Fabco-Air boosts sales, Web site traffic with interactive online storefront powered by 3D PartStream.NET
Pneumatic product manufacturer sees more than 80 percent increase in 3D model downloads in first two months
CONCORD, Mass., July 13, 2005 ? Fabco-Air is increasing sales of its pneumatic products around the world and simplifying customer purchasing decisions with its new interactive online storefront powered by the 3D PartStream.NET® service from SolidWorks Corporation.3D PartStream.NET lets customers quickly find the right pneumatic component from among thousands of available configurations, view it, and download the 3D CAD model into their product designs to ensure proper fit and performance.
Gainesville, Fla.-based Fabco-Air makes cylinders, directional control valves, air presses, linear slides, grippers, boosters, flow controls, fittings, and other products used in a wide range of applications, including semiconductor manufacturing and industrial automation. The company switched from PartSpec® to the 3D PartStream.NET service to create an affordable interactive catalog that gives customers the option to download CAD models in a wide range of 3D and 2D formats. The new 3D catalog succeeded in boosting drawing downloads for the company's F Series cylinder product line by 82 percent in the first two months after the site went live. Fabco-Air expects that momentum to continue as it adds additional product lines to the catalog.
?Unlike our previous solution, 3D PartStream.NET gives us complete control over our catalog,? said Fabco-Air Information Systems Manager Mike Weimar. ?The intuitive interface lets us update the catalog on the fly and quickly launch new product lines without paying a third party to do so. The benefit to Fabco-Air customers is immediate. They no longer have to navigate through a complicated menu only to download a 2D drawing that may not give them the information they need.?
Making it easy for buyers to customize pneumatic components based on their specific needs is one of 3D PartStream.NET's most significant advantages for both Fabco-Air and its customers, according to Weimar . This simplicity has significantly reduced the engineering support costs of walking customers through product configuration. Now Fabco-Air's engineers can focus more on new product design, and not on constantly configuring parts for customers.
?Because of our success with 3D PartStream.NET, and growing customer demand for the industry's top 3D mechanical design software, we switched from 2D AutoCAD® to 3D SolidWorks® software,? Weimar said. By standardizing on SolidWorks, Fabco-Air has cut weeks out of new product design. And it can easily upload new product lines into its online catalog because SolidWorks' integrated design table lets engineers simply plug in different feature specifications for a given product family to build out countless configurations.
Fabco-Air components are available to CAD users around the world on SolidWorks' 3D ContentCentral SM (www.3dcontentcentral.com) Web site, an online directory of downloadable 3D CAD models. 3D ContentCentral is embedded within the SolidWorks design software, making it instantly available to more than 400,000 SolidWorks users worldwide. Weimar expects the new 3D content and the increased visibility on 3D ContentCentral to greatly increase the company's sales leads per month, while lowering cost per sales lead and increasing revenue.
?The Internet is a great forum for marketing your products and increasing sales,? said Bob Noftle, general manager of 3D content solutions at SolidWorks Corporation. ?But it can't help if the interface for loading part designs is slow, and difficult for customers to use. SolidWorks and 3D PartStream.NET give Fabco-Air the design speed to bring products to market quickly and the opportunity to exploit all of the Internet's interactive, real-time marketing potential.?
Fabco-Air relies on ModernTech Mechanical, Inc. for ongoing SolidWorks software training, implementation, and support.
About Fabco-Air
Since 1958, Fabco-Air has delivered the high-performance pneumatic products customers in most any industry demand. Beginning with the first Pancake® cylinder, the company's product line has expanded to include a wide range of industrial cylinders, automation components, and flow controls used to make manufacturing and industrial automation processes more efficient and productive. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.fabco-air.com.
About ModernTech Mechanical
A subsidiary of Modern Technology Corporation, ModernTech Mechanical is headquartered in Knoxville , Tenn. , with offices in Nashville , Tenn. ; Birmingham , Ala. ; Atlanta , Ga. ; Raleigh and Charlotte , N.C. ; Orlando and Tampa , Fla. ; and Greenville , S.C. Representing SolidWorks since 1996, ModernTech Mechanical is a value-added reseller representing leading design technology providers such as SolidWorks, Z Corporation, CADpo and others. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.moderntechmech.com.
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