Bridging the gap between custom and standard

To do this, Riezebos, Suthar, and Thakar rely heavily on Autodesk Inventor and Autodesk Vault. “I’ve been an engineer for 20 years, working primarily with Inventor,” Riezebos says. “I provide support for both Inventor and Vault. I’m always looking for new functionality within these tools to see how we can use them throughout GEA.”

For GEA, one of the most important capabilities within Inventor is iLogic. This specialized set of tools allows their engineers to capture and reuse certain components and assemblies through rules-driven design. With iLogic, parts can be automatically updated based on other triggers, such as a change to the part geometry or a parameter that changes in value. At GEA, iLogic provides an important connection between the company’s custom systems and its more standardized offerings.

“We essentially create configurable models for our internal teams, which makes their workflow easier,” says Dutt Thakar, Senior Design Engineer. “These models save them a great deal of time because they don’t have to repetitively create models from scratch every time.”

As you can imagine, large-scale processing systems use many of the same types of components—compressors, pumps, valves, controllers, mixers, homogenizers—in unique configurations. The iLogic tools allow Thakar, Suthar, and other engineers to create a “parametric skeleton” that standard product teams can adjust to create new models automatically. The team refers to this as “model enhancement.”

Implementing design automation with iLogic can be scaled over time and as requirements mature–for GEA, their focused efforts have paid off tremendously. “It’s being said that iLogic is the program for mechanical engineers who want to easily implement their logic to speed up the design process,” Suthar says. “Leveraging iLogic in our live projects has resulted in extraordinary benefits for engineering at GEA.”

"Using iLogic results in more time for engineers and designers to think about new product development and innovation, because they don't have to worry about the existing design. They can focus more on developing new products and improving the existing product design. This will lead GEA to innovation and providing more sustainable solutions,” Thakar follows.

“We’ve shown our internal departments that they can create a new model in two hours instead of three weeks,” Riezebos says. “Depending on the complexity of the system, they can cut engineering time anywhere from 30% to 80%. That makes it much easier to meet customers’ needs.”

Standardizing products also improves cost efficiency. With standardized components, there is less inventory to procure and fewer one-off manufacturing steps. Instead of using a stamping plate once, for example, a team can use it to create parts for the current order and the next four machines it plans to manufacture.

“Another big advantage of model enhancement is accuracy,” Riezebos says. “You’re not able to make mistakes or forget small valves or O-rings, for example, if all of the parts are stored in the correct container within Vault. If it’s an iLogic template, all the parts are in there. Inventor doesn’t forget anything so neither will you. You reduce the chance of errors.”

Minimizing errors, of course, also helps the cost profile of any given system. Riezebos notes the rule of thumb that says if a change in drawing costs X, making the same change during production costs 10X, and making the same change once the system is installed on site is 100X.