They wanted to advance the development of titanium bicycles, frames, and components by shortening design-through-prototyping cycles, facilitating greater collaboration, and creating more complex product designs. They replaced their 2D tools with SOLIDWORKS 3D design software and connect collaborators in the cloud via the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.
Taking its name from the Pässilä wilderness, Pässilä Bicycles is a growing cycling company based in Nopankylä, Finland. Riding the wilderness trails offered the founders lots of variation in terms of technicality, elevation, and nature, and helped them to develop bicycle frames that are now sought after by many serious mountain biking enthusiasts. The company’s titanium Enduro, trail, dirt jump, and slopestyle mountain bike frames and components offer mountain bikers a whole lot more than is typically available with traditional mountain bike models.
Initially, Pässilä Bicycles used BikeCAD® 2D design software to create sketches of bike frame designs and 2D engineering drawings for production. However, as the company grew in size and demand for new models continued to increase, their CEO Markku Hautamäki says the bike manufacturer needed to move to 3D design to shorten development cycles and advance design complexity and innovation. “While our business experienced steady growth since the beginning, the launch of our Enduro frame in early 2020 really took off—it’s our best-selling model—and we realized that we would need to advance and accelerate new bike frame development to continue to grow,” Hautamäki explains. “To do that, we needed to move to 3D design to aid product development and find an efficient method to collaborate because we all work in different locations.”
Pässilä Bicycles was immediately drawn to SOLIDWORKS® 3D design software because it is widely used by major bike manufacturers and the industrial designer with whom the company works knew how to use and was very comfortable working in SOLIDWORKS. In speaking with SOLIDWORKS reseller PLM Group Suomi Oy, the bike manufacturer learned that it could collaborate in the cloud on SOLIDWORKS designs on the 3DEXPERIENCE® platform. In addition to implementing SOLIDWORKS design tools in February 2021, Pässilä Bicycles added the Collaborative Business Innovator, Collaborative Industry Innovator, and Collaborative Designer for SOLIDWORKS roles on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.
