Case Study: Wabtec Passenger Transit achieves faster brake and coupler development and improved product quality with SolidWorks

Speeding passenger train brake and coupler design with SolidWorks software

Wabtec Passenger Transit, a Wabtec company that designs and manufactures pneumatic, electronic, and mechanical systems for light-rail transit, faced rising time and cost pressures to streamline development of couplers and braking systems while improving quality. To replace a difficult-to-use 3D CAD solution, Wabtec Passenger Transit adopted SolidWorks 3D software (initially nine seats) to give engineers an intuitive tool they could use with minimal retraining for large-assembly design work.

SolidWorks delivered a unified 3D development platform—combining SolidWorks CAD with SolidWorks Simulation Premium, SolidWorks Composer, and Workgroup PDM—that improved large-assembly performance, enabled interference detection and design configurations, and expanded access to stress and dynamics analysis. Wabtec standardized on SolidWorks (growing to 27 seats) and achieved compressed design cycles, fewer production issues, improved product quality through more simulation-driven designs, streamlined documentation creation, and accelerated assembly operations via better data management and revision control.

Wabtec Passenger Transit

Gregory V. Scott

Manager