Quarto D’Altino, Venice, Italy – We are living in a time of a truly global economy. You read about it in the newspaper and hear about it on radio and television all the time – and with increasing regularity, you find confirmation that the global economy is not only real, but also a lot closer than you think. Consider, for example, the car that’s sitting in your driveway right now. If it’s a Saab, Audi, Volvo, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, or General Motors vehicle, the chances are very good that many of the molds for its plastic components and some of the plastic components themselves were developed halfway around the world by an Italian company called Uniteam Italia Srl.
From instrument clusters to front-end grilles
Uniteam is a private company located in the northeast corner of Italy. It designs and manufactures plastic injection molds for a wide variety of automobile interior and exterior components – components used by most of the world’s leading automakers. “We develop small to moderate size plastic parts that are highly aesthetic and stylized in nature,” begins Elisa Scomparin, Uniteam’s marketing manager. “We are talking about instrument clusters, consoles, glove boxes, and interior trims. On the outside of the car, we do grilles, spoilers, fender liners, rocker panels, door strip moldings, etc. On the other hand, we also specialize in combining materials such as plastic and rubber, so we often develop less visible parts such as engine and ventilation components.”
It’s easy to take these plastic parts for granted. By the time we see them, they have been so masterfully designed and integrated into the car’s design that your eye tends to just roll right over them.
Where the engine, drive train, and suspension are all about function, these plastic components are all about style. When they’re designed right, they convey a sense of craftsmanship and attention to detail. They have a very subtle effect, but in the final analysis these painstakingly designed plastic components make you feel good about the vehicle that you’re driving.
Aesthetically pleasing parts require high degree of workmanship
As you might expect, the workmanship on these plastic components is both exacting and demanding. Working from Uniteam’s technical center in Italy, a group of 40 engineers and project managers develop the plastic injection molds which will be used to produce the plastic parts. The molds are physically constructed by an extended team of external tool shops, involving an additional 160 people. So in total, it’s a group of about 200 people coordinated by Uniteam who are turning all of these plastic components into reality.
Second tier automotive supplier
“While our molds are used by the major automakers, “ reports Scomparin, “our direct customers are really the molding companies themselves – companies like Collins & Aikman, Lear Corporation, Magna, and others. Those are the companies which actually produce the finished plastic components for the OEMs [Original Equipment Manufacturers].”
AutoVue: one visualization tool capable of reading 200+ file formats
While Uniteam has found a nice niche for itself, it has its share of challenges to contend with. For starters, the plastic parts it molds are designed by automotive designers scattered all around the globe. As a result, Uniteam has to contend with files arriving in a wide variety of CAD formats including Pro/ENGINEER, CATIA, Unigraphics, RTL, HP/GL, and IGES. That’s why in recent months the company has begun using a versatile visualization system called AutoVue SolidModel, a product of Cimmetry Systems Inc.
“Viewing files in so many different CAD formats used to cause us some problems,” says Scomparin. “It was both difficult and time consuming to view CAD files. Often, I myself in the marketing department or one of the project managers would need to open and look at a file at the very outset of a project. To do that, we would have to go and tie up one of the CAD systems and have an engineer print it out for us. Now that we use AutoVue, we can do all that by ourselves. We can open, view, and print just about any CAD file that comes in. This saves us a lot of time, and gives us a lot more independence. AutoVue also supports some non-CAD formats such as WordPerfect. So we’re pretty much able to view just about any file that a customer sends us.”
View any part, in any format, at any time
The harsh reality is that Uniteam has to maintain six different CAD systems in order to get the job done – since customers are often very specific as to which CAD format they want the molds to be designed in. The good news is that AutoVue is bridging the gap between all six systems, providing a common vehicle for communication & collaboration, whether a part is being designed in Pro/ENGINEER, CATIA, Unigraphics or something else. The bottom line is that no matter what the format, anyone at Uniteam can view any part at any time, and that gives the people at Uniteam a lot of confidence.
Introduced to AutoVue by local reseller
Uniteam was introduced to the AutoVue product by its local reseller, GEA Media Group. “We briefly looked at some competing systems,” says Scomparin, “but we were quite impressed by the sheer number of file types that AutoVue supports.” Although Uniteam typically encounters no more than six different CAD formats, the specific AutoVue package that they selected – AutoVue SolidModel – actually recognizes more than a dozen different CAD formats, and a total of more than 200 different file types, up to and including Microsoft Office. “The drawings and the images that we receive are mainly solid models, solid images of parts. That’s why we chose this kind of system from Cimmetry.”
“Started using AutoVue and never looked back”
Another major factor behind Uniteam’s decision to license AutoVue was ease of use. “We’ve been using AutoVue for several months now,” reports Scomparin, “and we’ve never had any formal training. It was very easy to pick up and use, very intuitive. We just started using AutoVue right out of the box and have never looked back. Most of us use it at least half a dozen times a day. It was most definitely a good investment for us.”
Working on plastic components years in advance – or sometimes just weeks
When exactly does Uniteam get involved in the automobile design process? “Sometimes we’re working on projects three years before a car reaches the marketplace, because we are involved in the pre-design and co-development phase” says Scomparin, “Other times, we are called upon to make tools on very short notice, with just 16 or 18 weeks to design and complete the product.” Regardless of when they are brought on board, Uniteam has to deliver a high quality product quickly and efficiently, and AutoVue is helping them to do it by improving the company’s communication and collaboration.
Future plans: AutoVue as front-end to an electronic filing system
So what does the future hold for Uniteam Italia Srl? “We believe we’ve only scratched the surface as far as what AutoVue can do for us,” reports Scomparin. “Today, we primarily use it to view and print various CAD files.” The reality, however, is that there is a lot more capability inside AutoVue that Uniteam can take advantage of in the months and years ahead, including the ability to interrogate the model, take precise measurements, perform cross sections, explode assemblies, highlight different parts of assemblies, and markup models with notes. These capabilities are likely be very helpful to Uniteam’s recently established R&D department.
“Beyond that,” concludes Scomparin, “we plan to introduce an electronic filing system into the company. AutoVue, along with some other technologies, will be an integral part of that effort.” |