Prodrive is developing ino a world-beating general engineering services consultancy serving the wider automotive industry www.engineeringnews.co.nz 49 for collision and automotive finishing shops, the Aircenter from Kaeser is an all-in-one compressed air system. Incorporating a high efficiency rotary screw compressor, refrigeration dryer and air receiver all in one compact package, the Aircenter is ideal where space is at a premium. At the heart of every SM series compressor lies a premium quality Kaeser rotary screw compressor block featuring the flow-optimised and energy saving ‘Sigma Profile’ rotors. Designed for maximum energy efficiency, the Kaeser Sigma Profile can achieve power savings of up to 15% compared to conventional screw compressor block rotor profiles. In addition, all SM series rotary screw compressors are equipped with a premium efficiency IE3 class drive motor which complies “Prodrive uses release 19 of CATIA,” says Enrique Goddard, Prodrive’s CAD and PLM (product lifecycle management) specialist. “CATIA is quite good at translating from other CAD systems, but like-for-like native data is always quicker. There is lots of manufacturing on site, so the links from CAD to manufacturing are of prime importance. Suppliers and subcontractors also manufacture from DXF files generated by the ProDrive CATIA system. “A lot of people also use a CATIA add-on that is called Q-Checker, which is a methodology based tool which makes sure you are sending the right information to the right people,” Mr Goddard adds. It sounds very useful. Hard drive All the CAD work is done on 64-bit Windows 7-based Dell workstations with nVidia Graphics cards and Prodrive has a multi-node LlNUX cluster for the CAE and simulation work. “The support from Dell is really good,” says Mr Goddard. “We are currently on four-hour support, but they routinely turn up much quicker than that.” Prodrive uses hyperMill from Open Mind for all with and exceeds prevailing Australian GEMS regulations for 3- phase electric motors. For the end user this translates into more compressed air for less energy consumption. THE KAESER COMPRESSED AIR EQUIPMENT HAS PROVEN TO BE DEPENDABLE IN MEETING OUR COMPRESSED AIR REQUIREMENTS All models feature a built-in Sigma Control 2 industrial PC-based compressor controller that is responsible for dynamically adjusting the flow rate to match actual compressed air demand thereby assuring further energy savings. Relevant information can be viewed at a glance from the easy to read display. Ideal at point of use, the sound absorbing compressor enclosure keeps operational sound levels to a minimum ensuring a pleasantly quiet work environment. The Aircenter from Kaeser has also been designed to be service friendly, with all service points easy to access from one side of the compressor. For optimum efficiency and connectivity of both Aircenter SM12 compressed air systems, All Mag chose to install a Sigma Air Manager (SAM). A key technology in the advanced world of Industrie 4.0, SAM is a cutting-edge compressed air controller and the central mastermind that controls the entire compressed air supply system to ensure maximum availability and optimised service costs. Installed almost two years ago, the Kaeser compressed air system at All Mag has proven to be reliable and efficient. Mr Stovic says: ‘Our team of wheel specialists are very experienced in repairing mag wheels back to their original form. "To deliver on our customer guarantee of repair quality we rely on the quality and performance of the equipment we use. The Kaeser compressed air equipment has proven to be dependable in meeting our compressed air requirements. Situated near point of use it has also shown to be very quiet in operation." The standard Kaeser Aircenter SM series of all-in-one compressed air systems are available with drive powers up to 9 kW, a working pressure 5.5, 7.5 or 9 bar and with free air deliveries from 0.56 to 1.50 m3/min. FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT WWW.KAESER.CO.NZ its CNC work as well as Vericut from CGTech for simulating and checking tool paths. HyperMesh and HyperWorks from Altair are used for CAE as well as Abaqus, a nonlinear product from Simulia, another Dassault Systèmes software platform. It also uses Simpack, which is a general purpose MultiBody Simulation (MBS) tool used for the dynamic analysis of mechanical or mechatronic systems, again from Dassault. “We don’t really have any issues with the software products,” Mr Goddard says. “The help files are good and we’ve always got DTE as backup when we can’t figure things out. They are very local and are very reactive when we have problems. It’s a well balanced partnership. We have very capable CAD engineers here, but the systems are so complex they sometimes get to a point where they need outside help or just another pair of eyes.” Paper view Prodrive still produces drawings, although quite a lot of the OEMs are using 3D documentation on the CAD models and phasing out paper drawings. “Drawings are still used on the
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