Wilson Case Increases Client Satisfaction While Saving Time and Materials
Since 1976, Wilson Case, Inc. has developed shipping and protective cases to safeguard a wide range of innovations, from the delicate mirror for the new multi-million-dollar James Webb Space Telescope to computers, medical devices, scientific instruments, military equipment, and much more. A leading manufacturer of ATA-300 (Category I) shipping cases, the company can engineer and manufacture custom, reusable shipping cases to protect just about anything during transit. Wilson Case’s experience, custom engineering, and commitment to quality set it apart from its competitors.
In recent years, customers have become increasingly demanding regarding individual case performance and capacity. Questions like: Will the contents of my case survive extreme temperatures? Can the case carry a minimum factor of safety of two? Can I stack cases one on top of another? Is there a limit to the number of cases that can be stacked? How will the case protect this sensitive device from vibration? What happens to my product if the case drops out of the back of a truck?
Optimizing Designs
Until 2022, Wilson Case strengthened cases by adding material, explains Simulation Engineer David Daou. “Because physical testing of every single case and load condition is not economically feasible, our designers would over-design cases in many instances to satisfy specific customer needs. That approach added time to development cycles and increased costs.”
Wilson Case management decided to evaluate leading simulation solutions to accommodate customer design requests, including SOLIDWORKS®, ANSYS®, COMSOL Multiphysics®, and Simscale® software. They opted for SOLIDWORKS Simulation Professional early in 2022 to fulfill customer design needs due to its ease of use, integration with existing SOLIDWORKS design tools, and capability to perform linear stress and frequency analyses without file conversions.
To conduct more complex analyses, such as drop test impact, thermal, and vibration simulations, the company added Structural Mechanics Engineer from the 3DEXPERIENCE Works portfolio of solutions at the beginning of 2023. This provided an integrated workflow to solve more advanced problems, while enabling customers to reuse their SOLIDWORKS geometry, loads, restraints, and materials.
Saving Time and Materials
The simulation solutions have enabled Wilson Case to meet customer requirements without over-designing products. “The ability to conduct quick, efficient simulations with SOLIDWORKS Simulation Professional is helping us internally because having these insights shortens development time and optimizes material usage,” Daou stresses. “Simulation can take the place of physical prototyping on jobs for which the customer wants proof of product performance,” he adds. “But even on projects for which the customer doesn’t require a simulation run, providing customers with the results of simulations represents added value that contributes to improved customer satisfaction.”
Crafting Custom Products
Wilson Case is elevating shipping case engineering and helping customers source their shipping case solution faster with greater confidence since they provide the most highly engineered customized shipping case solution. “Some customers want simulations to drive the development of their product, an approach that often requires multiple simulations,” Daou explains. “For example, a complex product might require five sequential drop tests followed by compression tests, static analysis, frequency analysis, and random vibration analysis.”
He concludes:
“With SOLIDWORKS and 3DEXPERIENCE Works simulation tools, we are developing a department to validate and improve the performance of our products while taking on the most challenging, complex projects and generating additional revenue.”
If you’d like to learn more about optimizing your designs to meet and exceed customer requirements, contact your local reseller. You can read the entire Wilson Case case study here.
Also, if you are planning to attend 3DEXPERIENCE World, David Daou of Wilson Case, will be speaking about his team’s use of SOLIDWORKS and 3DEXPERIENCE Works simulation tools during the Simulation Without Limits general session on Tuesday, February 13th from 1:15-2:15PM CT.