Röchling Automotive & Tech Soft 3D

As a manufacturer of customized products made of high-performance plastics for the automotive industry, Röchling Automotive attaches particular importance to low weight and flexible processing options. The automotive supplier realizes the vision "We Drive Sustainable Mobility" through the use of sustainable bioplastics, recyclates and battery solutions.

Röchling Automotive is represented worldwide in the areas of Aerodynamics, Propulsion, Structural Lightweight, Battery Solutions, and Precision Components - with around 6,000 employees at 35 locations in 17 countries in Europe, Asia, and North and South America. The ideas for the products are developed at four development centers in Laives (Italy), Worms (Germany), Troy (USA), and Kunshan (China).

Through joint research projects with customers, the company deepens its understanding of requirements, feasibility, and progress and thus makes its contribution to sustainable mobility.

Tech Soft 3D worked closely with the automotive division, which improves mobility with product solutions made of Röchling’s material: plastic. To this end, they use their expertise in the areas of Battery Solutions, Structural Lightweight, Aerodynamics, and Propulsion. This makes driving lighter, safer, and more climate-friendly.

The Challenge

Working with many suppliers means that Röchling inevitably also works with many types of CAD formats, and they need to be able to open whatever file they’ve been sent. They also recognized that there are many departments, such as purchasing and tooling, who don’t work with CAD software directly but can still benefit from accessing the data. These departments don’t just need to be able to view the data, they have to be able to analyze it as well.

For most organizations, licensing enough copies of their CAD software for everyone who needs to interact with 3D data is unrealistic and a huge drain on resources. As Wolfgang Schmiega, told us, “We all know CAD native license are very expensive, so they're usually only used in the development area, and when we need to roll out all the CAD license to other departments it's a nightmare.”

Röchling’s global team needed a solution to access and interact with a wide range of 3D formats across different departments, without breaking the bank through hundreds of CAD licenses. The company leverages SpinFire Insights Enterprise through Tech Soft’s Site access licensing, domain-based access, and so was able to provide everyone around the world with the features they need, all under a single bill, at a fraction of the cost.

Flexible Access to CAD Data Throughout the Enterprise

With SpinFire Insight, data from all the major CAD formats can be viewed and analyzed, and the enterprise solution gives this access to people throughout the entire business without needing to purchase a huge number of licenses. This simple licensing structure was one thing that drew Röchling to SpinFire Insight, Wolfgang Schmiega explains, “It is easier to have [SpinFire] with one license package than four licenses or more license packages like we had it in the past.”

Another major factor that Röchling had to consider when choosing a solution was whether it would allow their non-CAD users to access and analyze data in STEP files.

While Röchling was looking for access to data from many CAD formats, they very frequently work with STEP files, and other solutions weren’t up to this particular challenge in the way they needed. A key strength of SpinFire Insight is its flexibility; it can be used by a wide range of people to do many different tasks while supporting a large variety of formats.

“SpinFire is a very good, smart solution regarding STEP.  A lot of other viewers are not very good at that.”

– Wolfgang Schmiega, Team Leader SAP Business Application PLM/PDM Global, Röchling

Röchling took full advantage of this flexibility when they started working with new EV companies in the automotive space, as some of them were using CAD systems Röchling hadn’t worked with previously. By using SpinFire Insight, they ensured that they could still view the data sent in these new formats, allowing them to take these new opportunities as they came.

“When we have issues or questions, we can give them [Tech Soft 3D] a short call or a short meeting, and we have a good solution.”

 - Steffen Hantsch, Senior Specialist Business Application CAD Global, Röchling

Tech Soft 3D is proud to be able to support companies like Röchling with our products. Through close collaboration with our customers, we are committed to constantly providing a better final product and continuing to improve the buying experience. We’re excited to continue working with Röchling and other innovative organizations for many more years.