E
ngineering for the plant construction industry can be extremely demanding. For large, complex plants, there are no off-the-peg solutions and no prototypes. The first draft has to be right: this requires specialist knowledge and reliable engineering tools. Höckh Metall-Reinigungsanlagen GmbH in Neuenbürg/Germany switched to EPLAN Electric P8 for the electrical and fluid design of a major project. They continue to use Autodesk Inventor and Vault for mechanical engineering and product data management with the support of EPLAN consultants. The result: Maximum integration and data consistency with software support provided from a single source.
The BIG push Maximum data consistency: ECAD, MCAD and PDM from a single source
Consulting at its finest Höckh had obtained its knowledge for the development and production of perfect-fit solutions for parts cleaning and degreasing over its forty years of production. The mediumsized family-run company has 50 employees and an developed and exceptional reputation as a reliable supplier of quality plant engineering. An example of the service portfolio is the large plant for deep-drawn stamped sheet metal parts recently produced on a 3,200 m² production area. The plant has ten enclosures and over 700 pages of schematics; with a total of 16,800 parts to be processed in CAD. In order to keep this complex project under control, and: with the order books full, the electrical construction was switched to EPLAN Electric P8 with the EPLAN Fluid add-on for pneumatics construction. Fabian Camek, head of electrical design, reports that, with EPLAN’s support, the step took just a couple of months: "We brought EPLAN Consulting in several times for P8 and EPLAN Fluid, twice for a whole week at a time; whilst also being supported by the helpdesk. This meant we could make the transfer in a total of two months.”
design is now completely integrated thanks to EPLAN Fluid. Support from a single source At this stage of integration, Fabian Camek and mechanical design manager Josip Heger did not want to stand still. They used the up-coming switch to EPLAN Electric P8 as the "big solution" allowing them to optimise
PPE via the EPLAN Platform alongside electrical and pneumatic design. The idea behind it is to make all changes consistently visible across all software tools – "we are working on this with EPLAN". Data flow – totally consistent Bill of materials for all projects and orders can be generated from the EPLAN database. For Fabian Camek, this not only means quicker, more accurate project implementation: "We can also produce sensible recalculations using our ERP
"We opted for EPLAN because they can provide a one-stop shop. If the system is maintained by a range of different providers one always blames the others when things go wrong." Fabian Camek, Head of Electrical Design
Enormously easier with EPLAN Data Portal Naturally, it took some outlay to redesign all the materials and intelligently build the parts database. Things were made much easier with EPLAN Data Portal components, for example Siemens, can be easily imported as macros in edz format, with multilingual parts data and consistent, uniform product diagrams. This eliminates error sources and significantly accelerates configuration and design. The macros only needed to be defined specially for a few specialist parts and the pneumatic
tools for mechanical design. Höckh now uses Autodesk Product Design Suite with the Autodesk Inventor 3D CAD solution and the Autodesk Vault PDM system. "We opted for EPLAN due to their ability to offer ongoing service and support of these systems because they can provide a one-stop shop," underlines Josip Heger. If the system is maintained by a range of different providers, "one always blames the others when things go wrong," so a one-stop shop is a single responsible contact. In the medium term, all EI&C planning is to be integrated with EPLAN
system, because every single part appears in the documentation." Has the effort paid off? Definitely, according to managing director Michael Höckh: "A huge amount of time and effort and a not insignificant investment has gone into technical equipment and training – if you do it, you need to do it right and consistently in accordance with our company philosophy." In brief: Process optimisation also pays off in the special plant con struction industry.
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