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Chemical Decontamination Project
Earl Penor, Westinghouse's Richland Service Center
The following is an article that was submitted to a couple of Japanese Magazines.
Earl Penor Jr. is the Lead Mechanical Designer for Westinghouse's Richland Service Center, in Richland,Washington (State.) This Service Center primarily provides Chemical Decontamination Services for Nuclear Power Facilities World wide.
Earl is a 'power' AutoCad user, and has been using AutoCAD for mechanical design nearly since its inception. Two years ago, his division obtained a contract that demanded the use of 3D mechanical design. Earl attended several seminars on 3D programs and explored the use of leading 3D solid modeling. All of those proved to be difficult to learn and use even by a seasoned CAD designer.
Initially, when Earl discovered SketchUp, he did not think it was applicable to mechanical design and ignored it. But he decided to experiment with what SketchUp could do. To his surprise, in a few days time, he was designing some very complex Equipment for use at Westinghouse. In addition, he found that he could produce large, complicated, Equipment Layouts in 3D for its customers. Westinghouse initiated a Program called 'Customer 1st.' Its theme is to 'delight' its Customers with everything it does. Earl soon found SketchUp to be doing exactly that!
Earl also found that he could produce shop drawings using SketchUp in a fraction of the time it usually takes to do them in 2D CAD. Currently, his design group uses SketchUp for almost all design projects except for P&ID (piping and instrumentation diagrams).
Just this week, the Company completed the manufacturing of a 44 foot (about 13.4 meters) Mobile Van that houses several massive piping systems. This Mobile Unit goes to Nuclear Power Plants to perform chemical cleanings of large steam generators. The Mobile Unit weighs almost 60,000 Lbs.
Except for the electrical designs, all of the drawings were done in SketchUp.
Earl Penor Jr. says:
'SketchUp, truly is remarkable software and I am proving that it is not just for Architects. At a price of 69,000 YEN even the smallest Company can afford it. Plus, it is so easy to learn, even a child can use it.'
Included in images displayed below is an image from the original design created in SketchUp, the final project, and a couple pictures to give you an idea of the massive size of this Unit.
"It was built by an outside firm and we finished up the small bore Piping before shipping it, which is why you see it being positioned at one of the roll-up Doors at our Fab Shop. It would not fit all the way in our Shop, as you can see from the Photos. It is now finished, and today, it is in Georgia being hooked up to a Nuclear Power Plant getting ready to Decontaminate all four of their giant Steam Generators!"
