Grote Company Uses COSMOS Analysis Software To Design Durable, Easily Cleaned Food Processing Equipment

Software Helps Engineers Choose the Most Promising Designs for Slicers and Sanitation Equipment by Comparing and Contrasting Features and Performance in Virtual Design Environment

Concord, MA - Food processing equipment developer Grote Company is using COSMOS analysis software to develop innovative designs for high-volume meat, cheese, bread, and vegetable slicers and sanitation equipment in less time and at lower cost than through physical prototyping, SolidWorks announced today.

Columbus, Ohio-based Grote uses COSMOSWorks and COSMOSMotion software to analyze designs for high-performance, easy-to-clean equipment that works on the production lines of companies processing a wide variety of packaged foods from pizzas to frozen dinners. Grote's engineers create their designs in SolidWorks 3D CAD software, then use COSMOS to refine and optimize the design for top performance and material use. COSMOSMotion mechanical analysis software detects part collisions and other mechanical problems that are expensive to fix during prototyping, but cost dramatically less to fix in the design phase. COSMOSWorks finite element analysis (FEA) reveals structural weaknesses and enables Grote engineers to reduce material waste by precisely calculating the amount of material needed to resist failures.

"A lot of our food equipment uses a stainless steel welded base structure," said Grote Design Engineer Chris Lowden. "COSMOSWorks, for example, allows us to more accurately calculate design stresses that could cause cracks at weld joint areas. This crack may not cause the frame structure to fail but may create a remote crevice that would be hard to clean. COSMOSWorks can help us eliminate these possible areas."

COSMOSWorks and COSMOSMotion are integrated into the SolidWorks design environment, enabling Grote engineers to use menus in the SolidWorks interface to run the FEA and motion analysis without switching applications or exporting their 3D solid models. COSMOS and SolidWorks also help Grote compare designs side-by-side so engineers can select the most promising design for prototyping and production.

"Using SolidWorks and COSMOSWorks in tandem, we can evaluate multiple designs and choose the best overall without the cost and time of manufacturing multiple frames for testing," Lowden said. "We recently had a frame that needed additional torsional rigidity. Our design engineers were able to model and analyze three different solutions to the problem. A ‘torque tube' design was the winner with the optimal increase in torsional rigidity while maintaining the most efficient material use. This probably would not have been our first choice without the information from SolidWorks and COSMOSWorks."

Correcting problems before prototyping saves time, cost, and material waste, yielding higher quality products. Lowden estimates that COSMOS pays for itself by saving Grote the cost of one prototype frame per year. COSMOS' ability to help designers correct costly mistakes early in the process frees them to create better products because they can innovate virtually risk free.

"Skilled engineers know that many designs can look promising in the conceptual phase and not work as prototypes. That knowledge often constrains them from innovating because they don't want their companies wasting time and money on a design that might not work," said Suchit Jain, vice president of analysis products at SolidWorks Corporation. "But taking chances yields better products. Grote Company is showing how to use COSMOS to cut risks and create room to innovate."

Grote Company works with SolidWorks reseller 3D Vision Technologies for implementation and maintenance services.

SOURCE: SolidWorks Corporation