Tuesday May 7, 2019 at 9:26am
Find out how
our customer, who started trading in 2017, has achieved significant growth in
the international marketplace
Barrier Ex manufactures and sells Hazardous Area lighting
and enclosures, glass reinforced polymer (GRP) products, electrical engineering
solutions and commercial and industrial LED lighting products. They supply to
varied clientele in diverse sectors including oil and gas, airports, rail,
waste and water treatment, and distilleries. Some of Barrier-Ex's lighting equipment includes the QUAZR and Equinox Hazardous Area Floodlights.
Part of the Barrier Group of companies and based in Wallsend,
Newcastle Upon Tyne the business is based in the North of England. It was formed in June 2016 and began trading
in February 2017, and since then has expanded from two employees to 20 by May 2019 and expects to exceed it's target of a £5million turnover by 2020.
The company has enjoyed great success since starting three years ago. In 2017 they were featured in the London Stock Exchange publication ‘1000 Companies to Inspire Britain’ and nominated as New Business of the Year at the North Tyneside Business Awards. In 2018 they were nominated in 2 categories at the Made in the North East Awards and won Manufacturer of the Year 2018 at the North Tyneside Business Awards.
The importance of choosing the right software for a quick return on investment
Barrier-Ex hazardous area lighting products stand out from others in the market as their LED array is fully encapsulated. They also have ambitious plans for the future with more products planned across its 4 divisions, with a project release date for a new hazardous area linear fitting currently scheduled for the financial year 2019/2020.
| Choosing the right CAD solution to support their growth plans was a pivotal decision for Barrier-Ex, ‘We do a lot of bespoke non repeat designs and used to suffer many delays when trying to send quotes and designs to customers for approval. The engineering time we used to spend with other software packages was holding us back’ – says Tony Oram, Technical Director at Barrier-Ex. Jason Hamilton, Lead Electrical Design Engineer at Barrier-Ex, continues: ‘‘SOLIDWORKS helps us to model new designs quickly and gives the customer a comprehensive view of what the finished product will look like prior to manufacture. It enables us to give our clients a rapid response and really helps us with facilitating design change requests with a minimum of fuss. This means we can provide a better quality and a more depictive product approval process to ensure clients get exactly what they require in a detailed and professional format. When combined with SOLIDWORKS Electrical, the outcome for our clients is that we can offer a complete product overview showcasing all aspects in as much detail they need.’’ | |  |
In Barrier-Ex’s own words, adopting SOLIDWORKS as their software solution, meant:
- Reduced engineering time
- Improved design quality
- Helped their business exposure to key strategic clients by giving them added value and a fast, accurate and better service experience
- Enhanced employee skill set, with structured and comprehensive training from Solid Solutions
‘SOLIDWORKS Electrical is so much more than an electrical drawing program. It is a comprehensive database of electrical design information that links component information, schematic symbols, cost, and suppliers along with any other parameters you wish to associate together within the design process. It can also be used to generate reports including self-populating bills of materials from drawings, which is critical for us in our Hazardous Area and Electrical engineering divisions. All of this saves time on the design process, giving us the ability to respond faster to clients and in a more comprehensive and professional manner when compared with other software’, says Cassim Sultan, Electrical Design Engineer at Barrier-Ex.
Get in touch to find out more about SOLIDWORKS and the support and training services we offer.