Diomed Ltd develops and markets both lasers and clinical procedure kits for medical applications. Diomed Engineers felt that new product development was being restricted by a Pro/ENGINEER System that was cumbersome to use and lacked the intuitive power of modern systems.

An important consideration was the need to learn and use a new system that would accelerate product development time and reduce the cost of manufacture.

The Solution
"After evaluating several products, we chose SolidWorks software for its power and easy-to-use interface" said Steve Hayden, Principal Mechanical Engineer. "We think it has the most superior price/performance ratio of any of the packages evaluated". Since purchasing three licenses of SolidWorks Office, Diomed Ltd, have experienced real tangible benefits for new product development.

The Benefits
Using SolidWorks, Diomed now has the ability to build "virtual prototypes", allowing changes early in the design cycle when the cost of making a change is low but the opportunity for change is high.

Visualisation of new products in 3D helps other technical disciplines within Diomed such as electronics and optics, and improves collaboration with suppliers using SolidWorks parts and e-drawings.

Disciplines other than engineering, such as Sales and Marketing benefit from realistic visualisations of proposed and completed products. Also, critical data from suppliers is being incorporated into new designs using STEP, thus eliminating re modelling work.

Manufacturing and assembly departments now understand what new products will look like and actively contribute towards how it will be assembled, before a single part is made, confident in knowing that it will go together right first time. The "Ease of use" of SolidWorks has enabled the rapid integration of Sub-contract design resources with the appropriate design skills, without the restriction of "specific" CAD software skills. We are also delighted with our investment in SolidWorks and our partnership with Innova Systems, who have provided first class training and support"