Caged Ltd. is using SolidWorks 3D CAD and COSMOSWorks design analysis software to transform a decades-old hand-crafted automobile chassis manufacturing process into one that is faster, more efficient, and more accurate. The company has cut weeks out of development and made the chassis lighter and straighter for Caterham cars when the car maker decided to reconfigure its Caterham 7 chassis and the labour-intensive manufacturing process. Caged used SolidWorks to streamline the chassis design and COSMOSWorks to test load strength and other tolerances. Both SolidWorks and COSMOSWorks are the starting point for an automated design-to-manufacture process that has cut months out of chassis development. This new process lets engineers design and build a universal chassis, capable of supporting four different engines, in just ten days.
Building a car that weighs less than 1,000 pounds and is capable of going 0-60 mph in 3.1 seconds requires that the chassis be strong and light. Caterham engineers, who had never used CAD software, were initially sceptical that any chassis designed on the computer could deliver the performance demanded by discriminating drivers. The Caged design team moved a couple of the tubes in the chassis to improve its stiffness and alignment, and then used COSMOSWorks to arithmetically prove to Caterham engineers that the newly designed chassis was stronger.
To streamline design-to-manufacture, Caged engineers simply import SolidWorks models directly into the software that runs the company’s laser machine that cuts the tubes for the chassis. This computer numerical control (CNC) process lets Caged quickly and accurately produce chassis tube frames that meet exact engineering specifications. Each frame is sturdy and perfectly straight.