INDUSTRY 4.0 & AUTOMATION SEEING CHALLENGES THROUGH NEW EYES
the barrier and allowing them to interact with
physical objects/powder within the
containment enclosure.
Explains Iain Crossley, managing director
of Hosakawa Micron: “When we are asked to
make these, we are usually asked to
undertake ergonomic assessments, as
people have to be able to reach inside,
touch, feel or move things, or look at how
something works. We also have to take
account of safety and validation, too.”
Traditionally, having gained customer
approval, a wood-and-plastic mock-up is built.
“Not only is that a slow process, you are also
building something that is never going to be
used and which will have to be disposed of;
not brilliant for the environment,” Crossley
expands.
The company started to look at virtual
reality, but because there was no longer a
physical barrier, for ergonomic assessment a
better way was required. “Our idea was to
couple the real front of the isolator, the glass
panel, the gloves, structure and opening, to
a virtual model behind. We also needed to
index every movement that is happening in
the model. But when we started to look at it,
we didn’t know where to start.”
Hosakawa Micron approached Autodesk
and the solution was its VRED, 3D
Digital Ambassadors are students that
can bring a fresh perspective to a task,
says Asif Moghal, inset
helps designers and
engineers create product
didn’t have the skillset to employ it, but
Autodesk was able to place two digital
ambassadors, one located within the
company for the best part of a summer, to
drive the project on.
The time saving was some four to ve
weeks out of a 32-week prototype
programme, Crossley says, while it is now
only necessary to ship the dummy front to
customers, rather than a complete
enclosure.
Nicole Pellizzon, a second-year
aeronautical engineering undergraduate at
Imperial College London, is a Digital
Ambassador. She got involved with Autodesk
last year via a competition involving
generative design and is now a Fusion 360
teacher. Via the Digital Catalyst programme,
she has been working with UK start-up
Etergo based in Holland, which is developing
an electric motorscooter. She has been
supporting the company from the UK, rather
underlining Autodesk’s message that
includes the potential for distributed
collaborative working supported by cloudbased
software tools. Says Pellizon: “I am
looking at how generative design within
Fusion 360 can be used to lighten
components, increasing range per charge.”
She has some 50 hours’ experience with
generative design and adds: “It’s a very
interesting skillset to have. It isn’t dif cult to
physically set up the model, but it is a very
different way of thinking. There is almost an
advantage as I don’t know the traditional
way of doing it. Hopefully, when I graduate,
generative design will be a highly soughtafter
skill.”
As to how Digital Ambassadors are
helping out in the manufacturing end of
matters, Moghal says: “There are, in fact,
some projects in the pipeline where the
Adds Paul Sohi,
and more available, the way in which we
design things inherently changes too.
“Generative design has demonstrated
that humans are only capable of seeing a
small portion of the possibilities of
manufacturing processes available to us
today – see what kind of forms 5-axis
machining-constrained generative design
produces. It therefore stands to reason that
as both the tools of design and the
manufacturing processes advance, we will
also see new products. It is dangerous to
assume that manufacturing leads design,
it is usually the other way around. These
tools are to fabricate ideas, not to box ideas
into the limits of their processes.
“Eventually we will arrive at a point where
design and manufacturing are so closely
related and linked, one cannot exist without
considering the other.”
What seems clear is that wider
application of Autodesk’s revolutionary
design and manufacturing tools are greatly
aided by a new perspective from a new
generation.
50 September 2019 www.machinery.co.uk @MachineryTweets
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visualisation software that
presentations, design reviews,
and virtual prototypes. The company
Digital Catalysts will be looking at
innovation in the machining of
parts. However, it’s still too
early to discuss the projects in
more detail.”
evangelist and iconic
projects lead at Autodesk:
“Anything designed to be
manufactured requires an
inherent knowledge of the
manufacturing processes available.
As processes become more advanced
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