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78 MMS August 2017 mmsonline.com FEATURE enables those engineers to demonstrate the value they bring to their companies by quantifi- ably showing how much money their refined designs have saved them. This creates a win- win-win for the shop, the shop's customers and the customers' engineers. FEA AS A BUSINESS STRATEGY Parametric USA is an evolution of a family-owned shop that was started 30 years ago by machinist and mechanical engineer Jon Drury. The 20-person operation produces parts for a range of applica- tions in the robotics, medical, semiconductor, fiber optic and electric vehicle industries. In-house capabilities in its 13,000 square-foot facility include CNC milling, turning and wire EDM, although Mr. Teixeira says relationships with local vendors of fering processes such as grinding, lapping, brazing, silkscreen and heat treating enable it to be a full-service parts producer. Mr. Teixeria had worked with Mr. Drur y and other companies in the Silicon Valley as a mechan- ical engineer for 20 years before partnering with him in 2016. One of the goals in joining the com- pany was to leverage his engineering and start-up experience into a new business strategy in which Parametric USA would target a new demographic within its customers' operations—their pool of design engineers—in an effort to establish long- term business relationships. "We've seen that it can be tough for an engineer to accept DFM suggestions offered by a machin- ist even if he or she has many years of machining experience," Mr. Teixeira says. "However, I can start a conversation by explaining to an engineer how, for instance, after running an FEA model of the part, I might find that removing an internal radius that's tricky to machine will save $1.75 per part while keeping stress concentrations in the acceptable yield range and increasing deflection by only 3 percent. By speaking the language of engineers in that way, I'm better able to star t building their trust and gaining their respect. In addition, they also become more open to sharing load and force data as well as other per tinent operational information about other parts to enable me to perform FEA for DFM on those as well." FEA EX AMPLES: A PART AND A FIXTURE In short, FEA applies the numerical finite element method to calculate approximate displacements, stresses and strains a component of an assembly Here is Parametric USA's final component design. By increasing the shaft diameter to remove the bull-nose feature, turning and grinding was made simpler and faster, and an off-the-shelf slide bearing could be used. The estimated savings for 1,000 parts are approxi- mately $33,000.