Bunbury-based consultancy Pacer Engineers has adopted the Autodesk Inventor program to design processing plants and bulk materials handling infrastructure with greater accuracy.
According to Pacer engineering manager John Wright, the company typically undertakes anything from small-scale plant design and plant compliance investigations right through to large-scale engineering, procurement and construction projects.
“We can work with the client to develop the whole project, including the preliminary design, the process design and flow diagrams and then the detailed design,” he told Australian Mining.
“We can also assist with the procurement, logistics, scheduling and site construction stages.”
Prior to using Inventor, the company was using a standard two-dimensional AutoCAD with a mechanical desktop.
“This program used traditional styles of design; drafting techniques which have not really changed since the days of the drawing board,” Wright said.
“However, it could be very challenging to complete layouts of plants that were not square.
“Normally, the conveyors need to come in square, so the plants are laid out accordingly.”
This was particularly evident when the company was contracted to design the minerals processing plant at OM Manganese’s Bootu Creek mine.
“All of the conveyors and landings for the plant were coming in at non-square angles,” Wright said.
“Using compound angles in traditional drafting can become very tiring and onerous, which therefore increases the risk of error.
“So we decided to use three-dimensional modelling, because it allows you to work with any plane or angle very easily.
“The Bootu Creek was a case in point because the conveyors landed on the structures properly even thought they were coming in at two or three different angles.”
Wright said the company now uses the three-dimensional design software for all of its drafting.
“With the three-dimensional model, you can access separate sections, elevations and plans and produce the specific working drawings,” he said.
“We can use the modelling to issue orders for specific components to the fabricators.”
The software also comes with a drawing management and filing system called the Vault, which ensures individual designs are not worked on simultaneously by two different designers.
Another important feature, according to Wright, is the Finite Element Analysis modelling software.
“This feature can simulate the stress loading on smaller components, to see how much deflection and where the likely points of failure will be,” he said.
The accuracy of the three-dimensional modelling allowed Pacer to offer OM Manganese a fixed price supply contract for the Bootu Creek project.
It was the first time they had offered this to a client.
“Despite the risks inherent with fixed prices, we were confident in the accuracy of our drafting and therefore how easily things would be put together,” Wright said.
“We offered to procure all the structural steel and components from the fabricators and take care of all of the scheduling and management.
“When we went to install the gear, the amount of site work required to rectify clashes and design issues was minimal.
“The contractor onsite putting the gear together said it was probably one of the best assembled plants he had ever come across.”
The company had previously carried out contracts on an open-book reimbursable basis with an agreed fixed mark-up.
“The old way limited our opportunity to make profits if we were confident in the product, but it also limited our risk,” Wright said.
“More and more, clients are taking up the fixed-price option.
“They know they are going to have to pay a slight premium, but they know that is all they are going to have to pay.”