CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
28 January 2010
Implementation Investments
ideas* Uses Autodesk Inventor on Advanced Construction Recycling Facility
Autodesk, Inc. has named ideas*, an Australian engineering services firm, the Autodesk Inventor of the Month for January 2010. The company used Autodesk Inventor software to design and develop the world’s most advanced construction recycling facility. The massive facility in Victoria, Australia will be capable of recycling one million tons of demolition materials per year.
ideas* designed and engineered the facility for the Alex Fraser Group. The size of four football fields, the new facility uses the most modern technology to more efficiently recycle unprecedented volumes of discarded construction and demolition materials. Since products made from recycled concrete have 65 percent less carbon impact than products made from quarried stone, the recycling plant promises to significantly reduce the environmental impact of construction projects throughout Australia.
Design work on the ambitious project was subcontracted to 14 different fabricators. Autodesk Inventor software provided a flexible, central management point for the different teams, facilitating important design revisions across the entire project.
“A design project of this scale would have been impossible without Autodesk Inventor,” said Michael Percy, managing director of ideas*. “All team members used Inventor to create digital prototypes, enabling faster design decisions and improvements earlier in, and throughout, the design process. The result was a greatly improved system, with less costly rework and modifications during installation and commissioning.”
Key plant features designed with Autodesk Inventor software include a “dual jaw crusher” for breaking down construction materials into smaller chunks, a comprehensive multilayered separation system and a high-capacity “pug mill” for grinding and mixing materials to form high-quality road base materials. The collaborative approach taken by ideas* and its extended team enabled the entire project to be installed within 10 months of the first designs.
“Using Autodesk Inventor software enables ideas* to take a more intelligent and effective approach to its large-scale projects. That, in turn, leads to better outcomes for the company’s clients,” said Robert “Buzz” Kross, senior vice president, Manufacturing Industry Group at Autodesk. “ideas*’ work on this innovative facility demonstrates the efficiency of Digital Prototyping in helping companies bridge typical gaps of understanding between conceptual design, engineering and manufacturing teams.”
For more information about Autodesk Inventor of the Month, contact IOM@autodesk.com.
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