Douglas Equipment Casestudy (PDF 1264 Kb) - Cadspec

THE COMPANY:
Douglas Equipment’s designs
for their aviation towing
tractors contain a mixture of
electrical and mechanical
components, so they required
a package that offered 3D
capabilities but also the 2D
schematic capability for
producing drawing schematics.
Autodesk Inventor and
AutoCAD Electrical provided
the solution.
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Cheltenham-based Douglas Equipment was
founded in 1947 and has grown to become one of
the world’s leading suppliers of aviation towing
tractors. The firm’s products are so widely used
that two of its vehicles, the TBL600 Tugmaster
and DC12 aircraft towing tractor, featured in the
last James Bond movie, Casino Royale.
Both vehicles were designed using Autodesk
Inventor and Douglas even specially adapted one
of the designs for the film, modifying the vehicle to
travel at 50mph, as opposed to the usual 15mph,
for an action scene. The company used existing
and modified vehicles after being approached by
Action Vehicles on behalf of Pinewood Studios
where the movie was filmed. Other Douglas
vehicles were in the background during filming at
Prague airport in the Czech Republic.
UP, UP AND AWAY
The company first introduced its Douglas-Kalmar
range of vehicles in 1989, which are towbarless
aircraft handling tractors. The vehicles are used to
move aircraft away from airport gates as well as
between different areas of the airport such as into
hangers or between gates. The range has been so
successful that it has helped the company become
the foremost manufacturer for the aviation
industry. Douglas Equipment now has units in
operation throughout Europe, Scandinavia, North
America, Middle East, Africa, South East Asia and
the Far East.
Douglas had been using Radan software due to its
sheet metal manufacturing focus but needed to
look for increased 3D capabilities, so decided it
was time to upgrade its design software. Danny
Hyatt, senior design engineer explains, “As our
designs contain a mixture of electrical and
mechanical components, we needed a package that
offered 3D capabilities but also the 2D schematic
capability for producing drawing schematics. Due
to the limited 3D capabilities of Radan and the
increasing complexity of our products, a new
system was required.”
Having reached this decision, Douglas began
researching the available products. “We did a
search on the current players in the market place
and subsequently looked at a number of different
products such as Inventor on the 3D side and
AutoCAD Electrical on the electrical side.”
COMPATIBILITY IS KEY
As the company had used AutoCAD in the past it
played a factor in the decision. “Finding a package
that supplied integration between 2D/3D and
electrical systems proved very difficult without
spending thousands of pounds on a bespoke
designed package. We settled on a combination of
seats in Inventor Series, Inventor Professional and
AutoCAD Electrical.
“One reason behind our decision however was
the fact that when Solid Edge and SolidWorks gave
us a demonstration of the electrical integration
“Real time savings are seen on the shop floor, with digital prototyping ensuring that vehicle
designs are more detailed when they reach the construction stage, reducing the build time.
Errors or inconsistencies in our designs are eliminated , as mistakes are spotted at the drawing
board stage rather than on the shop floor.”
Danny Hyatt, Senior Design Engineer, Douglas Equipment

THE BENEFIT:
Digital Prototyping has
provided not only real
time savings on the
shop floor but also
cost savings as it
eliminates any errors
spotted at the
drawing board stage.
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offered by their products, both were based on
AutoCAD. Were we to have gone with any of the
other products we were contemplating we would
also have had to purchase a license of AutoCAD
to carry out the electrical side of the designs, so
we decided it made sense to go with Autodesk
and buy everything together.” adds Hyatt.
Another important factor was that Autodesk
Inventor also offered digital prototyping
capabilities, which would allow the firm to
produce more accurate designs by testing and
analysing performance at the design stage. This
reduces the chance of costly mistakes going
un-noticed until the build stage, when they can
become costly to rectify.
Douglas worked with Autodesk reseller Cadspec
for the implementation of the software, and also
selected product training for Inventor from the
firm. Hyatt says of the relationship with Cadspec,
“They are always there if we have any questions
or problems, to the extent that one of their guys
lives locally to our offices and if we have any
trouble he will call in on his way into work to fix
it. In this respect they have been able to address
any issues we have straight away.”
Wayne Kite of Cadspec explains their role in the
implementation process. “We have been working
with Douglas since their decision to upgrade two
years ago and we have a particularly good
relationship with them. Danny Hyatt knew the
system he wanted and how it needed to work, so
we dedicated time to them to achieve this.”
In terms of the training Hyatt says that although
Inventor and Electrical are easy to pick up, “as
with any new software there is a learning curve,
but we have found the new system fairly straightforward
and have been very pleased with
Cadspec’s training. In addition to the Inventor
training we received through Cadspec, we also
invested in AutoCAD Electrical training with
Aceri.”
TUGS AWAY
Having completed the implementation process
Douglas is now using Inventor and AutoCAD
Electrical to design all of its new products, the
first of which was a new electric vehicle of the
Japanese Ministry of Defence. “The vehicle was
designed completely using Inventor. We were able
to do a complete design (including full FEA analysis
using ANSYS design space linked to the Inventor
model) and BOM using the software and even
went as far as producing nut/bolt lists for the
customer. All of the electrical systems were designed
in 3D, harnesses, junction box layouts etc
and schematics completed in AutoCAD Electrical.
This vehicle in particular was very critical on space
and weight. Inventor helped us to refine the
design to achieve the customer’s specification,”
explains Hyatt.
Douglas is also in the process of transferring the
majority of its legacy data to Inventor using
Autodesk Productstream. “We are now
converting our entire drawing database which
consists of multitude of different drawing
formats; scanned printed (TIFF) documents, DWF,
DWG, DXF and Radan drawings into one
consolidated drawing database of data to be held
in the Vault (via Productstream). RADAN 3D
models are being converted into true Inventor
models but in order to use the data immediately
we are using SAT data directly mixed with true
Inventor data in 3D,” explains Mr Hyatt.
Again Douglas worked with Cadspec for this
aspect of the process. “In order to achieve the
required results, we had to customise Productstream
to fit with Douglas’ system,” explains Kite.
So far Douglas has completed the design of five
entire vehicles in Inventor and is in the process of
transferring a further six designs into Inventor.
The remaining designs will stay as DWF files in a
database of drawings.
TIME SAVINGS
Having got to grips with the software Mr Hyatt
says that the main benefit to Douglas has been the
fact that the company is now able to develop a
more complete design process. This has speeded
up the design to build cycle as Mr Hyatt explains.
“We are spending more time on the initial design
process as our plans are a lot more detailed. Real
time savings, however, are seen on the shop floor,
with digital prototyping ensuring that vehicle
designs are more detailed when they reach the
construction stage, reducing the build time. Errors
or inconsistencies in our designs are eliminated, as
mistakes are spotted at the drawing board stage
rather than on the shop floor.”
The new Douglas designs have been a big hit with
positive feedback from new clients and those
involved in the construction of the vehicles. “Our
guys on the shop floor have been particularly
impressed by the level of detail in the new
designs,” adds Mr Hyatt.
Douglas is also able to produce build manuals for
its products, available to manufacturers on the
shop floor as well as to technical customers,
providing detailed information on the products.
READY FOR TAKE OFF
Looking forward, Danny Hyatt says that the
company would like to tailor the software to
better suit its specific needs. “Currently Inventor
is satisfying around 80% of our needs,” he says,
“and with specific tailoring it should be able to
meet the remaining 20% of our requirements. And
we may at some point invest in 3ds Max Design to
offer enhanced 3D visualisation capabilities.”
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2009
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