"For us, a 3D CAD catalog is a step towards Industry 4.0."
The new Electronic Product Catalog from Pepperl+Fuchs, based on eCATALOGsolutions technology, is online.
Founded in 1945, the company is today a leading manufacturer of industrial sensors based on inductive, capacitive, ultrasonic and optoelectronic principles as well as components and technologies for process automation.
Engineers currently have access to 5800 CAD components from Pepperl+Fuchs at http://pepperl-fuchs.partcommunity.com. This includes 10 configurable encoder families with over 400,000 variants. The company's CAD catalog is currently available in two languages in Pepperl+Fuchs' own corporate design.
Engineers and purchasers also have a wide range of search functions at their disposal: both the 2D sketch search and the GEOsearch geometric similarity search as well as the perfomant full-text search are useful and, above all, fast helpers. In addition, customers can easily obtain further information from Pepperl+Fuchs via the request for quotation and the 3D PDF data sheet.
The initial situation
In the course of digitalization and on the way to Industry 4.0, Pepperl+Fuchs is now making its CAD data available online. The company had special requirements for the electronic product catalog: Firstly, the format diversity of native file formats had to be guaranteed. Many different output formats for print, the Internet, price lists or catalogs should be generated from a single data source. On the other hand, an exact and detailed representation of the CAD models is necessary for customers. It also had to be possible to preview the product and integrate it directly into the respective CAD program. It was also important for Pepperl+Fuchs to be able to offer a central product portal.
Importing existing STEP and BMEcat data into the 3D CAD product catalog
Existing data and models could be imported as STEP and BMEcat data, so that no complex new creation was necessary. Individual product series were recreated using eCATALOGsolutions technology so that they could be configured. The Pepperl+Fuchs products will soon be expanded with 10 encoder families, which will then also be fully modelable and configurable.
Fruitful collaboration beyond the project
The cooperation between Pepperl+Fuchs and CADENAS has been very positive, which is why Markus Bamberg also reported on it in a best practice presentation at this year's Industry Forum in the WWK Arena. He had high praise for the company, as the project management and holistic support contributed to the project being realized according to the specific requirements.
Markus Bamberg explained that CADENAS was chosen because the company stands for development and innovation: "CADENAS is always looking for solutions for its customers. You never have to fear standstill when you work with the software developer from Augsburg. That creates trust!" Above all, Pepperl+Fuchs attaches great importance to customer service and hopes that the digital 3D CAD catalog will expand its reach, generate new leads and enable further technological development - a first step towards Industry 4.0. In addition, the Electronic Product Catalog is to be deeply integrated into the company website.
