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Developing fitness equipment is a passion for Italy-based Olicrom Sportechnology and founder, Eliseo Falcone. For more than 30 years, when the first generation of weight benches was created, Falcone has worked as a pioneer and visionary designer in the development of gymnasium equipment.
Falcone started Olicrom in Francavilla al Mare in central Italy in the mid-2000s. Since then, the company’s innovative line of fitness systems has attracted the attention of customers from the United States to the Middle East. Today, Olicrom’s products range from the CableQuad advanced training platform for multifunctional strength training activities to the PhysioSub, an underwater workout chamber for deep-sea divers.
Falcone’s early days designing equipment involved the use of Autodesk AutoCAD. Today, the team at Olicrom leverages Autodesk Inventor and other software tools included in the Autodesk Product Design Suite to complete their designs. For always striving for new heights in fitness equipment design, Olicrom Sportechnology is being recognized as the Autodesk Inventing the Future recipient for November.
Autodesk seeks Inventing the Future candidates each month from its Manufacturing customer base through a brief Q&A interview on a company or individual addressing their business, products and inventive spirit. Here is what Olicrom Founder and CEO Eliseo Falcone had to say about leveraging Autodesk software:
Autodesk: What does your company develop, and why is it important for the world?
Falcone: Olicrom specializes in the design, production and marketing of commercial fitness equipment. In our industrial design and engineering experience, we adhere to our commitment to product innovation. We believe developing new tools will enable a new era in the fitness world.
What separates us in many ways from other fitness equipment companies is our passion for the field of exercise in general. After more than 30 years of designing innovative equipment, I am pleased to still be the main architect of our products, from the first sketches to the time we are ready to digitally prototype and send products into production.
Not surprisingly, the story of Olicrom is linked to the evolution of design tools and design information and, consequently, we have come to rely on Autodesk. From the first machines we created using Autodesk AutoCAD, we have invested in applications that accelerate design and development cycles—from initial ideas, to new product lines, to the commercialization of those product lines.
Autodesk: How has adopting technology helped your company evolve?
Falcone: The adoption of Autodesk Product Design Suite with Inventor and leveraging 3D technology has revolutionized our design and manufacturing process. It has presented us with an evolution that was really unthinkable in the past.
For example, a major challenge for us was overcoming the use of two-dimensional design to show as much as possible to customers from the original conceptual phases of our product development. Having the ability to offer a digital prototype of a product, complete with the layout of materials to be used in production, provided us significant advantages from the point of view of marketing and communications when it comes to the presentation of our machines.
In short, standardizing design processes through a 3D environment provides us with maximum flexibility and operating speed ingenuity.
Autodesk: What Autodesk software do you use and why?
Falcone: Olicrom uses Autodesk Product Design Suite ,which includes Inventor, AutoCAD Mechanical, Showcase and 3ds Max. Autodesk Product Design Suite allows us to develop operational methods and custom tailor the design environment to our needs—creating a real, measureable workflow. The software also provides operational flexibility and a fast time to market. With Product Design Suite, we have built a unique environment to manage our entire design process.
We use AutoCAD for the initial phase, in which we approach the study of the machine and its layout. From there, we move on to the 3D engineering and technical evaluation of the movements and kinematics (the geometry of motion) and FEA (finite element analysis) being performed by Inventor, which we have also used from the beginning. The transition to Inventor has been revolutionary for us and has given us a new way to think about bringing products to market more quickly and efficiently.
We follow with 3ds Max and Showcase to develop product renderings for presentations and commercial uses.
Autodesk: Where do you see your business five years from now? In 10 years?
Falcone: We see our business environment as very competitive in the future. We will continue to embrace software design tools as we focus on reducing commercial costs and optimizing our industrial production. The experience that I have gained over the years with the use of Inventor has paid off, and we’re always looking to build on that knowledge and improve our products while we work to stay innovative. We will also look to continue to offer our customers even more superior value and unmatched service a decade from now.
Autodesk: What does the future of making things mean to you as an innovator?
Falcone: We have seen the great progress made in recent years in software design and hardware. In the future, the use of new CAD tools will help provide the ability to realize our ideas and our dreams by making them achievable with a few simple steps in 3D design with a virtual, photorealistic environment.
Do you think you have what it takes to be recognized by Autodesk for Inventing the Future? If so, send in your submission to inventingthefuture@autodesk.com.
