Located 56 miles east of Munich, near the Austrian border, the town of Eggstätt, Germany, is known for its beautiful lakes and forested hills.

It’s also home to Knott GmbH, a manufacturer of braking systems, axle assemblies, chassis, drawbars, tow hitches and other components. The company specializes in components for trailers, agricultural and construction equipment, military vehicles, airport vehicles and other specialty equipment. The company produces more than 2,000 models of brakes, including band, drum, disc and multi-disc systems, each of which is adapted to a customer’s specific requirements.

Founded in 1937, the company now employs 500 people in Germany and 2,050 people worldwide. Last year, the company tallied sales of more than 150 million euros.

Since the 1990s, the design department at Knott has recognized the advantages of 3D CAD software for designing brakes and trailer components. In 1998, research led the company to PBU CAD-Systeme GmbH, a newly established reseller of Siemens Digital Industries Software. PBU helped Knott implement Siemens’ Solid Edge software.

Engineers at Knott use Solid Edge CAD software to design components for trailers, such as this breakaway prevention system. Photo courtesy Siemens Digital Industries Software

Solid Edge is a 3D CAD, parametric feature and synchronous technology solid modeling software. It runs on Microsoft Windows and provides solid modeling, assembly modeling and 2D orthographic view functionality for mechanical engineers. Through third-party applications, it has links to many other product lifecycle management (PLM) technologies.

“The PBU team, led by Bernd Krucker, made a very professional impression with their consulting and support,” recalls Josef Strasser, a long-time development engineer at Knott.

“Solid Edge is user-friendly and affordable, and it has all the functions we need, without burdening us with superficial features.”

Today, approximately 100 employees from all of Knott’s divisions use Solid Edge. PBU continues to provide the company with consulting, training and support services.

A Worthwhile Investment

At first, the switch to 3D technology required some extra consideration, because the components had to be modeled as complete 3D objects before they could be output to drawings. However, that initial effort is now paying off significantly. For example, according to Strasser, one advantage of Solid Edge is that designers can create technical documentation and instructions quickly. The visualization options prove to be useful for customer-specific development of components and modules. Knott uses the 3D design models to make convincing presentations of proposed solutions.

This model of an axle assembly with brakes was done in Solid Edge. Photo courtesy Siemens Digital Industries Software

Strasser praises the different data export options of Solid Edge. Publication of 2D drawings as PDF files or 3D models in STEP format is quick and easy. This lets the design team transmit complete 3D data of entire modules, such as an axle chassis, that customers can use for further design. If they don’t want to provide all the details of the 3D data, Solid Edge accommodates with user-friendly functions. In a short period of time, designers can reduce CAD models to their lightweight geometry, so that the recipient of the data can only see the visible parts of a module.

The automotive industry is among the most demanding and poses numerous challenges for Knott. For example, the sector for braking systems and trailer parts is price-sensitive. Manufacturers are under intense pressure to innovate. Moreover, due to European Union regulations, the safety-relevant parts of braking and trailer systems are subject to numerous approval procedures.

Knott addresses these challenges in the design division with the modular organization of components. Designers are endeavoring to reuse components and to use identical parts. However, there is still no software program being used for component classification.

“We’re still very old fashioned in this regard,” Strasser admits.

For products containing as many as 1,000 individual parts, large assembly tools within Solid Edge are proving to be especially helpful.

Knott manufactures a variety of products for trailers, including drawbars, tow hitches and breakaway prevention systems. Photo courtesy Knott GmbH

Help With Harness Design

Strasser is enthusiastic about the tools in Solid Edge for wire harness design. These tools were designed for the efficient laying of cables and cable harnesses, and save engineers a great deal of work with their functions for the automatic creation of cable harnesses. At Knott, engineers use the wire harness functionality for the installation of Bowden cable assemblies in trailer systems.

“The wire harness functions facilitate this process tremendously,” notes Strasser. 

A Bowden cable is a flexible cable used to transmit mechanical force by the movement of an inner cable relative to a hollow outer cable housing. The housing is generally of composite construction, consisting of an inner lining, a longitudinally incompressible layer, such as a helical winding or a sheath of steel wire, and a protective outer covering. The linear movement of the inner cable may be used to transmit pull force, or both push and pull forces. A common application for Bowden cables is for activating the shifters and brakes on bicycles.

The sheet metal processing capabilities of Solid Edge enable engineers to handle many work processes automatically, which were done manually before. “The automatic sheet metal unfolding functionality of Solid Edge works smoothly and reliably from start to production,” Strasser says.

Another advantage of Solid Edge is the software’s ease of use. At Knott, as a rule, interns spend two days taking the tutorial integrated into the software. After that, they are already able to complete simple design tasks on their own.

For Strasser, one of the most important features of the CAD system is its reliability and stability, in spite of numerous users and large design files.

“I’m excited about the user-friendliness and reliability of Solid Edge. When I come to the office on Monday morning, I can be absolutely certain that everything is running smoothly,” he says.

Knott’s future plans include the integration of Solid Edge with new product data management software and the company’s existing enterprise resource planning system. Based on prior experience with PBU, Strasser says, “I am certain that we will implement the best solution together.”