May We Help Uses SOLIDWORKS to Help Special Needs Clients Find Their Passion

Many SOLIDWORKS customers are passionate about helping people in need. Cincinnati-based, nonprofit organization May We Help designs and creates unique, custom solutions to free individuals with special needs to engage in, and pursue their passions. Founded by Bill Wood, Bill Diemling and Bill Sand in 2006, May We Help consists of more than 70 volunteers, including designers, engineers, craftsmen, machinists, welders and wood workers, committed to using their trade to create custom assistive devices at no cost.

Since their projects are custom-made, ideas are often passed from volunteer to clients to therapists. The team relies on the communication and collaboration features in SOLIDWORKS to share ideas and tweak CAD images with direct input from their clients. According to co-founder Bill Sands, using SolidWorks cuts down on completion time and costs, allowing them to operate as a think tank for solving problems that haven’t been solved.

One example of May We Help’s collaboration and innovation is the development of a water-based rehabilitation device called the aqua-walker. After an accident, a young woman needed to learn how to walk again. The most effective way to relearn to walk is in a swimming pool, but at the time “aqua-walkers” were not being manufactured. The May We Help team designed the project in SOLIDWORKS with plumbing pipe and fitting. Then volunteers worked with the woman’s therapist to design chest, seat and arm support before finally sharing dimensions with the client’s father to ensure it fit in his van.

In addition to saving time on design iterations, Sand credits SOLIDWORKS with cutting costs by avoiding multiple prototypes, “SOLIDWORKS allowed our team to create the aqua-walker in 3D without the need for physical prototypes. By refining and completing our design in the software, we saved a significant amount of money on materials and created a product to our exact specifications. The sugar on top: no alterations were needed to our first and only physical product. All-told, the aqua-walker was a 90-day project from first visit to finished device. In many similar cases people have to wait months for off-the-shelf devices.”

More information is available at: https://www.maywehelp.org/

Bio
Twitter
LinkedIn
Latest Posts

Kristen Wilson

Senior Manager Brand Offer Marketing, SolidWorks at Dassault Systemes

As the Senior Director of Communications, 3DEXPERIENCE Works, Kristen drives marketing strategy and oversees the team responsible for developing and executing multi-touch marketing plans across the Buyer's Journey, including 3DEXPERIENCE World.