Federal Equipment Company

2016-06-08

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Project Summary
What could make a happily employed engineer leave
his full-time job for a contract position in another
city? “Designing an elevator that had never been
built before,” answers Scott Thompson, a mechani-
cal engineer and now full-time employee at Federal
Equipment Company (www.federalequipment.
com). The Cincinnati, Ohio-based company hired
Thompson to help design a completely new type of
elevator—one that would operate using a verti-
cal, synchronous motor rather than a cable-based
system used by virtually every other elevator in the
world. “Imagine four skateboards on the wall of the
building with a platform between them,” explains
Thompson. “They run up and down using magnets—
like those powering trains. Visualize that and you’ve
mastered the basics of vertical synchronous motor
technology. There’s no rope involved.”
Commissioned by the U.S. Navy, the Advanced
Weapons Elevators (AWE) will ultimately carry to
magazine spaces munitions that come aboard the
new CVN-78 aircraft carrier. When needed, the
elevators will move munitions back up to the flight
deck so they can be loaded on aircraft. And the
AWE will do it all using innovative linear synchro-
nous motor technology. To develop, simulate,
and optimize the groundbreaking AWE design,
Thompson and his colleagues at Federal Equipment
Company are relying on Digital Prototyping and
Autodesk® software, including Autodesk® Inventor®
Professional and Autodesk® Simulation Multiphysics
(formerly Algor® Simulation). With help from
Autodesk software, the team at Federal Equipment
Company has been able to:
• DesignAWEthatmove150feetperminute,accel-
eratetofullspeedintwoseconds,andboast200
percent more load capacity than legacy elevators
• Passlivedynamicdesignanalysismethod(DDAM)
testing the first time, potentially saving hundreds
of thousands of dollars
• CollaborateeectivelywithshipbuilderNorthrop
Grumman Corporation, speeding design reviews
and iterations
The Challenge
When Northrop Grumman awarded Federal the
AWEUS$55millionproject,italsodeliveredseveral
thorny challenges for them to overcome. Doug
Ridenour, president of Federal Equipment Company,
explains, “The Navy had two major constraints.
The load carrying capacity of each elevator had to
reach24,000poundswith150percentoverload
capacity—more than double the capacity of legacy
weapons elevators. In addition, the elevator system
had to be completely ropeless.”
The Solution
To tackle these challenges, Federal used Autodesk
Inventor Professional software to develop an
accurate digital prototype of the AWE, Autodesk
Simulation Multiphysics software to simulate its
real-world performance, AutoCAD® Electrical to
design electrical controls, and Autodesk® Vault to
manage the project’s data. Northrop Grumman
provided the x-y-z space constraints of the AWE
trunks as well as obstacles within them. It then gave
Federal free reign to design within that envelope
using linear synchronous motor technology. From
the beginning, engineers turned to Autodesk
Inventor software to experiment with design ideas.
“It’s so easy to just start designing in Inventor,”
says Thompson. “You don’t have to have everything
planned out, so you can build on ideas quickly.”
U.S. Navy goes ropeless.
Federal Equipment Company designs
highly innovative elevators for the U.S.
Navy with help from Autodesk.
Federal Equipment Company
Customer Success Story
Autodesk® Inventor® Professional
Autodesk® Simulation Multiphysics
(formerly Autodesk® Algor® Simulation)
AutoCAD® Electrical
Autodesk® Vault
Autodesk® Revit®
The DDAM in Autodesk
Simulation Multiphysics
showed us where we
needed to make fixes and
where we’d overdesigned.
As a result, we shaved
some mass from the
design, which was a plus.
—Scott Thompson
Mechanical Engineer
Federal Equipment Company
Designs that Float
One of the challenges Federal faced was finding
the right balance between strength and weight.
Ross Eubanks, AWE project manager at Federal,
says, “Because the elevators are going into a Navy
vessel, they must be designed and built like a tank.
However, because it’s a ship, you’ve got to minimize
weight wherever possible.”
With Inventor, the team at Federal could quickly
check weight and center of gravity as they designed,
letting them know the impact of their design
choices. “It saved us an immeasurable amount of
time,” notes Thompson. “It also let us easily provide
Northrop with the information it needed to control
the ship’s waterline.”
Getting Battle-Ready
To check whether its design met rigorous strength
requirements, Federal performed initial finite ele-
ment analysis (FEA) on assemblies in Autodesk
Inventor Professional and more advanced FEA in
Autodesk Simulation Multiphysics. Federal also relied
on the DDAM capabilities in Autodesk Simulation
Multiphysics to simulate the AWE model’s response
to shocks, such as those produced by underwater
explosions. By running the DDAM simulation in
Autodesk Simulation Multiphysics, the company
identified potential problems before it performed the
$400,000livetests.Thompsonexplains,“TheDDAM
in Autodesk Simulation showed us where we needed
to make some fixes and where we’d overdesigned. As
a result, we shaved some mass from the design, which
was a plus, and passed the live test the first time.”
Easier Collaboration
Both Federal and Northrop use Autodesk Inventor
software, and easily exchanged native Inventor files
throughout the project. “We’d pass the data back
and forth and when someone found an issue, they
would shoot the data set back, pointing out the
problem,” says Thompson. “If a picture is worth a
thousandwords,amodelisworth10,000.”
In addition, the collaboration facilitated by Digital
Prototyping helped Federal optimize designs for
manufacturability, reducing cost overruns associ-
ated with production stoppages and rework. “Digital
prototypes help answer manufacturing questions
before prints hit our shop floor,” explains Eubanks.
“By looking at the 3D model, our manufactur-
ing team was able to suggest improvements to
the design for manufacturability, which therefore
decreased production costs.”
Streamlining Manufacturing
Federal has to document every last screw for the
Navy, which wasn’t a problem with the automatic
bill of materials (BOM) functionality in Autodesk
Inventor. It’s helped Federal keep track of materials
in assemblies comprised of thousands of parts. The
company has even organized BOMs to streamline
manufacturing. “We restructured our BOMs so they
are in the same basic order, even though each eleva-
torisslightlydierent,”explainsThompson.“Asa
result, when manufacturing pulls the BOM into their
system, it functions better.”
Results
AsofFebruary2011,Federalhasdeliveredtwoof
the AWE and a third is in the shop. Production on
thelastofthe11willbeginwithinthenextyear.
Federal credits the conceptualization and visu-
alization capabilities in Autodesk software with
facilitating design and manufacturing innovation
throughout the AWE development process. In
fact, the company’s president believes Autodesk
software has made Federal even more valuable
to customers like Northrop Grumman. “Digital
Prototyping helps us solve our customers’ prob-
lems,” Ridenour says. “As a result, we become a
significant asset to them.”
While Federal’s president sees the advantages
of Digital Prototyping from an eagle’s view, the
engineers on the ground appreciate how much
Digital Prototyping speeds the design process and
Analyzing models before manufacturing helps Federal optimize
designs for manufacturability, reliability, strength, and cost.
Images courtesy of Federal Equipment Company
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therighttoalterproductandservicesoerings,andspecicationsandpricingatanytimewithoutnotice,andisnotresponsiblefortypographicalor
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Autodesk Authorized Reseller Advanced Solutions has
helped Federal pave the way to innovation. Thompson
notes, “Advanced Solutions has helped us numerous times,
especially during transitions when we upgrade or adopt new
software.I’veworkedwithanumberofdierentsoftware
vendors, and Advanced Solutions has been wonderful,
especially compared to others.”
improves accuracy. “The biggest advantage from
Digital Prototyping is the reuse of information.
It can drastically reduce errors and design time,”
Thompson notes.
Federal’s reliance on Autodesk software goes
well beyond the AWE project. The company uses
Autodesk® Revit® building information modeling
(BIM) software to design heliports, finding collisions
earlier in the design process and enabling collabora-
tion with architects and engineers using BIM.
“We’re definitely a big fan of Autodesk,” concludes
Ridenour.
For More Information
To find out how Autodesk software and
Digital Prototyping can help you explore
your designs before they’re built, visit
www.autodesk.com/digitalprototyping.

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