York International Corp. (www.york.com) one of America's largest independent suppliers of heating, ventilation, AC and refrigeration equipment, sustains its premier supplier status by driving efficiencies throughout its business. As part of that drive, the company recognizes the value of tight integration between 2D and 3D design information and the critical role played by data-management tools that can handle both.
To address these critical manufacturing needs, the company's Refrigeration Systems Division uses four software packages from Autodesk Inc. (www.autodesk.com): Autodesk Inventor mechanical-design software, Autodesk Vault, Autodesk Productstream and AutoCad Electrical. This combination of software lets the division quickly and efficiently create, manage and share complex industrial-refrigeration equipment designs while streamlining its design-to-manufacture process through a tight integration and use of both 2D and 3D design applications.
"Re-using designs, increasing automation and collaborative engineering top the list of process improvements that help us meet our goals, and our Autodesk solution forms the foundation on which those improvements are possible," says Steve Brown, manager of Pressure Vessel Engineering at the Refrigeration division. The combined software programs has allowed the division to increase its design output by nearly 30 percent with essentially the same engineering resources, Brown says.
Autodesk Vault lets York International's cross-functional teams manage and access current 2D and 3D designs, while the Productstream program automates the management of engineering changes. The AutoCad Electrical program gives the company the ability to create and modify electrical drawings. The electrical software uses Autodesk's DWF design specification to share design information.
