Marc Bellavance of DART Aerospace Ltd.
Interview with an Aerospace Industry Customer
About Marc Bellavance
Marc's role is Internal Support/Product Improvement at DART Aerospace Ltd., a manufacturer of helicopter products based in Hawkesbury, Ontario
Q: Tell me about your company's business and industry position.
A: Founded in 1975 as a manufacturer of modification kits, DART has almost 30 years experience in the aerospace industry. DART is a short for “Design Approval Representation Team”. In 1997, achieved ISO 9001-94 Certification and patented their revolutionary Round-I-Beam™ skidtube technology. In 2003, DART was purchased by Eagle Copters. DART strives for world leadership in the design, engineering, development and manufacturing of helicopter accessories. Continuously meeting customer's expectations and contract requirements is a mission DART pursues with passion.
What CAD system did you use before implementing SolidWorks.
AutoCAD
What were the primary business challenges and technical requirements that led your company to evaluate SolidWorks?
The design process was slowed down by the limits imposed by AutoCAD in terms of 3D modeling. That is what triggered DART to evaluate SolidWorks.
How did you find out about SolidWorks?
DART heard about SolidWorks from one of our then president acquaintances and through various industry partners.
How did you find our about Javelin?
We searched the Internet for a supplier in our region.
Did you evaluate any other CAD systems? Which ones?
Yes, DART did evaluate and consider other CAD systems: Solid Edge and Catia.
Why did your company choose SolidWorks?
SolidWorks proved to be the answer of our design needs and also proved to be more affordable than Catia. Other key elements included: easy migration of AutoCAD files to SolidWorks, user friendly interface, part files supported by Surfcam, wide range of SolidWorks users (industry partners, suppliers, and some customers), and support from Javelin.
Were there one or two product features and related benefits that were most important in your decision to purchase SolidWorks?
The cost as well as the wide network of SolidWorks users.
How many SolidWorks licenses do you have?
We own nine licenses .
What version of SolidWorks do you have?
We are using SolidWorks Professional.
Are there specific tools and capabilities that are especially beneficial? If so, how?
Sheet Metal Feature: easy to use, accurate for parts with single and/or multiple simple bends, creation of flat pattern In-context design: facilitate and speeds up intricate part design process.
Configurations: as our product line grows, we try to use existing parts in the context of new product. Where it is not possible, new parts are created based on existing designs. On a SolidWorks point of view, new configurations to parts and/or assemblies are created. Speeds up the design process and results in minimizing our prototyping costs.
How much has SolidWorks reduced your product design process, for example, “from four months to three weeks,” or “50%.”
This is hard to quantify. The design to manufacture process was reduced considerably with the use of SolidWorks. For example, in the case of a CNCed part, we use to draw the part in 2D. Then, our Production Engineering Coordination team would create a 3D part in Surfcam and then generate the CNC program. With Surfcam supporting SolidWorks, all we have to do is save the part file as a “dsn” file and the 3D model is ready to use in a Surfcam environment. It results in reducing lead time while minimizing modeling and programming errors.
How much money you have saved in your product development process with SolidWorks on a particular project or as an overall by percentage? Are you savings related to producing fewer prototypes or less scrap and rework?
Again, this is hard to quantify as we do not have numbers to compare AutoCAD designs versus SolidWorks designs. For sure, the use of SolidWorks had a considerable impact on reducing production of prototypes and helping us reduce scrap and rework. In some cases, SolidWorks proved to be useful in situations where parts destined to scrap could actually be reworked after a simple verification of the part file.
How have SolidWorks design capabilities improved the quality of your products? Have you been able to reduce the number of design errors, and if so, by how much?
We did manage to reduce design errors in terms of fit between parts. So that would be an enhancement in terms of improving the quality of our products.
What does it take to compete effectively in your industry? What are some of the challenges involved in maintaining your market position? How does SolidWorks impact your competitiveness?
Lead time is paramount at all stages of design and SolidWorks helps in that matter. Fit and function between parts, assemblies and sub-assemblies can be verified prior to prototyping, design changes following testing can be easily addressed, programming of parts with Surfcam can be achieved in a minimum of time by saving a part file as a “dsn” file, and drawings are quickly generated from 3D parts and/or assemblies. SolidWorks has a positive impact at all levels of our design process.
Was the transition to SolidWorks smooth? (If moving from 2D to 3D) Were there any capabilities in SolidWorks such as file translation and other built-in tools for preserving and reusing legacy 2D data?
Yes. On a case by case basis, SolidWorks capabilities are still very useful in terms of file translation. 2D or 3D AutoCAD drawings/models can be easily converted into workable SolidWorks files.
Did Javelin make a significant contribution in terms of training, support and implementation services?
Yes. Within the past 1.5 years, Javelin provided training that had a considerable impact on new members of our team who were previously not SolidWorks users. Furthermore, where SolidWorks had failed to help us generate flat patterns of very intricate sheet metal parts, Javelin introduced us to the technology of BlankWorks which proved to be the answer to our problems. We still use BlankWorks whenever SolidWorks fails to accurately generate flat patterns of complex sheet metal parts. Interesting fact is BlankWorks is fully integrated into the SolidWorks platform which is a definitive plus.
Could you provide an example of an engineering design project completed in SolidWorks that you’d like to highlight? How long did the project take from start to finish?
Many projects were completed in SolidWorks. Our D350-591 Heli-Utility-StepTM is probably one of the most complex projects done in SolidWorks. The Heli-Utility-StepTM is designed to be installed on Eurocopter AS 350 Astar rotorcraft. There are 18 different configurations or kits available for customers. These kits were created to ensure compatibility with different floatation gears available on the market as well as guarantee compatibility with OEM landing gears. Without SolidWorks, it would have been a nightmare to create all the different configurations for this particular product and prototyping costs would have been astronomical.
What’s different about Javelin as a company from other companies in the CAD marketplace?
Javelin’s quick and friendly response.
How does SolidWorks help your engineers design better products?
SolidWorks provides most of the tools we need to help us engineer better products and is easy to use.
Does SolidWorks contribute to better product safety?
For sure it has an impact from an assemble point of view. We can minimize attachment points by keeping everything secure. Whenever required or in doubt, we must conduct Destructive Testing. (Applying loads that will be in effect while the helicopter is in flight, then establishing margins from limit loads to ultimate load. Then often, we push the limit to test it.)
