Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Design Manuals and Software

We here in the Product Application Department (the Marketing Department as well - share the love) are finishing up a major revision of a product drive design manual that should hopefully be released shortly.  Going through revisions of a print catalog prompted the thought - "Do users of this catalog know they can download software to do these calculations instead of doing them manually?". 

Gates has 2 main industrial drive design software packages - Design Flex Pro and Design IQ.  

Design Flex Pro is intended for users to design simple 2 shaft drives, and automate the process that is contained in the drive design manuals.  Instead of taking an hour or more to design a single drive out of a drive design manual, a user can design literally dozens of drives in less than a minute.   Design Flex Pro also allows users to optimize their selection based on specific application needs (center distance, driveN RPM, belt pull, etc.). 

Design IQ is intended for users to design more complex multiple shaft drives.  Users will most likely need to be a bit more experienced in belt drive design to initially use Design IQ, but the program is not difficult to use.  In comparing the two software tools, Design FlexPro is a hammer, and Design IQ is a scalpel.  

You don't build a house with a scalpel, and you don't want your surgeon using a 20 ounce framing hammer when he's performing a quadruple bypass.   Pick the right tool for the right job.  

Both software programs are available for download at:

http://www.gates.com/designflex/index.cfm?location_id=809

http://www.gates.com/designiq/index.cfm?location_id=11292

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