With a record 350+ entries, choosing this year’s best Pro/ENGINEER design was no easy task. But in the end, it was the outstanding engineering team from John Deere that captured Best Overall Design in the 12th annual PTC Awards contest. The contest honors the world’s top product design teams and student groups in seven categories, from heavy equipment to high technology.
Each year, the PTC Awards offers an opportunity for CAD engineers to showcase their unique and groundbreaking designs created with Pro/ENGINEER. This year’s winners include an ultra quiet outboard engine, a blistering fast in-line roller skate, a portable lancer for taking pain-free blood samples, and a model of the legendary battleship Bismarck.
So check out this year’s award-winning designs, and remember that it’s not too early to think about entering your best work for next year’s contest. For now, our congratulations to the following winners for a job well done!
Heavy Equipment. John Deere (Illinois, USA) took home Best Overall Design for its lightweight 3235C Reel Mower that crops golf course fairways as close as 5/8 inch. Able to cut a swath nearly nine feet wide, the 3235C features a number of innovations, including a unique operator station for maximum comfort and control. Using Pro/ENGINEER, the design team built six different machines using the same basic foundation components, with 90% part reuse from another product platform. Using Pro/ENGINEER solid modeling tools, the project took less than 1/2 the usual number of engineers and was delivered in 1/3 less time.
High-Tech Electronics. Daktronics (South Dakota, USA) used Pro/ENGINEER to create the world’s largest, multi-sided electronic display unit, now suspended at center court in the Toyota Center in Houston, TX, USA. It provides sports fans with a central location for instant replays, advertising, and special effects that no other display delivers. Through data re-use, parametric design, and other tools, Daktronics reduced the amount of project engineering input by 41%. And with Pro/CABLING and Routed Systems, Daktronics reduced cable manufacturing and harness installation by nearly 50%.
High-Tech Electronics. Plug Power (New York, USA) won for its GenCore 5T, a fuel cell system based on the proton exchange membrane fuel cell. Unlike traditional technologies that are maintenance-dependent and unpredictable, the ultra-quiet GenCore® provides reliable backup power with zero emissions. Designing in Pro/ENGINEER while also using its data sharing capabilities, the GenCore 5T was designed in 80% of the time of previous generation products, though it contains almost 100% new design content.
Life Sciences. Product Development Technologies Co. (Illinois, USA) applied a variety of Pro/ENGINEER simulation tools to create a portable lancing device that greatly reduces the pain diabetics endure when testing their blood. This new model is unique because the design incorporates a magnet instead of a spring mechanism, which gently propels the lancing device into the skin. While current lancing devices are intimidating, non-child friendly, painful, and cumbersome, this new design is ergonomic, child friendly, and easy for the elderly to use.
Consumer Products. Square 1 Product Development (Illinois, USA) won for its Sprung ''Hat-Trick'' In-line Skate, a revolutionary design where each wheel has fully independent suspension, delivering faster, steadier performance especially around sharp corners. The Square 1 team boasted that, because of Pro/ENGINEER, the entire development and production process went smoothly and efficiently, from design to manufacturing. Tooled parts fit and performed perfectly with no major design or tooling changes needed.
Transportation. Bombardier Recreational Products (Montreal, Canada) used Pro/ENGINEER to design the Evinrude E-TEC, a multi-award winning outboard engine that is cleaner, quieter, lighter, and more powerful than any other motor in its class. By building virtual prototypes in Pro/ENGINEER, the team shortened product design time and reduced physical prototype, build, and test cycles by 50%, saving over $600,000 USD. The combination of Pro/ENGINEER, Pro/MECHANICA, Pro/NC, and Pro/INTRALINK cut time-to-market nearly in half, from 36 months to 18 months.
Education, College and University. Kudos to the University of Limerick (Ireland) for its 3D model of the Bismarck, the legendary German battleship that was the scourge of the North Atlantic during World War II. The modeling capabilities in Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire enabled Limerick students to design the battleship model much faster compared to other CAD packages. They quickly adopted Pro/ENGINEER, and were able to create an impressive model representation that included animation and rendered views, as well as complex designs with advanced detailing.
Education, K-12. Our hats are off to Vladimir Petkovic, a budding CAD designer and high school student at the Mechanical Engineering School in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia. Vladimir used Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire to design a replica of a powerful diesel-electric locomotive that produces upwards of 4400 bhp and travels at a speed of 74 mph. According to Vladimir, the simple user interface in Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire enabled him to design this quite complicated model very quickly. Vladimir’s impressive model earned his school a prestigious national design modeling award, and a great deal of respect across Yugoslavia. Most likely, we’ll be seeing more work from this young designer next year!
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