Posted By: John Chilson

Recently, PTC visited one of our customers in South Africa to find out more about how companies use the CAD software and to hear more about their hopes for 2018. Listen to what the team at Metal Formers told us (plus get a look around the shop floor) in this video:

Making the most of sheet metal

Metal Formers, a family-owned business, specializes in sheet metal manufacturing and prides itself on offering unique and cost-effective solutions that help bring products to market, no matter how complex.

Of course, that’s a sweeping statement. Customers and projects come in many different sizes with many unique needs and challenges. Smart companies need to design solutions that not only meet customer’s product needs, but also minimize manufacturing costs.

Needless to say, the company does a lot of prototyping, often for short product runs. The challenge with this is that “you waste a lot of time and a lot of material,” says Co-owner and Designer Derrick van Niekerk. “We were looking for a solution to try and move away from physically trying to know what we’re going to make.”

via GIPHY

The results?

With Creo, Metal Formers says that they cut design time by 66 percent, improved design quality, brought down the cost of the product, and identified and fixed potential design problems before they ever reached the factory.

The future

Metal Formers has mastered developing products quickly and efficiently with Creo. What’s next? Van Niekerk says the team hopes grow its business by introducing its own products designed and developed in-house.

Could Creo help your business cut design time, improve innovation, and uncover new profitable business ideas like Metal Formers? Find out. Download our free eBook, Reasons to Design with Creo to see more about what’s possible with PTC’s flagship CAD design software.