CLAYTON EQUIPMENT LTD

THE COMPANY:
Clayton Equipment Ltd are the premier supplier of above or below ground haulage equipment in the UK, if not in the World, as their battery, trolley and diesel locomotives are specified more than any other manufacturer. Autodesk Inventor plays a key part in both the development and sales process of these locomotives.

CLAYTON EQUIPMENT DO THE LOCOMOTION WITH INVENTOR

Clayton Equipment Ltd, a market leader in underground rail haulage equipment, has a reputation built on innovative thinking, excellence of execution and solid, yet flexible partnerships with their clients. They have a comprehensive range of locomotives, including battery, trolley and diesel locomotive designs, with operating weights ranging from 1.75 to 40t; designs are often custom built to suit a clients specific requirement. They also have a range of explosion proof battery locomotives developed for Group 1 environments found in the coal mining industry. Initially Medusa users, Claytons in-house CAD team moved over to work with AutoCAD several years ago, when in looking to hire sub-contractors they found few of them had a working knowledge of Medusa but were more likely to use AutoCAD. Having discovered early on that they experienced manufacturing problems with things just not quite fitting when designing in 2D, they quickly started to use the 3D facility within AutoCAD to improve accuracy and productivity. To further enhance this productivity the decision was taken to install Autodesk Inventor, as with it coming from the same Autodesk fold, integration with their original drawings was better. Initially they found it difficult to make changes with so many variations of train models - with 2D they could tweak the frame drawings, but with Inventor they had to recreate the model and in addition there was some opposition from engineers ingrained in the 2D method of working but they now have all 10 design engineers using Inventor with very few problems as more and more of the models are created. Within their standard 25 week locomotive delivery time the engineering cycle is currently running at 10 12 weeks. According to Matthew Pearson, Business Development Manager at Claytons they now feel that by using Inventor they could reduce this to just 7 - 8 weeks. Whilst, moving to Inventor was done for the usual productivity benefits, we have also used it to produce miniHaines type manuals for each of the locomotives, complete with exploding parts detailing how elements have been assembled, Matthew explained. Its also been great for producing sales presentations to prospective clients where weve been able to show the 3D models, spinning various elements around and detailing specific areas as required by the customer. Overall it gives a far more professional element to the sale. Claytons have set themselves up properly for this with a dedicated server for all Inventor models, so

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Great for producing sales presentations to prospective clients where weve been able to show the 3D models, spinning various elements around detailing specific areas as required by the customer. Overall it gives a far more professional element to the sale. We decided to invest in Training Passports offered by Cadspec, which enabled our Engineers to attend as many courses as we liked for the validity of the Passport .... All our Engineers are now advanced users and the Training Passports have proved to be worthwhile.

THE BENEFIT:
Clayton have benefitted from the finite element analysis in Inventor which has solved a problem relating to some heavy torque arms. The analysis tools have enabled them to safely reduce the weight of these components by half. Clayton is now looking at ways of retrofitting the improvements to the old locomotives.

as not to clog up the network with engineering files. To further aid this they have now installed Vault to manage this. Clayton Equipment were recently contracted to complete a project to supply two 30t trolley locomotives for BHP Billiton. These locomotives are for use at the companies Western Mining facility in Australia, a mine which produces Copper and Uranium ore. The mine will utilise the locomotives on its main haulage level where the machines will operate alongside 4 x 25tonne Clayton trolley locomotives supplied in 1999. The locomotives are an advanced driverless system operated from a surface control room. The contract to supply new locomotives has allowed them to revisit the existing design and offer significant improvements to the customer. The machines were originally designed in a 2D CAD system, the new locomotives have been modelled using Inventor, which has allowed them to improve and finesse the design significantly. The 3D modelling has been very beneficial in many ways, during the design phase their Australian customer was able to visit the factory in England prior to manufacture and Clayton were able to demonstrate the design to him utilising the 3D model they have generated. This process enabled the customer to visualise the product far quicker than a set of 2D drawings would have allowed. They have also benefitted from the finite element analysis that Inventor allows them to complete, this has led to the reduction in weight of some of the components to ease fitting, much to the delight of the customer. One particular problem were the torque arms which control the torque reaction

from the gearbox to the frame, previously these torque arms were extremely heavy. Utilising the analysis tools they have been able to safely reduce the weight of these components by half. Clayton is now looking at ways of retrofitting the improvements they have made to the old locomotives. Clayton has also found that the help and support they have received from Cadspec has proved invaluable. Matthew was particularly enthusiastic about the training they had taken with Cadspec. Last year we decided to invest in Training Passports offered by Cadspec which allowed our Engineers to attend as many courses as we liked for the validity of the Passport. This enabled us to complete the specific courses we wanted to complete without the financial worries and restrictions of attending such courses. He continues All our Engineers are now advanced users and the Training Passports have proved to be worthwhile. The locomotives have now been delivered to Australia and will be commissioned in July 2009. For more information Visit us on the web at: http://www.cadspec.co.uk/inventor

Worcester: Haycroft Works, Buckholt Drive Warndon Business Parks Worcester, WR4 9ND

Offices also at: Neath: 01792 323184 Bristol: 0844 847 9795 Derby: 0844 875 0432

Telephone: 0844 856 0701 email: sales@cadspec.co.uk www.cadspec.co.uk

2009

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