Ammunition manufacturer saves time with easy to use analysis

The Challenge
MECAR (MECanique and ARmement) [Engineering and Armaments] is one of the leading ammunition manufacturers/exporters in Belgium. Founded in 1938, the company is today part of the American group ARC (Allied Research Corp.), producing an extensive product line of defense ammunition, from aircraft gun cartridges to tank shells. Although production in the ammunition industry worldwide has dropped more than 60% since 1987, with the decline even more pronounced after the fall of the Berlin Wall, MECAR did not participate in it; MECAR held steady without undue difficulty, thanks to the development of often innovative expertise in specialty products. Its strength also lies in its ability to produce smaller quantities at a competitive price. The use of CAD/CAM tools is, of course, directly related to this.

The Solution
After analyzing the market, MECAR chose SolidWorks for its performance and ease of use. They also purchased two COSMOSWorks licenses for finite element analysis.

"It's the ideal complement to SolidWorks for very specialized calculations on finite elements. It allows us to optimize our products that are subject to rather special constraints," says Dabe.

Using COSMOSWorks, MECAR was able to perform stress simulations, which allowed them to easily visualize how their various parts interact. The ability to perform their results analysis directly within the SolidWorks interface also facilitated their ease of use and saved them a considerable amount of time.