Founded in 1978, ENVEA manufactures high-precision monitoring systems and environmental data processing/reporting solutions. With a focus on efficiency and reduced environmental impact, the company has become a trusted supplier and developer of Turnkey solutions for companies around the world.
Since inception ENVEA has made a number of acquisitions throughout Europe and in 2014 came together to form The ENVEA Group. This has resulted in the company embarking on a major rebranding project for their existing product range. The Innova Systems team visited ENVEA at their UK office in Swavesey, Cambridgeshire, to discover how they are using SOLIDWORKS to re-design their products, and how their journey has been so far.
ENVEA eliminate trial and error with SOLIDWORKS Simulation
ENVEA sought to reduce lead time and minimise wastage when rebranding their products. And, using SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD and SOLIDWORKS Simulation, ENVEA have managed exactly that.
The company has been working on rebranding their aluminium enclosures, which comes with it’s own set of challenges. When aluminium is cast, for instance, there’s a risk of temperature changes which can alter mechanical properties of the final product. This could result in testing failures leading to lengthy tooling modifications that cost “tens of thousands of pounds”, says Jon Spencer, Project Lead at ENVEA.
Since the implementation of SOLIDWORKS SIMULATION, ENVEA have been able to make accurate decisions, reducing lead time, wastage, and physical prototyping. “We can make changes without having to go through the trial and error. Using SOLIDWORKS Simulation, I was able to test a range of material properties against the test criteria across a range of ambient and process temperatures”, Said Jon Grant, Senior Mechanical Engineer at ENVEA. As a result Jon’s able to make confident design decisions and commit to purchasing tooling.
The team have also been using SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation, which allows them to accurately predict fluid flows before committing to costly prototypes.
ENVEA are now able to better-suit customer needs by accurately designing different prototypes, testing them in a virtual customer environment using SOLIDWORKS Simulation. Simon Kirk, Head of Product Management, commented on his team’s experience so far: “Introducing SOLIDWORKS into ENVEA has really helped our day to day product development. It’s been a journey of up-skilling, it’s been a journey of training, it’s been a journey of reduced lead time, reduced development time, and all this gives the benefit to the customer of improved product design”.
One-to-one SOLIDWORKS support from Innova Systems
Innova Systems have been there for ENVEA from day one. Prior to the purchase being made, we visited the team to learn about their products and systems, to understand how they will best fit into different applications. We then provided one-to-one SOLIDWORKS support and knowledge during the crucial introduction phase to ensure smooth adoption. Today, ENVEA still benefit from full technical support, product updates and more as part of our Annual Subscription package.
We’re looking forward to a bright future with ENVEA, and Simon Kirk agrees: “I would recommend working with Innova Systems to anyone, the support has been great, and we hope to use it more in projects to come”, he said.
Watch the ENVEA case study video to find out more
Find out more about SOLIDWORKS Simulation at ENVEA in our exclusive video interview
