Two ball valves on a wholesaler’s shelf look almost identical but differ in price. The installer asks one thing: what am I paying extra for? Tycner from Mielec, Poland (tycner.com.pl), sells ball valves under its own TECRA PRO brand, and their advantage is hidden inside — in the materials and seals. A 3D animation built from the CAD file brings that advantage to the surface and shows it in seconds.
With valves and fittings, the choice depends on what the buyer cannot see: the body material, the seals and how easy the valve is to service. A photo shows only a shiny casing, and a spec table turns the advantages into abbreviations few people read. A 3D animation opens the product and shows its inside so that everyone understands it at once.
It is a simple route to better sales. The sales rep does not need long explanations, the wholesaler has a clear argument at the counter, and the installer sees for themselves what they are paying for. One film works on the website, on social media, at trade shows and in conversations with customers — and every time it says the same thing, equally well.
Do you have a CAD file of your product?
An exploded view, a cross-section and variants from one file are the fastest way to a product animation. The calculator gives an estimated cost — the result takes two minutes.
Check the estimated costNominal pressure, temperature range and warranty length are familiar from every box — which is exactly why these numbers blur together. In 3D creative work each of them can get its own image: a frosted valve, hot steam or a pressure gauge on a pipe. The catalog claim is backed by a picture, and the viewer remembers a scene instead of a figure.
Parameters from the TECRA PRO animation boards (manufacturer: Tycner Sp. z o.o.). Nickel-free design.
3D creative work lets you take a product apart and stay with each part for as long as needed. The name of the material — brass, stainless steel, PTFE or EPDM — stops being an abbreviation in a table and is pinned to a specific part.
For wholesalers and installers it is clear proof of quality. For the marketing team it means ready-made images for the catalog, the product page and social media — without a photo shoot and without taking a real valve apart.
The strongest argument for the installer is hidden inside the valve. The gland nut restores tightness with one turn of a wrench, without dismantling. Describing this in words takes a paragraph of technical text, while a 3D cross-section shows it in a few seconds and turns straight into a benefit: less work during servicing.
All valve variants — with a lever or a butterfly handle, with female or male thread, with a union end — come from the same CAD models. One production delivered the full film and three short vertical Shorts, each with a single scene.
Today the film works on Tycner’s YouTube channel, in the TECRA PRO valve guide and in the Product videos section of the company website (in Polish). The same material also works on a screen at the wholesaler’s counter and at a trade show booth.
Temperature and pressure
The valve taken apart
Cross-section and easy servicing
The same challenge — a product whose value is hidden inside while from the outside it looks like any other — is solved by the mattress cross-section in the project for Magnat. Plumbing fittings shown in 3D also appear in the project for USTM, where instructional films replaced paper installation manuals. More on how animations and renders are made from CAD files: 3D product animation.
Questions valve and plumbing component manufacturers ask most often when planning a product animation — about files, formats, channels and cost.
Yes, it is the fastest route. The CAD file gives the exact dimensions of every part, so the exploded view and cross-section match the real product to the millimetre. Rendering only adds materials, light and a camera.
With valves and fittings this matters especially, because buyers — installers and wholesalers — know the product by hand and will spot any inaccuracy. An animation built on CAD looks credible from the start.
The simplest way is to take the product apart, label the materials where they sit and show the key solution in cross-section. In a ball valve, quality is decided in the stem and ball seals and in the body material — none of which is visible from the outside.
A step-by-step exploded view, like in the TECRA PRO animation, turns a datasheet into a picture. The customer sees what they pay for instead of reading about it in a table of material codes.
Yes, if every parameter gets its own image. Numbers on a board are quickly forgotten, while a frosted valve at -20°C or a gauge at 30 bar stays in memory.
In the TECRA PRO animation the parameters come from the manufacturer’s materials and are shown exactly as Tycner states them. The animation adds no data of its own — it illustrates what the manufacturer declares.
Yes, if the full animation consists of short, self-contained scenes. Each scene — parameters, exploded view, cross-section — can be cut out and reframed vertically, like the three Shorts on Tycner’s channel.
It is best planned at the script stage: then shots are composed so the product also fits a vertical frame instead of being cropped out of it.
The cost depends on the number of parts, variants and scenes, and on whether a ready CAD file exists. An exploded view and a cross-section from one model take less work than several separate films, and further product variants are then relatively inexpensive.
The pricing calculator shows an estimated cost in two minutes. An exact quote follows after reviewing the files and talking about the channels where the film will work.
Describe your product and the channel where the animation will work — we will reply with suggested shots and a quote.
