Mechanical design is at the core of Ahaus’s identity. We take great pride and satisfaction in marrying insightful, foresighted designs with practical application know-how to create exceptional manufacturing solutions.

Ahaus customers have at their disposal a team of eight mechanical design engineers with an aggregate of more than 120 years experience and hundreds of projects in the successful design of machines, tools and fixtures. For a primary design tool, our engineers employ the latest edition of SolidWorks, a 3D parametric modeling/design software package. Supplementing this is AutoCAD, ProE and UniGraphics programs. Our team also uses powerful finite element analysis (FEA) as a design tool for deflection and stress analyses to ensure proper structure. Further our design engineers utilize a failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) process during the design phase to identify and resolve potential failure causes during manufacturing.

Designers often start a project from a blank piece of paper. At Ahaus, we develop a concept for customer approval, complete the design with all detail drawings and compile the bill of materials before release to manufacturing. Our design engineers' work is routinely reviewed by cross-functional teams to develop the best possible design and to avoid potential problems or failure modes. It is not uncommon for several of these internal design reviews to occur on each project.

Design review and approval meetings are held with the customer throughout the design phase. These meetings are often face-to-face, but Web-based meetings are increasingly being scheduled to reduce time and travel costs and to minimize project delays. A complete set of final designs and detail drawings is provided to the customer in the requested format. This will include bills of materials and assembly drawings, identifying all manufactured and purchased components. While we will utilize customer-specified brands/models of components, we will offer Ahaus standard components to reduce total cost of ownership and to ensure proven solutions based upon previous projects.