Written by dudaJuly 14, 2023

Engineering & Design Automation is accelerating the outcomes for both manufacturers and customers in the wind energy industry.

Design automation can bring significant benefits to the wind turbine industry, especially when it comes to dealing with orders for distinct types of soils and terrains.

The layout of a wind turbine refers to the arrangement of its various components, such as the tower, blades, and nacelle. When designing and building wind turbines, the goal is to optimize their layout to achieve the most efficient and cost-effective energy generation.

By optimizing the layout of a wind turbine with mechanical configuration, it is possible to save time in the manufacturing and assembly process. Exemplifying, a well-designed layout can reduce the amount of material required for construction, which can decrease the time and cost of production. Similarly, an optimized layout can also make it easier and faster to assemble the various components of the turbine, which can result in considerable time savings for each order.

Private wind turbines, also known as small-scale or residential wind turbines, are wind energy systems designed for individual homes, farms, or businesses.

Optimizing the layout of wind turbines can lead to cost savings, improved efficiency, and faster construction times, all of which can be beneficial for wind energy companies and their customers.

Engineering & Design automation can bring significant benefits to the wind turbine industry, particularly when it comes to dealing with orders from different types of soils and terrains. By automating the design process, wind turbine companies can improve efficiency, reduce costs, and deliver more customized and accurate solutions to their customers in a faster way.

The colors on wind turbines can be customised based on client preferences and the surrounding environment. For land-based turbines in green landscapes, incorporating green elements helps them blend in with the surroundings. Red lines are often added for safety and visibility, marking moving parts. A configurator can be used to visualise and select colors, considering onshore or offshore placement. This customisation ensures visually appealing and safe integration of the turbines.

Another example of customisation, using DA (Design Automation) the automation software can take into account factors such as soil density, moisture content, and other geotechnical factors to determine the most appropriate foundation design for a particular location.

Watch in this DEMO wind turbines being configured and placed in different environments, showcasing their installation on various types of soils and terrains:

 

Our team has knowledge when it comes to wind turbines, and our main deliverable to clients in this industry is the rapid production of 3D models and comprehensive documentation. For instance, we provide detailed 2D drawings with all the necessary specifications and a complete bill of materials.

One of the benefits we already pointed to is the speed, by automating the design process, wind turbine companies can reduce the time it takes to design and build each turbine. This can be especially important when dealing with orders from different geographical locations, soil types and the terrain may trigger a unique design of components.

Highlighting the cost savings, design automation reduces the reliance on manual labor, resulting in fewer engineering hours. This enables wind turbine companies to offer more competitive prices to their customers or to have a higher profit margin.

To have a full overview of the value Design Automation brings you can check our 6 VALUE AREAS.

In conclusion, the wind turbine and wind energy sector can greatly benefit from engineering and design automation, as well as product configuration. The aforementioned benefits, such as cost savings, faster 3D modeling, comprehensive documentation, and increased competitiveness, demonstrate the positive impact of automation and standardization in this industry. Embracing digitalization and leveraging advanced technologies can drive efficiency, enhance productivity, and support the continued growth and sustainability of the wind energy sector.

Watch below a wind turbine being configured by our team using Tacton Design Automation Studio:


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Written by dudaMay 23, 2023

How to use Engineering & Design Automation to guarantee more sustainability and product quality in the Packaging Industry?

At Scandinavian Digital we are problem solvers. Our motto is: Anything can be configured. Our experts have never encountered an issue that couldn’t be resolved until now, this what our CTO Morten Bennick affirms. In the packaging industry, machinery manufacturing possess several challenges such as high costs, limited flexibility, frequent breakdowns, maintenance and repair difficulties, and integrating new technology. Other issues include low efficiency, slow production rates, and a lack of customisation options. Problems, which we can solve or reduce by using Engineering & Design Automation. 


Customisation is one of the greatest benefits of using EDA (Engineering & Design Automation), especially because we can configure a machine with exactly the client’s needs in mind, considering the product they work with and the production they need to achieve. In our six value areas when using Design Automation, we present benefits such as up to 88% reduction in lead time, an increase in sales up to 30% three years after implementing DA (Design Automation), not to mention the solution to one of the industry’s biggest complaints, which is costs. The cost reduction through product quality control is estimated to be up to 60%, referring to the amount of errors that are reduced and even completed eliminated.
 
Using Engineering & Design Automation helps clients to bring their product to the market faster as the same way contributes to deliver orders in a quicker way. Design automation helps companies bring products to the market faster by streamlining and accelerating the product development process. DA tools enable the automation of repetitive design tasks. By creating predefined rules and constrains. Using the integrated Tacton plug-in to CAD platforms as SolidWorks, PTC Creo and Autodesk Inventor,  the engineers can work in their preferred CAD environment. TDA Studio has the ability to generate only valid product variants, paramethic designs and the result is CAD models without errors. Through mapping configuration logic to your CAD parts, you can connect Tacton’s product configuration model to your CAD system’s parts and parameters. This ensures product integrity. The 2D drawings and the documentation as Bill of Material is created automatically in seconds.   

Design Automation allows different machinery customisation.


Correct sizing, another relevant theme already explained by our experts (Read more: Correct sizing is a critical point to cost reduction and sustainability in the manufacturing industry – Scandinavian Digital ) is another factor to reduce cost and improve sustainability in the packaging industry. After all, Sizing plays a crucial role in the manufacturing industry as it directly affects the quality and functionality of the final product. With an accurate sizing it is possible to reduce costs by minimizing waste and maximizing efficiency. On the other hand, incorrect sizing can result in waste, rework, and increased costs. This is a great way of reducing cost and creating a more sustainable process. 
 
We firmly believe that Engineering & Design Automation represents the essential next step for packaging manufacturers to accelerate industry innovation and proactively address existing challenges. Fortunately, we already possess the ideal solution to facilitate this necessary transition.  
 
Do you want to continue this conversation? Contact us: info@scandinaviandigital.com 

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Written by dudaMay 4, 2023

GEA Process Engineering A/S speeds up engineering with Scandinavian Digital’s solutions

Scandinavian Digital was chosen as partner to help GEA PE A/S automate engineering processes to improve quality and reduce engineering time. GEA´s purpose is “Engineering for a better world” and together with SD GEA PE A/S has embarked on a journey of true digital transformation which both delivers better products for the market as well as a leaner and better workplace for GEA PE A/S’s employees with a reduction of trivial repetitive work and elimination of rework.  

At its core, the “Automation of the Engineer-To-Order process” automates all technical CAD 3D models and 2D drawings during engineering execution. Time savings for GEA PE A/S are significant, but even better is the fact that the documentation is now consistent throughout all stages of the engineering execution, ultimately leading to the customer receiving a better product faster. 

Kári Holgarsson, Director Engineering Support, Rune Skovgaard-Petersen, Vice President Technology, Simon Nielsen, Scandinavian Digital CEO and Sten Krog Duerlund
Senior Director Product Engineering, Technology

The SD team has a profound experience in the successful automation of CAD engineering for complex products. In the past many years, the SD team has automated 250+ complex products – either very large engineering constructions and/or a complex combination of engineering components with a multitude of rules. At GEA PE A/S, SD is currently doing the same and rolling out the concept for 18 of GEA PE A/S’s key products. 

According to Rune Skovgaard-Petersen, Vice President Technology (TECH) the “automation of the engineering processes of these products will be a significant improvement for our entire organisation”. 

Beyond the simple automation of engineering processes, GEA PE A/S can now build on the existing solutions to further reduce cost and lead time in other areas. Building the foundation for systems engineering and collaborate globally to further drive productivity and results.
 

GEA Group is a EUR 5.2 billion company on the German MDAX, headquartered in Düsseldorf. More than 18,000 employees across 62 countries and 5 divisions develop and deliver highly specialised process equipment for Powder, Liquid, Separation, Flow Refrigeration and Monitoring with the Food, Chemical, Farming, Dairy and Healthcare industries. 


Simon Nielsen, CEO, Scandinavian Digital. 

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Written by dudaFebruary 8, 2023

Design Automation for Embedded Systems

The Scandinavian Digital team has expertise in both product configuration and full system layout design, including plants for plastic recycling, chocolate production, embedded systems for cement manufacturing, and many others. This comprehensive approach to design automation can bring significant benefits to manufacturers, both in terms of operational performance and overall management. 
 
A system layout in machinery denotes an arrangement of different elements and systems within a manufacturing facility or production line. It includes the right placement and arrangement of machines, tools, workstations, and other components to enhance the use of space and ensure efficient and effective operations. 

Recycling Plant – Scandinavian Digital Embedded System

The system layout can have a relevant impact on the complete productivity and efficiency of the manufacturing processes. Circumstances like the placement of machines, the flow of materials and products, and the ease of access to equipment affects the speed and quality of production. 

An effective system layout will take into consideration factors such as the size and capacity of machines, the materials and products being produced, and the flow of workers and materials through the facility. The goal of a system layout in machinery is to optimize the use of space and resources, increase efficiency and productivity, and ensure the quality and consistency of the final product.

One of the main benefits of configure a full system layout is scalability, automating systems can help to control large and complex projects more effectively, making it viable for organizations to scale up their operations as projected or as needed. Another point to be highlighted is the possibility of a better cost control, after all it will reduce the time and resources required for manual processes, assisting to control costs and improve profitability. 
 
And to conclude, configure a full system will reduce time to market of products, owing to the fact that a suitable configuration will speed up the design and engineering processes and consequently allow products to be brought to market much faster. 

 

Watch how we configured the Full Plant on Soliworks with Tacton Design Automation Studio: Full System DEMO – Autodesk Inventor – YouTube

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Written by dudaJanuary 20, 2023

The outputs of implementing Engineering Automation

These are 10 aftereffects of implementing Engineering Automation:

    • One product model for all commercial requirements.
    • Easy to configure for non-technical people.
    • Configurable down to the detailed technical requirements.
    • Able of being extended to a sales configurator.
    • Capable of outputting sales Documents automatically.
    • Proposal documents, sales order documents data sheets and more.
    • Automated generation of 3D CAD models.
    • Automated generation of 2D Drawings.
    • Automated product sizing and engineering designs.
    • Automated generation of Technical Documents.
      BOM (Bill Of Materials), BOQ (Bill Of Quantity), Step-Files, flat patterns, manuals cost calculations, etc

Now, that you know the return you can have with the implementation. Let’s see one of our products, the 3D models, 2D drawings and Technical Specifications.


 

Watch the configuration DEMO here.

Industrial Bag Filter: Small Capacity (2D drawings and Technical Specifications).

The Scandinavian Digital team developed three types of an industrial Bag Filter: Small, Medium and Large capacity. The different configurations were generated from the same model using Tacton Design Automation Studio. For this project we calculate that the amount of engineering hours saved was around 80% from days to hours.

In addition to the relevant reduction in engineering time we have 5 more important points: Higher quality because of the reduction in errors on-site and in manufacturing workshops also centralized design changes due to a pre-established master model, faster sales with an almost immediate response to customers and to conclude gains throughout the supply chain, for example, manufacturing, sourcing and logistics.

The models used within the configurator are described in an efficient programming language which makes it easy to build the product structure, attributes and other product/business rules, and speeds up response times seen from an end-user perspective.

The Technical Specifications are on the right up corner.

Industrial Bag Filter: Medium Capacity (2D drawings and Technical Specifications). 
Before the SD solutions, the existing engineering process was deemed too costly and error-prone by management and the risk of introducing even minor errors in the design due to simple human oversight was sought eliminated. 

Sometimes it is shown that not only the engineering work should be in scope but rather the full customer flow; from the initial creation of a quotation over the manufacturing at the production workshop, to the final delivery, installation and commissioning at the customer site.

Industrial Bag Filter: Large Capacity (2D drawings and Technical Specifications).

 

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