CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
17 March 2011
Implementation Investments
Autodesk Names RND Automation & Engineering as Inventor of the Year for 2010
Autodesk, Inc. has named RND Automation & Engineering LLC as the Autodesk Inventor of the Year for 2010.
Members of the Autodesk manufacturing community from around the world chose the Sarasota, Fla.–based company by voting on the community website. RND Automation designs customized automation solutions for a wide range of customers, including manufacturers of hydraulic valves, contact lenses and insulated beverage containers. The company was originally named Inventor of the Month in March 2010 for its Digital Prototyping work with clients to help manufacture and assemble products more efficiently and with less waste.
“Autodesk’s products give us an advantage over our competition in terms of time to market, ability to illustrate concepts to our customers and the flexibility to quickly change design parameters,” said Sean Dotson, president of RND. “My relationship with Autodesk goes back more than 13 years to the first days of Inventor Release 1. It’s quite an honor to receive this award and to be recognized for our work.”
Digital Prototyping Simplifies Challenging Projects
With the assistance of Tampa-based Autodesk reseller Tata Technologies, RND has successfully used Autodesk Inventor software since its first release on a wide range of projects, tapping almost every area of the software’s functionality in the process:
For a hydraulic valve manufacturer, RND created an automated assembly machine that was 22 feet long and eight feet wide, with 16 assembly stations and four articulated robot arms. RND designed, visualized and simulated the entire machine using Inventor, enabling them to fully analyze operation of each assembly station, all before any materials were purchased.
To create a machine that manufactures disposable contact lenses, RND needed a design mechanism capable of rapidly raising and lowering heavy weights. RND used the finite element analysis (FEA) functionality in Inventor to analyze the forces placed on the linkages to help ensure the overall design was strong enough to withstand the pressures of daily operation.
RND is also using Digital Prototyping to help Tervis Tumbler, the leading manufacturer of insulated beverage containers for hot and cold drinks. RND used Inventor software’s animation capabilities early in the design phase to show Tervis how each assembly station would function and at what precise location the fully assembled product would exit the machine.
About the Autodesk Inventor of the Month Program
Each month, Autodesk selects an Inventor of the Month from the users of Autodesk Inventor software, which takes manufacturers beyond 3D to Digital Prototyping. Winners are chosen for engineering excellence and groundbreaking innovation. For more information about Autodesk Inventor of the Month, contact IOM@autodesk.com.
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