Sony Corporation - Home Network Company - Home Visual Company, one of the world's leading manufacturers of consumer electronics, has selected CATIA Version 5 (V5) solutions from IBM and Dassault Systemes for the design of its popular flat-screen WEGA television monitors.

Utilising all of CATIA's newest capabilities such as modelling, analysis and evaluation using digital mock-up (DMU), Sony engineers, speaking at the European CATIA Forum 2001, said they were able to apply their latest technical advances to the product line more quickly as a result.

SONY Corporation - Home Network Company - Home Visual Company designs and develops colour television sets, projection TV sets, and other related video display products. Sony selected CATIA V5 to design its new WEGA 21" European model. CATIA V5 is used for Sony's design, analysis, DMU, production of rapid prototyping and package design to reduce cycle time and improve quality while reducing production costs.

Sony used CATIA V5 for full modelling, from the power button to the operation panel flap, including draft angles and fillets. In addition, reused parts such as outer shapes of the CRT and base plates were also precisely modelled in order to study and evaluate the interferences or assembly feasibility. The company migrated from a two-dimensional (2D) computer-aided design system to a 3D solution to meet the needs for speeding innovations to market, as product life- cycle becomes compressed by marketplace forces. Using CATIA V5, Sony integrated both engineering and manufacturing processes, adopting a modular design methodology. In addition, the entire design flow was accelerated as concurrent design activities in adjacent departments and even the die mould maker took items off the critical path. For example, SONY was able to reduce package design time by between 50 and 70%.

SONY engineers now plan to exchange the 3D data and information from the design phase between the manufacturing, marketing, and sales divisions in true product lifecycle management fashion.

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