Case Study: R.W. Fernstrum & Company achieves flexible, innovative marine cooling system design with SolidWorks

Supporting flexibility in marine cooling system design with SolidWorks software

R.W. Fernstrum & Company, a manufacturer of marine cooling systems and custom heat exchangers, faced limitations from its traditional 2D design workflow and needed better 3D visualization, sheet‑metal capabilities, and a more efficient way to manage many custom configuration variables. After trialing several packages, the company selected SolidWorks 3D CAD software (including eDrawings and SimulationXpress) to address those challenges.

Using SolidWorks, Fernstrum deployed three seats to replace its prior 3D system and implemented sheet‑metal modeling, design tables for configurable variants, eDrawings for communication, and SimulationXpress for basic validation. SolidWorks enabled more innovative, complex sheet‑metal parts (laid flat and folded virtually), streamlined management of thousands of configuration combinations from a single base design, improved visualization and shop/customer communication, and accelerated production of technical documentation—delivering measurable gains in design flexibility, accuracy, and time-to-market.

R.W. Fernstrum & Company

Todd Fernstrum

Vice President of Manufacturing