Autodesk, the design tools company, has announced that Corning, the multibillion dollar manufacturer of optical fibre, cable, hardware, and photonic products, has purchased more than 100 copies of Autodesk's newest design application, Autodesk Inventor software. The software is currently being installed in the company's Wilmington, North Carolina-based plant, the largest fibre-producing plant in the world.

"Worldwide demand for Corning's optical fibre is growing significantly," said Thomas E. Nettleman, Manufacturing Manager of Corning's Telecommunications Products Division. "So much so, that the company will soon increase its optical fibre-making capacity in North Carolina by 50%."

"Autodesk Inventor will be used to build new equipment for the manufacture of optical fibre that is cabled. Inventor's simplified user interface and intuitive 3D techniques will enable our designers to come up to speed quickly and spend their time designing equipment rather than managing a software program," said Amy Porter, CADD Supervisor at Corning's Wilmington plant. "The designs we create contain very large assemblies, and Autodesk Inventor has been proven to be able to handle them."

"We are very proud to have Corning as an early adopter of Autodesk Inventor, our new 3D, feature-based, solid-modelling and drawing-production system. They are a typical example of the large manufacturers who are seeing the value of this software early on," said Robert Kross, Vice President of Autodesk's Mechanical Market Group.

"Corning's North Carolina-based plant will realise significant productivity improvements with their large-assembly designs that characterise their manufacturing equipment. In addition, as they step up production, Inventor will make it easy for them to bring aboard designers who can become productive on the software in a single day, something they are currently unable to achieve with other 3D CAD systems."

Autodesk Inventor is soon to be released in South Africa.

Autodesk

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