Contact UsCase Study | Company Background
As a major portion of facilities engineering services for non-ferrous mining industry, Hatch Ltd. In Toronto Ontario, Canada, designs autoclaves – giant vessels with internal agitators that mix slurry material under intense heat and pressure to extract metals such as gold, silver, nickel, and copper. A concrete understanding in the particulars of the mining industry, along with expertise in structural and thermal analysis, is required to optimize designs & ROI.
Structural and Thermal Analysis
Moreover, each autoclave must be custom designed for the ore composition at different mine sites. Building and testing prototypes to verify proper operation is prohibitive, due to the equipment size and the high cost of materials of construction. With hundreds of millions to several billion dollars at stake, designs must be right the first time.
Challenge | Integrating Software to Meet Structural and Thermal Requirements
Consequently, Hatch meets these challenges with Ansys FEA software for structural and thermal analysis to optimize designs for performance and economy. The company relies heavily on SimuTech Group services for training, consulting, and mentoring.
Similarly, in one project SimuTech Group assisted in developing an ICEM parametric model for improved meshing of autoclave components. In another, SimuTech Group engineers configured a solution for running analyses faster through distributed computing across multiple platforms. Again, the Structural and Thermal Analysis was designed especially for the companies industry needs. Such supplemental/specialized support is not common across the industry at large.
Solution | Optimize Designs & ROI
“Analysis software is written by its developers to satisfy a broad range of industries. Best applying the programs for applications in a particular industry such as ours requires insights into the nuances of the software for performing those specialty tasks, however. SimuTech Group has the know-how in helping us optimize use of the technology for our work. They’re really up on the applications and problems we face every day at Hatch.”
We would not have met a critical customer deadline without SimuTech Group’s help
-Ted Barrette, Supervising Mechanical Engineer in the Hatch Autoclave Group
