Plant design walk-through prevents painful problems

For manufacturers designing a new installation or carrying out major alterations to existing plant there is nothing worse than starting the work only to hit a major unforeseen obstacle part way through, which involves costly delays to resolve.

Such problems could be a thing of the past, thanks to a new 'factory hotspot modelling' service being launched at this month's PPMA show at the NEC in Birmingham by computer aided design specialist CAD Schroer.

The new service delivers a 3D model, complete with virtual factory walk-through and review software to users wanting to adapt facilities, who would like to visualise potential issues and examine possible solutions before significant costs are incurred.

CAD Schroer will be joined on its stand by one of its major clients, project management and engineering consultancy CEL International, part of the WSP Group, to demonstrate the use of its MPDS4 Factory Layout and Process Plant Design solution.

CEL has recently been working with several blue chip food manufacturing customers on projects ranging from an effluent treatment plant to biomass handling for power generation.

CAD Schroer marketing manager Anke Adams said: "It's a new idea to quickly and at relatively small cost get a model of part of a factory/processing plant to the client derived from some of the latest laser scanning techniques, which save immense amounts of time measuring up.

"With the help of our software we are looking to turn the initially generated 'dumb' 3D models into more intelligent components and add any other disciplines we need (piping, ducting, conveyors, mechanical handling, etc) to visualise a process or problem spot."

l See PPMA preview p83.