC, its non-standard design processes prevented engineers from effectively analysing key mould design elements – so design errors were often not identified until the physical mould prototype was created, causing rework and development delays. Since PTC, LFE has improved overall design efficiency among its engineering teams by 20%, while Pro/Engineer has also enabled the company to decrease mould design changes and BoM (bill of materials) list development times. Hu also says that designs are now quickly reusable, saving time that would previously have been spent on re-design. “At LFE, we can support almost any kind of metal stamping and plastic injection design-for-manufacturing needs,” says Hu. “To fulfil such a promise, we have to ensure that for every project, we are able to reduce project costs, minimise human error and improve collaboration among different departments to increase operating efficiency. “PTC’s design solutions have enabled us to do just that. By utilising the integrated Pro/Engineer solutions, our engineers can now develop all kinds of mould designs within one application. They can also now manage data more easily with Pro/Intralink, allowing them to concentrate on innovative design.”