Sigmetrix: Global Experts in GD&T and Mechanical Variation

An efficient IT is the pathway to achieve operational benefits for companies in a budget-constraint sector like Defense. “There is not a lot of time to build prototypes, test them on the field, find out what’s wrong, rebuild the prototypes, and test them again,” notes Chris Wilkes, President and CEO of Sigmetrix. “A lot of defense contractors build components for final products that are assembled with other components at remote locations or even sometimes in the field. The objective is to have multi-vendor solutions assemble the first time,” adds Dr. Andreas Vlahinos, Principal at Advanced Engineering Solutions. Based in McKinney, Texas, Sigmetrix prides itself to be the only tolerance analysis company that began inside a defense contractor. “We originated from Texas Instruments Defense Systems Electronics Group,” remarks Wilkes. “25 years later customers are using Sigmetrix technologies in various industries ranging from giant windmills, to high performance watches, or submarines.”

“The Sigmetrix tools — CETOL 6 Sigma tolerance analysis, Tolerance Analysis Extension (TAE), GD&T Advisor — are perfectly apt at the development stage,” adds Wilkes. CETOL 6 Sigma tolerance analysis software provides product development teams with the insight required to confidently release designs to manufacturing. Utilizing advanced mathematical solutions, this tolerance analysis solution accelerates optimization to achieve robust designs ready for manufacturing. GD&T Advisor intelligently guides the user through the definition of accurate and complete geometric tolerances, thus empowering designers to communicate permissible levels of imperfection in real-world manufactured parts, all from within the CAD environment. TAE makes it simple for design engineers to perform 1D tolerance analysis without leaving their Creo Elements/Pro applications. Any change in the model is automatically reflected in the analysis parameters and the software automatically validates dimensions and dimension loops. It uses easily understandable graphs to help design engineers compare design variations, and supports Six Sigma design methodologies, so design engineers can build models optimized for manufacturing.