Tolerance Analysis-Based Mechanical Design Optimization Software: Enventive

Fico Cables LDA, a company of the Ficosa Group, is a global leader in the design and manufacturing of cables and cable actuators for the automotive industry. José Mendes and Pedro Lopes of Fico initially performed an evaluation of different tolerance analysis packages present on the market. Enventive was one of the packages evaluated.

After several presentations, the commitment of Fico Cables for Enventive was decided based on the fact that Enventive was the only tool to have complex contact modelling capabilities as well as unlimited capabilities to model and statistically optimise any physical parameter (force, temperature, pressure, friction).

The implementation of Enventive started by the training of 4 persons. Before and after the training, the trainer from Enventive's European sales partner Cognition Europe, spent some time in order to get to know the types of analyses needed in Fico Cables’ business and how Enventive could help perform them quickly, more accurately and more easily. In the end, this enabled the training to be focused not only on theoretical aspects, but also on the ways design and optimisation issues can be addressed on a daily basis.

The collaboration between Fico Cables and Enventive/Cognition was extended to assist on the most urgent projects and during presentations to OEM customers. After this experience with Enventive, five more users were trained to be able to use Enventive on a daily basis. Fico Cables now agrees that Enventive brings more than a simple tolerance analysis tool; Enventive offers structured architecture and innovative modelling capabilities. Enventive allows Fico to optimize any critical parameter very early in the development process and to monitor statistical process control accordingly.