MicroTurbo Goes Hi-Tech with Product Lifecycle Management Solutions from IBM and Dassualt Systemes

SMB Aerospace supplier, part of the SNECMA group, deploys 42 CATIA V5 and SMARTEAM seats to improve its product development processes.

MicroTurbo, an aerospace supplier specializing in the development and production of turbines, announced that it will deploy IBM and Dassault Systemes' Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, beginning with 42 seats of both CATIA V5 product design software and SMARTEAM product data management solutions, to be run on the Windows NT platform. This agreement also covers technical assistance and training to be provided by IBM and Dassault Systemes.

MicroTurbo's new PLM environment will allow MicroTurbo to create, analyze and produce turbines and manage the entire cycle of its product development. A major player in the aerospace industry for over 40 years, MicroTurbo is among the top turbine producers worldwide and is number one in Europe. MicroTurbo's products are used in many airplanes and helicopters and are also used for missile and target propulsion. With over 11,000 manufactured turbines, MicroTurbo has recently reinforced its activity by joining the SNECMA group, one of the world's largest engine manufacturers and aerospace suppliers.

MicroTurbo decided in 2000 to further enhance and develop its CAD/CAM/CAE environment and improve the management of its product design data. To achieve this strategic objective, MicroTurbo needed to rely on the expert advice from its solution integrators, Dassault Systemes and IBM, in order to understand and optimize its use of PLM technology and product data management applications and to reduce the implementation time frame.

"PLM Solutions from Dassault Systemes will allow us to perform pre-production design projects, from modifications in the conception phase to changes in the composition of complex parts, including management of the data produced by our engineering design team. The 3d PLM products we use are efficient enough to allow us migrating from our old environment in a single step," said Jean-Stéphane Vignes, director of turbomachine and system engineering, MicroTurbo.

After an industrial pilot project, including extensive testing of multiCAD translation capabilities, MicroTurbo found that CATIA V5 fully met its needs in terms of complex system design engineering. SMARTEAM solutions, which integrate completely with CATIA V5, also passed the MicroTurbo evaluation, demonstrating its capacity to manage all product data generated during the development process of the project.

"MicroTurbo's decision to implement 3D PLM will impact their entire product development process. Capable of managing all product data generated with CATIA V5, SMARTEAM gives MicroTurbo the power to manage product development and production in a way that is profitable and efficient in a market environment that is extremely competitive," explained Denis Senpéré, vice-president of ENOVIA and SMARTEAM European Operations, Dassault Systemes.

Ed Petrozelli, general manager, IBM Product Lifecycle Management, added, "IBM's Product Lifecycle Management portfolio allows our SMB customer base not only to innovate using the most powerful design application on the market today, but also to solve complex product data management problems. MicroTurbo is now using CATIA V5 complemented with SMARTEAM PDM solutions, the latest addition to IBM's PLM product suite, to improve collaboration and product development to gain competitive advantage as an aerospace supplier in a market segment in which IBM's PLM products are the industry standard. We will continue to provide industry value to SMB customers around the world in all industries to help them realize the benefits of innovation and e-collaboration."

Floyd Rose Uses CATIA to Make Beautiful Music

In the 1980's, with the breakthroughs in the development of digital synthesizers and pitch-to voltage guitar synthesizers controllers, musicians looked to squeeze new sounds out of what was a 30-year-old guitar technology. Floyd Rose, a young musician at the time, had increasingly begun to use a whammy bar to innovate dramatic new sounds. But with its use he grew frustrated by his inability to keep the guitar in tune when utilizing the device.

From that early exploration to today Floyd Rose is never satisfied, which is why he is currently developing his own revolutionary new electric guitar, with more than sixteen patented advancements, using CATIA Solutions, the leading computer-aided-design (CAD) application in the world.

Floyd Rose Guitar Company's first release model is the culmination of over nine years of guitar innovation, incorporating numerous functional patents that will radically improve the playability, sound, performance and ease-of-use for guitar players around the world. By using CATIA Version 5 Release 5, Rose can digitally design each of the guitar's hundreds of parts to his precise specifications, assemble them in a 3D Digital Mock-up model and then immediately begin production, saving significant amounts of time and money.

Rose selected CATIA after Advanced Enterprise Solutions (AES), an IBM Business Partner, demonstrated the advanced 3D application. Rose was impressed with CATIA's ease-of-use and powerful part design, assembly and styling capabilities. Rose also took advantage of AES's in-house experts and with their help was able to learn CATIA in less than three weeks, completing 80 percent of the initial CAD work. Rose added, "For me, CATIA saved considerable time, which in turn, allowed me to move our guitar's launch date up several months."

Rose previously used another leading CAD application and looked at upgrading to its native Windows NT product, but was not impressed with its performance. "I have been using CAD for years and the other product had a learning curve that required more time then I had anticipated and critical modules did not work as advertised. Using CATIA, I was able to make an assembly of the guitar and rapidly check it for fit and interferences. This capability and many other powerful features sold me on CATIA," explained Rose.

The Floyd Rose Guitar Company's first product release is expected to be available within six months. Among the sixteen patents, the guitar features convergent tuning, moving pick-ups, one-bolt neck assembly and an ingenious integration of the original Floyd Rose tremolo into the guitar, eliminating the need to lock the strings.