CAS E ST U DY

THERMAX LTD.
Streamlining energy and water treatment plant development with SolidWorks

SolidWorks Premium design solutions have enabled Thermax to shorten design cycles and lead-times for its energy and utility plants, and related equipment.

Thermax Ltd. designs, engineers, and builds energy plants, wastewater treatment facilities, and pollution-control systems, as well as associated equipment. Headquartered in Pune, India, the global company operates in 75 countries across Asia-Pacic, Africa and the Middle East, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Europe, the United States, and South America. The companys energy business includes boilers and heaters, energy recovery systems and heating equipment, and absorption chillers and cogeneration plants. The Thermax wastewater management line includes systems for pretreatment and treatment of wastewater, treatment of sewage euent, and chemical conditioning and recycling of water. It also develops air pollution control systems and performance-enhancing chemicals. In addition to meeting its customers energy and heating needs, Thermax provides industry with clean technologies that recover pollutants, thereby reducing hazardous impacts to the environment. To maintain the companys growth prole and continue to meet its customers needs, management decided to upgrade its design and engineering tools from a 2D system to a 3D CAD environment. Specically, Thermax saw 3D as a means for increasing productivity, streamlining development processes, reducing waste, and shortening lead-times. We believed that a 3D approach to plant development would help us cut waste, lessen variability, and ultimately produce improved results, recalls Assistant Manager Sandip Darveshi. To achieve those goals within the organization, we needed a 3D platform that allowed us to realize and sustain productivity gains, not just during implementation but moving forward. Thermax chose SolidWorks Premium software as its 3D development solution because its easy to use, allows access to the open SolidWorks Application Programming Interface (API) for automating key functions, and includes eective communications tools, such as SolidWorks eDrawings. We design everything that we make in SolidWorks because it provides all the design tools that we need, which makes us much faster.

Challenge:
Accelerate development and shorten lead-times for energy and utility plants and equipment.

Solution:
Implement SolidWorks Premium design software to shorten design, engineering, and manufacturing cycles and automate routing of piping systems, BOM creation, and drawing generation.

Results:
Cut drawing lead-time by 70 percent Reduced manufacturing lead-time by 65 percent Eliminated rework Shortened engineering cycle times

Cutting lead times and rework

Since implementing SolidWorks software, Thermax has reduced its manufacturing lead-times by 65 percent while eliminating rework. The company has also shortened engineering cycle times. These productivity gains have allowed Thermax to achieve faster plant delivery, resulting in increased customer satisfaction. Working with SolidWorks tools, were absolutely saving more time and money, Darveshi stresses. SolidWorks is the most user-friendly design tool weve seen and enables us to more eciently and cost-eectively create standardized mechanical components and systems in our plants. This results in fewer errors and less rework, which saves us time and money.

WORKING WITH SOLIDWORKS TOOLS, WERE ABSOLUTELY SAVING MORE TIME AND MONEY. SOLIDWORKS IS THE MOST USER-FRIENDLY DESIGN TOOL WEVE SEEN AND ENABLES US TO MORE EFFICIENTLY AND COST-EFFECTIVELY CREATE STANDARDIZED MECHANICAL COMPONENTS AND SYSTEMS FOR OUR PLANTS. THIS RESULTS IN FEWER ERRORS AND LESS REWORK, WHICH SAVES US TIME AND MONEY.

Routing plant piping systems

A common requirement of Thermax projects is to design pressure vessels, such as boilers and wastewater tanks, then route piping systems throughout the rest of the plant. Using the SolidWorks API, design conguration tools, and SolidWorks Routing capabilities, the company has accelerated this aspect of its design process, which contributes to its faster plant delivery times. We are always working on large facilities with extensive piping runs and under pressure to complete the project quickly, Darveshi explains. With SolidWorks Routing and design conguration tools, we can more quickly complete piping designs and more easily meet our challenging delivery schedules. SolidWorks provides the perfect means for increasing engineering productivity and allowing us to do what we do best.

Sandip Darveshi Assistant Manager

Automating drawing generation

With SolidWorks Premium software, Thermax has automated the creation of 2D engineering drawings and the generation of bills of materials (BOMs). Because the drawings are associated with 3D solid models instead of 2D drafting, reading drawings has become as eortless an experience as creating them. Thermax has reduced drawing lead-times by 70 percent, and its manufacturing team has better drawing data with which to work. The company has also embraced the use of SolidWorks eDrawings for facilitating internal communications among various Thermax departments as well as external communications with customers and partners. Using eDrawings tools, manufacturing personnel can assess the feasibility of manufacturing parts in-house by interrogating the 3D model. With SolidWorks eDrawings, we are able to release drawings that are clean, informationrich, and visually easy to understand by manufacturing personnel, Darveshi notes. Weve found eDrawings les to be extremely useful for understanding and resolving potential manufacturing issues very quickly. Using this tool, we can show models to other departments or to an outside vendor for verication of manufacturability, Darveshi adds. This allows us to identify many of the errors that we simply couldnt catch using 2D tools. 3D visualization with SolidWorks lets us check for interferences, detect collisions, and avoid costly and lengthy delays and rework.

Using SolidWorks Premium software, Thermax can automate critical functions, including drawing generation and the routing of plant piping systems.

Thermax Ltd. Energy House, D-II Block, Plot No. 38 & 39 MIDC Industrial Area Chinchwad, Pune 411019 INDIA Phone: +91 020 66126464/66126362 www.thermaxindia.com VAR: EGS Computers India Pvt. Ltd., Chennai, TN, INDIA

Dassault Systmes SolidWorks Corporation 175 Wyman Street Waltham, MA 02451 USA Phone: 1 800 693 9000 Outside the US: +1 781 810 5011 Email: generalinfo@solidworks.com www.solidworks.com

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