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A Designing Machine

Wallace Beaudry is a machine designer, or maybe more accurately, a designing machine. He holds 40 patents, runs three companies and has designed and manufactured not only scores of products, but also the machines and tooling to manufacture those products.

Since 1993 Beaudry has used Ashlar-Vellum software to design equipment used in the packaging, medical and electrical fields around the world. The unique Vellum interface is incredibly productive for conceptualizing new products and drawing the machines to manufacture them. Says Beaudry, “The geometry engine is phenomenal.” Beaudry especially loves the fluid way in which the Drafting Assistant allows him to intelligently reference previously designed geometry to create new geometry. That’s handy when making production tools.

Beaudry’s companies produce everything from adhesive labels to flexographic printing machines; from cardiac defibrillation electrodes, to rotary cutting dies. He says,

“When I work, my train of thought is centered on the design and development of a product. With Ashlar-Vellum software I can quickly get that idea on paper and that’s of great value to me. If I had to use AutoCAD to design, I’d lose my train of thought.”

Tooling is a critical factor for each of his companies. Ashlar-Vellum software allows Beaudry to efficiently accomplish tooling production, factoring complex machinery such as stretch fixtures for wound dressings. Beaudry also finds the built-in translation tools that export directly to his CNC machine to be especially helpful.

Ashlar-Vellum software maximizes Beaudry’s productivity in every step, enabling him to design more in less time. Because he can leverage his geometry and design process, he moves through product design to machine design, and on to tooling design in order to produce the important products that have an impact on the world around him.


Machine design

Wallace Beaudry uses Ashlar-Vellum software for machine design (above), tools like these rotary drums (middle), and product design like this wound dressing (bottom). One software program lets him effectively do it all.

Totary drums


Wound dressing

Background/Contact:
For more details on this project contact:

Wallace Beaudry
Sohn Manufacturing
544 Sohn Dr.
Elkhart Lake, WI 53020