Mentor Graphics announced that PKC Eesti AS, an Estonian supplier of electrical wiring harnesses to European truck makers and a subsidiary of PKC Group Oyj, a Finnish publicly listed company, has deployed the latest technology from the Mentor Graphics' Capital suite of tools at its factory in Estonia. This technology includes Mentor's Capital HarnessXC product which the company says enables harness engineers to create fully detailed, validated and manufacturing-ready harness designs rapidly and easily.
Related News: PKC picks up heavy truck wiring harness supplier AEES
According to Mentor, whether used as a stand-alone harness design and engineering tool or within an integrated flow, the Capital HarnessXC product is highly configurable so that companies such as PKC can tailor the tool to meet their precise needs, both in terms of graphical outputs and the way designs are created and validated. In addition, rules-based collaborative design merge functions provide automated integration of multi-source design inputs at a detailed level, simplifying the task, and raising the efficiency of collaborative design.
Jani Kiljala, PKC Eesti AS' General Manager, said, "The latest technology can be an important differentiator in this very competitive business. PKC will benefit from several Capital HarnessXC advanced capabilities that directly contribute to improving design quality, reducing design time, and enhancing business flexibility. In addition to class leading integration with common 3D MCAD tools, the ability to render design data in multiple graphical appearances is very powerful in our industry. I am also particularly interested in Capital ModularXC, which clearly delivers a substantial step up in automated production support."
The Capital ModularXC product addresses configuration complexity, notes Mentor. While supporting the traditional composite (superset) paradigm, this tool also supports the alternative modular process where multiple configurations are constructed from harness fragments related to optional features. In addition, the Capital ModularXC product can decompose harness designs into sub-assemblies selected to optimize production efficiency.
"Mentor's Capital toolset now encompasses electrical architecture definition, electrical system and wire harness design, harness manufacturing, and vehicle service and repair," stated Martin O'Brien, general manager of the Mentor Integrated Electrical Systems Division.
Related News: PKC absorbs Segu's European wiring harness operations
The Capital product is billed as a fully integrated application suite for electrical system design, electrical analysis, system integration/wiring design and harness engineering. It has powerful embedded data management capabilities (vehicle configuration management, workflow control, design comparison, etc.). The Capital products are used within the automotive, off-road, military vehicle and aerospace industries worldwide.
O'Brien added, "Capital HarnessXC is one of the core products within this tool suite. PKC is the latest in a long line of harness suppliers to standardize on Capital to optimize their productivity. It's also interesting that PKC Group has recently acquired AEES, itself an existing Capital customer. The Capital suite delivers rich capabilities to support global organizations such as the combined PKC/AEES group."
