Digital Prototyping helps Webb Industries turn the design process into a competitive advantage.

1. Fine tuning excellence.
Digital Prototyping helps Webb Industries turn
the design process into a competitive advantage.
Project Summary
Webb Industries offers a comprehensive product
portfolio of antennas, coaxial cable and connectors,
duplexers and filters, earthing, lightning protection,
and masts and towers. For the last 35 years, it has
established a reputation. as a premier supplier of
ancillary telecommunications equipment for such
customers as Volvo, Caterpillar, and Iridium—
a reputation the company is eager to maintain.
Keeping its competitive edge requires that Webb
Industries delivers high-quality products quickly
and efficiently. The company has built a world-class
research and development facility in Johannesburg,
South Africa, where it creates its own brand of
antennas, and it has surpassed speed and efficiency
goals by adopting Autodesk®
Inventor®
software.
With the Autodesk solution for Digital Prototyping,
it has been able to:
• Reduce product development time by 75 percent
• Check for interferences before molds are
fabricated, cutting waste
• Collaborate effectively with suppliers and
in-house teams
The Challenge
The unique designs of Webb Industries eliminate
the need for multiple antennas and combine many
frequencies and uses—like satellite and GSM (global
system for mobile communications) tracking and
monitoring—into a single antenna for a wide range
of applications including automated railway signaling
systems, weather sensing devices, and emergency
response systems. As these applications require
more capability packed into smaller shapes, Webb
Industries needs to meet precise engineering
specifications in a sharply shorter window with
less waste and fewer physical prototypes.
Webb Industries
Customer Success Story
Autodesk®
Inventor®
With Inventor, we
can model antennas
on a computer and
immediately see if there’s
going to be a clash. This
not only enables us to
make breakthroughs
in telecommunications
technology, but cut our
design and production
time from three months
to three weeks.
— Margherita Perini
Inventor
Webb Industries
The Solution
Inventor software helps Webb Industries produce
advanced 3D digital prototypes that enable the
engineers to bring smaller, high-performance
antennas to the marketplace faster.
According to Margherita Perini, who aptly carries
the job title “Inventor,” the antennas involve a base
plate made from steel and a tough plastic cover
containing the electronics. The engineers provide
her with the design circuitry, antenna specifications,
and cabling, often including parts from outside
suppliers, which are integrated into an automated
bill of materials within Inventor software. She then
uses the software’s plastic flow analysis tools to
optimize designs for molds of the covers, minimizing
the number of mold iterations. “The angles on the
mold must be perfect to avoid scratching when
the plastic is injected,” she says. “Inventor helps us
validate form and fit before anything is built.”
The Result
Using Inventor software resulted in higher-quality
designs and accelerated design cycles. Before
Inventor software, Webb Industries’ engineers
would make multiple physical prototypes, often
taking up to three months and sometimes followed
by more adjustments. “Now we can model antennas
on a computer and immediately see if there’s going
to be a clash,” says Perini. “This enables us to not
only make breakthroughs in telecommunications
technology, but also cut our design and production
time from three months to three weeks.”
For more information on how Autodesk Inventor
takes you beyond 3D to Digital Prototyping, visit
www.autodesk.com/inventor.
Autodesk, Autodesk Inventor, and Inventor are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/
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Image courtesy of Webb Industries