IOM makes breakfast the day's most important meal
Published Wed 12 Aug 2009
A.T. Ferrell food processing machinery's design and engineering wins Autodesk Inventor of the Month.
The flakes in corn flakes, the toffee in chocolate bars and the oats in oatmeal all have one thing in common: they were probably flattened, rolled or otherwise processed by equipment from A.T. Ferrell, who have been serving the agricultural, food and industrial markets since 1869.
Using high pressure rollers to flatten grains to the exact thickness required to create the perfect corn flake, for example, or to crack a piece of toffee without crushing it. Using Inventor software enables A.T. Ferrell to take advantage of built-in features such as parametric modeling and finite element analysis so the company’s machines can successfully operate under high-pressure conditions while meeting all tolerance requirements.
“Using Inventor software to create a 3D digital prototype means we no longer have to cut metal to prove the feasibility of a design,” said Allen Gager, a design engineer and CAD manager at A.T. Ferrell. “We know exactly how a mill will perform before it’s been built. Additionally, Autodesk Vault Workgroup helps us keep track of our designs and improves our ability to reuse designs and components, which speeds the development of new products.”
