Pässilä Bicycles Slashes Prototyping from 3 Months to 3 Weeks with SOLIDWORKS and 3DEXPERIENCE Works

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The founders of Pässilä Bicycles Ltd. have known one another since they were kids. They first developed their passion for mountain-biking while riding trails in the Pässilä wilderness, which offered much variation in elevation, nature, and technical challenges, inspiring them to develop bicycle frames now highly regarded by many serious mountain-biking enthusiasts. Founded in 2018 and based in Nopankylä, Finland, the growing cycling company’s trail, dirt jump, and slopestyle titanium mountain bike frames and components offer mountain bikers far more durability than traditional steel-frame mountain bikes.

Connecting the Team

Pässilä Bicycles initially used BikeCAD® 2D design software to create sketches of bike frame designs and 2D engineering drawings for production. As the company grew and demand for new models increased, Pässilä Bicycles was drawn to SOLIDWORKS® 3D design software because its designer was very comfortable working in SOLIDWORKS, and the software is widely used by major bike manufacturers. Pässilä Bicycles also needed an efficient means of collaborating because the founders and staff all work in different locations and at different times of day. In addition to implementing SOLIDWORKS design tools in February 2021, Pässilä Bicycles connected SOLIDWORKS to the 3DEXPERIENCE® platform.

Faster Prototyping

3DEXPERIENCE Works solutions enabled Pässilä Bicycles to shorten its design-to-prototype cycle and therefore its time to market while advancing innovative frame components, design complexity, and aesthetic features. According to CEO Markku Hautamäki, “Whenever our designer finishes a design, others on our team, including me, add features and suggest changes before we release the design to prototype. In the past, we reviewed 2D drawings, made markups, passed the drawings, and updated the design for further collaborative review, a process that took about three months. With the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, we can now fetch the 3D design from the cloud and collaborate instantaneously, enabling us to finalize a design for prototyping in three weeks instead of three months.”

 

Improved Visualization and Affordable Data Management

In addition to a more productive collaborative 3D space in the cloud, 3DEXPERIENCE Works solutions provides design visualization and data management capabilities that Pässilä Bicycles leverages to improve product quality. Hautamäki notes, “Using 3DEXPERIENCE Works solutions, we can better visualize how the frame will look and make sure that all of our clearances are adequate to prevent collisions and interferences before building a prototype.”

Hautamäki adds, “The 3DEXPERIENCE platform not only gives us a cloud-based collaborative workspace but also a place to store and manage data accurately and securely. We’re a small company and can’t afford to purchase our own server and database. With 3DEXPERIENCE Works solutions, we have the transparent data management system that we need to control revisions and their potential impact on product quality.”

Advancing Product Complexity and Innovation

“Our customers are looking for something different and out of the ordinary,” Hautamäki concludes. “Using 3DEXPERIENCE Works solutions, we are better positioned to continue to meet customer demand for complexity, innovation, and customization.”

To learn more about what SOLIDWORKS and tools in the 3DEXPERIENCE Works portfolio can do for your company, contact your local reseller.

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Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp. offers complete 3D software tools that let you create, simulate, publish, and manage your data. SolidWorks products are easy to learn and use, and work together to help you design products better, faster, and more cost-effectively. The SolidWorks focus on ease-of-use allows more engineers, designers and other technology professionals than ever before to take advantage of 3D in bringing their designs to life.
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