Process equipment is used in processing chemicals and materials and manufactures most of the medicinal products in the pharmaceutical industry we are all familiar with. This takes place in rooms where the reactors are housed which need to be as accessible as possible both at the top, where the product is fed in, as well as at the bottom.
How can BIM help in implementing process equipment?
Process equipment is one of the primary parts of a building in the pharmaceutical industry and hence works to extremely high quality standards. In this post we summarise the features of these areas and how BIM can help to implement them with utmost quality assurance.
Utmost precision
Process equipment in pharma calls for utmost precision as it has to be designed to the millimetre in order to perform properly. A mistake can easily cost a significant amount of money. BIM methodology is the best partner when it comes to pre-designing process equipment since it delivers millimetric precision that more traditional methods cannot achieve.
Accessibility for operations
As we mentioned in another post, one of the main advantages afforded by BIM in the pharmaceutical industry is crash control of the facilities, either between them or with the structure of the building. Yet this help is not enough in implementing process equipment since you also need to check you can operate with assured accessibility and safety.
At A3D we can recreate the process equipment using our ecosystem of families which we have generated and expanded anchored in our experience in pharmaceutical industry projects. Another equally good option is to slot a 3D model made by the manufacturer into the BIM model.
Owner’s approval
Setting up process equipment is one of the most important procedures for a pharmaceutical industry building owner. Approval of this equipment by the client is thus often contingent on several verifications and checks where each piece of equipment is broken down to the last millimetre.
The 3D preview provided by BIM is thus a great help to enable the owner to see in detail what’s going to be built with safeguards and no unpleasant surprises while also making any changes needed for approval.
Our experience
Our experience in implementing process equipment with BIM could not be more encouraging. Our proprietary BIM libraries tailored to the pharmaceutical industry have been a key factor in our projects since they mean the manufacturer’s equipment can be input into the BIM model with no loss of precision and with utmost flexibility. The end result confirms just how useful this methodology is.
