Storm-Safe, designed in SolidWorks, reduces damage,
power outage time, and electrocution risk during storms
Breakaway link’ is key feature in new, safer utility connector
CONCORD, Mass., November 12, 2007 - The ice-glazed branches of your front-yard oak tree shimmer in the December sunlight. It’s a beautiful pre-holiday scene … until a limb crashes down onto a power line, ripping clapboards from your house, stranding your family without electricity, and posing a deadly electrocution risk – sometimes for days.
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The Storm-Safe
breakaway connector |
This fearsome scenario plagued hundreds of thousands of Midwesterners last year and prompted The Homac Companies, a $35 million utility equipment manufacturer in Florida, to design an entirely new, safer way for homes to connect to power lines. Storm-Safe, designed entirely in SolidWorks® 3D CAD software, is a simple “breakaway link” fixed to a utility pole that automatically disconnects cables from poles under abnormal stresses. Because the cables disconnect on the pole side, not at the home, the fallen wire carries no current. When the storm subsides, a few twists of a screwdriver let utility workers plug in the cables, energize the home, and be on their way.
“Storm-Safe minimizes damage to both the home and utility, containing damage to a single connector, ensuring fallen wires aren’t carrying a current, and compressing the power recovery process to mere minutes,” said Jim Zahnen, senior product development engineer for Homac. “This is an industry first and something that is gaining worldwide interest from our international utilities customers. It’s good business and it’s good for customers. SolidWorks software helped us visualize the design, refine it with internal and customer feedback, and quickly develop the
necessary engineering drawings for each configuration, a process that couldn’t happen with our old 2D software.”
Storm-Safe comes in configurations to serve one, two, or three homes and is rated for 200 amp service.
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“As Homac is demonstrating with Storm-Safe, the right CAD tool can make a significant difference in the nature of product a company can produce,” said Rainer Gawlick, SolidWorks vice president of worldwide marketing. “This isn’t an incremental improvement; this is what we like to call an ‘absurdly ideal’ breakthrough with a big potential impact.”
Homac relies on authorized SolidWorks reseller ModernTech Mechanical for ongoing software training, implementation, and support.
About ModernTech Mechanical
Representing SolidWorks since 1996, ModernTech Mechanical is a value added reseller representing leading design technology providers such as SolidWorks, Z Corporation, CADpo, and others. ModernTech Mechanical is focused on the needs of companies in the mechanical and manufacturing marketplace and is one of the largest SolidWorks resellers in the Southeast. For more information, visit (
www.moderntechmech.com).
About SolidWorks Corporation
SolidWorks Corporation, a Dassault Systèmes S.A. (Nasdaq: DASTY, Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA) company, develops and markets software for design, analysis, and product data management. It is the leading supplier of 3D CAD technology, giving teams intuitive, high-performing software that helps them design better products. For the latest news, information, or an online demonstration, visit the company’s Web site (
www.solidworks.com) or call 1-800-693-9000 (outside of North America, call +1-978-371-5000).
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SolidWorks is a registered trademark of SolidWorks Corporation. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.
