Ski Manufacturer - Kneissl Tirol Reduces Development Time by 50 percent with SolidWorks CAD and Simulation Software

Haar near Munich - Racers in the new Olympic sport of ski cross need fast, maneuverable, and robust skis to navigate the waves, curves, and jumps on the course. With a customized race ski from Kneissl Tirol, Australian Sarah Sauvey will start for the British ski cross team at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. Kneissl designs its skis with SolidWorks® CAD software. Since switching to SolidWorks software, the company reduced the development time of its skis by nearly 50 percent.

The development and building of skis have a long tradition at Kneissl. In 1919, Franz Kneissl, the founder of the company, produced the first ski in the series. Today, the company provides skis that combine man, nature, and high quality standards regarding technology and product performance.

Kneissl has been one of Sauvey’s official sponsors since 2008. Sauvey’s race ski has been developed specifically for her. Unlike other manufacturers, Kneissl offers this customization, which may consist of up to 20 components and do not go into series production.

"Our 2D software was no longer sufficient, especially for the data transfer to the external service providers we employ for the five-axis machining. That became more and more critical," said Max Eppensteiner, product development at Kneissl Tirol. “SolidWorks helps us communicate with our suppliers and customers.”

Since their deployment of 3D, Kneissl benefits from a shorter development time, which leads to more creativity and better quality designs. “SolidWorks provides a complete set of tools that we need for our daily work,” said Eppensteiner. “We’re now using SolidWorks Simulation, which helped us improve the quality of our products even more efficiently.” Use of SolidWorks also contributed to a reduction of prototyping and development of more innovative products. Kneissl has begun to use SolidWorks for other design projects, such as small machines and devices.

“Kneissl is an excellent example of business success through excellent design,” said Uwe Burk, country manager central Europe at Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp. “We are proud that SolidWorks products were able to help in that effort and look forward to watching Sarah Sauvey also pursue success in the Olympics!”

Kneissl relies on SolidWorks reseller planetsoftware for implementation, training and maintenance.