Federal Electric

Established in 1978, Federal Electric Corp., Ltd. (FEC for short) is one of the biggest manufacturers of small appliances in Thailand. It was originally set up to manufacture electric home appliances for SHARP^®. As expertise advanced and business flourished, FEC has expanded its business to many top brands around the globe. For now, its products include rice cookers, electric kettles, blenders & grinders, electric ovens, irons, water heaters, electric fans, water dispensers, etc.

To bring products to market faster and stay competitive, a powerful design tool is necessary. In 2014, FEC decided to switch its previous CAD platform to a more advanced one, to optimize the workflow of design and manufacture at a reduced cost. After in-depth research and careful evaluation, FEC picked ZW3D, the all-in-one and fully functional CAD/CAM solution.

Atikom Prangsuwan, Senior Product Designer of FEC said, “The ZW3D CAD/CAM solution gives us all functions that we need at a competitive price. It’s quite easy to create 3D models and quick to modify parts in ZW3D.”

Faster 3D Modeling for Higher Productivity

To do business with global brands, engineers in FEC often receive third-party CAD files. In the past, they spent a lot of time and costs in importing them to the CAD platform. But now, with the powerful data translator in ZW3D, they can directly make use of internal and external CAD data such as the ones from CATIA^®, Solidworks^®, etc. without the need for re-engineering, boosting early-stage design.

Figure 1. Design the structure and exterior of small appliances in ZW3D

Entering the parametric design stage, engineers can do their design with precise geometric parameters in ZW3D, which makes the adjustments of design easier to meet different needs from customers. And thanks to the Solid-Surface Hybrid Modeling technology, they design products more flexibly without being limited by the barrier between solids and surfaces. The design cycle is shorter and the productivity surges.

Automatic 2D Drawing for Simplified Workflow

2D drawing is important to manufacturing and inspection. With ZW3D, FEC engineers can create professional 2D drawings automatically and add detailed dimensions, tolerances, annotations, etc., to meet the production requirements. Besides, the drawings can be updated automatically with the changes of models or assemblies. As a result, the workflow becomes more simplified.

Professional Mold Design for Increased Efficiency

After product design, the FEC team design molds in the same CAD environment in ZW3D. Packed with a range of professional tools for product verification, healing, parting design, etc., the ZW3D Mold module enables the team to finish mold design efficiently. For example, they can split molds flexibly based on parting lines or face region definition. In the past, FEC outsourced mold design which took around a week. But now, with ZW3D, only 1 to 2 days are needed.

Figure 2. Design the mold part in ZW3D

It’s encouraging that FEC speeds up product development and offers more high-quality small appliances to customers around the world with ZW3D. As Atikom said, “ZW3D systematically helps the tasks in 3D modeling, 2D drawing and mold design. Our efficiency is greatly improved.”