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News Release from: Bentley Systems
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 16 May 2006
Veco Honoured With BE Award
Veco used 3D modeling and laser scanning technology to save hundreds of thousands of dollars on a gas platform equipment retrofit in Alaska's North Cook Inlet field.
Veco, a leading provider of project services to the energy, resource, and process industries, used 3D modeling and laser scanning technology to save hundreds of thousands of dollars on a gas platform equipment retrofit in Alaska's North Cook Inlet field The project - Tyonek Production Separator - won Veco a BE Award in the category "Plant: Technology for Retrofit." The BE Awards of Excellence, which are selected by an independent jury of industry experts and presented at an evening ceremony during the annual BE Conference, honour the extraordinary work of Bentley users improving the world's infrastructure
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 30 Nov 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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Space is always in short supply on offshore gas platforms, which makes equipment additions a real challenge.
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The trick is to fit the new equipment into the existing plant while avoiding interferences.
Fewer interferences mean less rework - and fewer dollars spent hauling people and equipment to and from the platform via helicopter.
"Our ability to perform interference checking on the 3D model and point cloud reduced the amount of rework required in this project to less than 1 percent," said Mark Christenson, Design Technologies Manager for Veco.
"We calculated that our ability to detect a fit problem with the nozzles saved $206,000 in rework".
"We also found interference problems with a coalescing filter that saved $166,000".
"By nearly eliminating interference on piping, 3D modeling saved another $72,000".
"Finally, the improved communications provided by modeling saved $36,000 in trips to and from the platform." Retrofits are particularly difficult on older platforms since accurate as-built drawings or models generally don't exist.
Often, engineers and designers end up making numerous trips out to the platform in order to model the existing design.
This gives them a starting point for the new design work.
Even then, up to 40 percent of the project may still need to be reworked, which significantly drives up construction costs.
Veco used laser scanning and 3D modeling to cut the cost of adding a production separator to the ConocoPhillips' Tyonek platform.
The company's streamlined approach to this type of work generates the information needed to avoid interferences between existing and new equipment.
At the same time, it saves the time required to convert the point cloud created by laser scanning into a coherent model.
Veco's small crew used Leica's HDS2500 time-of-flight laser scanner to create a point cloud of the existing equipment in the area in which the new separator would be added.
It took them two days at a cost of only $30,000.
Rather than using the point cloud generated as a reference to create a detailed as-built model of the existing plant, Veco designers used Bentley CloudWorx software to move the point cloud directly into Bentley AutoPLANT.
They were then able to work with the data using Bentley's AutoPLANT rendering, visualization, and interference checking tools.
The designers modeled a few of the most critical existing components using Bentley AutoPLANT to improve the clarity, while leaving the rest of the point cloud as is.
Finally, they used AutoPLANT to design the new separator, while maintaining complete knowledge of the environment into which the new equipment would be fitted. Request free introductory details about products from Bentley Systems ...
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