30.06.2010 | Author / Editor: T. Cole / Marcel Dröttboom
With many bulk commodities expected to double over the next 20 years the need to deliver materials handling projects safely, timely and economically requires a step change in project methodology to meet the ever increasing market demands.
The bulk materials handling industry has generally been slow to adapt to a data centric design platform used by many industries globally. Delays to this adoption are no longer the case as data centric technology specific for the design of bulk materials handling systems is now available in the marketplace.
Through the use of a data centric approach significant time savings can be generated by adopting an ‘input once, use many’ strategy when it comes to materials standards. Using a data base containing a broad range of standard materials that are used in materials handling system design allows this information to be loaded to a design system one time and used across all disciplines in a project.
Similarly, the ability exists to design and model a portion of the materials handling system once and re-use this throughout the project and into future projects.
An example of this would be to create a standard truss size for, say, a 1200 mm (48”) belt width. This standard truss, with other discipline areas included in the standard such as piping and electrical, is of parametric nature. Due to this, it could be modified, saved to a catalog as a different permutation of the original standard and used in the project as well. This saves time and effort, plus introduces a level of consistency through the project that has not been available with older technologies.
This new software allows the creation of intelligent 2D drawings that are directly correlated to the 3D design through specific reference coordinates and systems.
Intelligent 2D systems allow for the creation of data sheets inside the 2D system. This information is retained and available to the engineer during design without having to move to separate, non-integrated systems where engineering information is retained. The correlation between the 2D and 3D software enables efficient and effective management of change in design. Changes in the 2D drawings can easily be pushed to the 3D model without additional software or manual intervention allowing for rapid evaluation of the design changes and material take-off cost comparisons.
Specifically for the design of transfer chutes/bins, this new 3D design software allows engineers/modelers to establish fabrication level details enabling fabrication level drawings to be generated without the need to utilize additional detailing software. This is a significant modification to existing design methods used today.
The symbols used in the 2D environment are all directly correlated to a 3D catalog symbol, inclusive of the detailed engineering information contained in the object. These symbols have the specifications necessary to allow for...
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