The ability to quickly explore a range of design ideas supportscontinuing innovationNX enables a UK shower manufacturer to retain and grow its technological lead

www.siemens.com/plm

Consumer products

AQUAL I S A

Siemens PLM Software

Business initiatives

New product development

Business challenges

Reduce time to market

Continually develop newshower concepts

Increase sales of digitalshowers and boost share ofUK domestic shower market

Keys to success

Easy-to-learn and use designsoftware

Ability to work with legacydata and geometry created byoutside designers

Rendering, FEA and surfacingcapabilities included in CADsystem

Results

New products brought tomarket 25 percent faster

One of the first NX-designedproducts won CORGI Productof theYear

50 percent reduction in timeto produce drawings

50 percent less time spentcreating assemblies

Shower power andperformanceWith a turnover of more than£40 million and 300 employees,Aqualisa has come a long waysince 1977 when it was foundedto develop the bi-metallicthermostatic shower valve. In May2001, Aqualisa was the first UKcompany to launch a digitalshower (Quartz Digital) with easeof installation, one-touch controlsand consistent temperatures. Itproduced a second award-winningdigital product line (Axis Digital)featuring dual switches in 2004and followed up in 2006 with aline of wireless and battery-lessremotes that can be positionedoutside the bathroom.

Aqualisa specializes in domesticshowers. As part of its long-termstrategy Aqualisa is constantly developing new concepts to suit different sectors of the market,from the workaday installer to the boutique style developer. Aqualisa was, for example, the firstcompany to provide an easy-to-install exposed digital shower in which water flows inside theriser rail.

“In the world of showers we’re quite cutting edge,” says Glenn Porter, engineering projectmanager at Aqualisa. “We are the world’s leading manufacturer of digital showers, and we werethe first shower manufacturer to have a truly digital shower in the market.”

The biggest business challenge for Aqualisa is time to market. “We are always incredibly busyyet we manage to do things that other companies do not,” asserts Porter.

The Visage Digital shower – with concealed control, height adjustable showerhead and a simple on-off button – features an LED that flashes to indicate thewater is still warming up and turns to steady when it has reached the user’spre-selected temperature.

Consumer products

No loss of legacy dataAqualisa has been using 3D CAD since the mid 1990s. By 2004 it was clear that a major upgradewas needed. “We looked into simpler and cheaper packages,” says Tracey Nertney, senior designengineer. “It was important to us that we could bring over legacy data, so our main criteria wascompatibility. The NX™ digital product development solution from Siemens PLM Software gave usthe option of transferring all of our history.”

Aqualisa bought nine seats of NX from the Siemens PLM Software reseller,Team Engineering.The company also purchased 12 seats of Teamcenter® digital lifecycle management software,which it uses to manage product data. “The support we received was excellent,” says Porter.“Having people who know our situation is reassuring,” adds Nertney.

NX has become the software of choice for each new project. By the end of 2007 the lastproduct designed on the old system was complete and Aqualisa was ready to bring over tenyears worth of CAD data from different systems.

A tool that supports creativity“We found that NX was easy to learn and easy to use, which means that we all got up to speedquickly,” says Nertney. “There is often discussion about which system is easier but all of ourusers agree that NX is the best. It is more stable and more intuitive. And the ease of use cutsthe time it takes to design. It is twice as quick to create a drawing, for example, especially withdetailed views. This used to be a two-stage process. Now it is done in one click.”

The design team is finding that assemblies are also quicker and easier to create in NX. “I amworking on a front end at the moment,” comments Porter. “It has taken 30 to 40 hours so far.It would have taken 50 to 60 before.We can quickly explode an assembly to see all parts andautomatically label them for bills of material. It’s so easy; we just press a button to producea balloon.”

The ilux range, which took twoyears to develop, was the first fullline to be produced using NX.According to Porter, it would havetaken four months longer on the oldsystem. “We did not just develop acontroller, we also designed twohandsets and spouts with complexcurves,” he says. The installer-focused Opto Digital line wasproduced in a record-breaking ninemonths – a task that would havetaken a year previously.

“NX’s ease of use cuts thetime it takes to design.”

Tracey NertneySenior Design EngineerAqualisa

The ilux Digital Shower controlfeatures up to four programmablepresets, an optional eco setting and aclever “Pause” button to allow theuser to save water while shaving orshampooing before flow returns to itsoriginal rate and temperature. Thecontrol also has an LED display andwhen in eco mode, flashes green.

The ilux Digital Bath – with a concealed, wall-mounted control andheight-adjustable shower head – brings Aqualisa digital technology tobathing. Three programmable pre-sets allow the user to choosetemperature and volume combinations. There is also a child lock,which disables the control and, like other Aqualisa digital showers,features an LED display to indicate water readiness. For longer soaks,the user can select a special feature that trickles hot water into thebath to restore the temperature.

“The increased speed of modeling means we can pursue more ideas inthe same amount of time so we can select from a broader spectrum ofideas,” Porter adds. “Our next product will be better because of theflexibility NX allows, and we hope that the resulting product offering willhelp grow our market share still further.”

The first few products designed in NX have set high standards. Of twocontrollers released in September 2007, one won CORGI Product of theYear. The other is ilux Digital, a top-of-the-line shower and bathcontroller with the highest degree of sophistication yet achieved.

Optimizing existing dataOne benefit for Aqualisa’s designers is that NX allows them to bring dataover from the various packages they were using before. Much of the datais compatible with NX and so can be fully integrated into a new design.Even when data is not fully compatible it can still be read, and with directmodeling extension (DMX) functionality, it can be modified as well.

“DMX allows us to take dumb data and do things like resize holes andmove walls,” Porter explains. “This is especially useful when we want tore-use components or remodel them.” Aqualisa works with externalindustrial designers who focus on the appearance of a product and mayutilize another specialist system. DMX modeling enables Aqualisa’s teamto accept a design with complex surfacing and take the data forward.

Nertney is pleased with the extra capability that the design team finds inNX. “It is really helpful to have the NX strength wizard,” he notes. “Wewould have had to purchase this functionality as an extra within ourprevious system. The NX rendering module is also very useful. NX alsohas an integral surfacing package, which was an add-on with our previoussoftware.We are looking to work quickly and creatively, leading themarket as we go. NX provides just what we need.”

Consumer products

Solutions/Services

NX

Teamcenter

Training

Support

Client’s primary business

Aqualisa designs andmanufactures domestic showers.

www.aqualisa.co.uk

Client location

United Kingdom

“The increased speed ofmodeling means we canpursue more ideas in the sameamount of time so we canselect from a broaderspectrum of ideas.”

Glenn PorterEngineering Project ManagerAqualisa

ContactSiemens PLM SoftwareAmericas 800 498 5351Europe 44 (0) 1276 702000Asia-Pacific 852 2230 3333www.siemens.com/plm

© 2008 Siemens Product Lifecycle Management Software Inc. All rights reserved. Siemens and the Siemens logo are registered trademarks of Siemens AG.Teamcenter, NX, Solid Edge,Tecnomatix, Parasolid, Femap, I-deas, Velocity Series and Geolus are trademarks or registered trademarks of Siemens ProductLifecycle Management Software Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and in other countries. All other logos, trademarks, registered trademarks orservice marks used herein are the property of their respective holders. 9/08

Both ilux Digital Shower and iluxDigital Bath are available withwireless remote controls, which canbe used up to 10 meters away.

Aqualisa’s Opto Digital shower,especially developed for installersand plumbers, was awardedCORGI’s prestigious “Product oftheYear” award. Like all ofAqualisa’s showers, it features anincredibly easy installation and canbe fitted in as little as two hours.The shower’s processor works withthe plumbing system to optimizeshowering performance. Anoptional eco setting (selectedduring installation), reduces waterflow to save water.