Integrated maintenance and design software has been introduced by Cadmatic Oy, Finland, which specialises in 3D design software for the process industry. Maintenance functions interface to the company's virtual reality system used in process plant design. The company says that this is the first time that virtual 3D computer aided design software has been able to interface effectively in this way.  This interface facilitates maintenance planning and helps plant operators save overall costs throughout the entire lifecycle of the plant from design, contruction, operation and maintenance.

The first pilot installation for the new maintenance concept is at a Kirkniemi Mill, owned by Metsä-Serla, a major European forestry group.
"This is one of the largest projects that has been designed with the 3D software and we have also integrated the 3D model into the PDM system from the start," says Jukka Rantala, marketing manager ,Cadmatic Oy.
Engineering and other relevant data required for the plant design is transferred directly into the maintenance system for use once the plant is in operation. This saves having to feed in the same information twice. "It means that plant operators can capitalise on their original design investment," says Rantala, " This software has been developed to improve the operational reliability of the plant."
The interface also allows the plant maintenance system to be viewed in a virtual 3D plant environment. A user sitting at a monitor can 'walk' through the different sections of a mill or plant and access maintenance data by clicking objects with a mouse. Technical data relevant to an object
such as a machine or equipment is shown including service history, spare parts and their location, documents such as service manuals and drawings. This means the user is not required to remember any equipment codes or labels. Cadmatic 3D software runs on standard personal computers both under Windows NT and Unix.

Links to other systems
A key feature of the system is that the 3D model can interface with the company's own maintenance software as well as other systems such as SAP R/3 one of the leading information systems used in the process industry. At
Kirkniemi, for example, this link allows the transfer of engineering and maintenance data to SAP R/3.
Cadmatic is one of the leading suppliers of 3D CAD/CAM/CAE systems to the process industry.The company is part of Elomatic Limited, a Scandinavian consulting and engineering firm with a turnover of US $ 27 million and 380 employees. The company has more than 1,000 licenses for its
software in 25 countries around the world.

Captions
Figure 1: With virtual reality software, designers can walk around a plant before it is constructed.

Figure 2: The pilot installation that includes the 3D maintenance and its associated interface is at Kirkniemi, a paper mill near Helsinki in Finland.

For more information contact:
Jukka Rantala
Marketing Manager, Process Industries
Elomatic/Cadmatic Ltd
Vähäheikkiläntie 37
FIN-20810 Turku
Finland
Tel: +358 2 412 411
Fax: +358 2 412 4444
E-mail: Jukka.Rantala@cadmatic.com

Press release images