Equipos Industriales del Golfo, S.A. (EIGSA) is a Mexican company dedicated to the design, manufacture, maintenance and installation of pressure vessels, heat exchangers, air coolers and gas separators. The company was founded in 1988, focusing primarily on the repair of process equipment such as air coolers and heat exchangers. In 1996, EIGSA expanded the scope of its business to include thermal and mechanical design, detailed design and complete manufacturing of equipment.

A major supplier of process equipment for energy industries

EIGSA’s vision is to maintain leadership in the design and supply of process equipment for Mexico’s energy industry, using research and development to deliver technologically advanced solutions at competitive prices. The company’s main customers are Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), the state-owned petroleum company, and Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE), the state-owned electric utility. EIGSA works with PEMEX in all of the company’s business segments, including petrochemicals, refining, exploration and production and secondary petrochemicals. Over the past five years, EIGSA has focused more on exploration and production, particularly on process equipment used in offshore oil installations.

EIGSA also provides equipment and services to major oil, gas and process engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firms including ICA Flour, McDermott, Cameron, Schlumberger, Cotemar, Avanzia and Demar.

Reducing cycle time

As the company’s business expanded, EIGSA sought to improve efficiency and reduce cycle times in design, procurement and construction of its specialized process equipment. The goal was to reduce errors in manufacturing and improve customer response time. “Reducing response time is very important because technical and commercial offers in the public sector are governed by laws of acquisitions, leases and services, and completion times are therefore very limited,” explains Gerardo Espinosa Bravo, chief operating officer at EIGSA.

To achieve its objectives, EIGSA began a search for advanced-technology solutions for design, analysis and manufacturing. After a comparison of offerings from several vendors, EIGSA selected Siemens Digital Industries Software as its preferred vendor.

EIGSA decided to work with Siemens Digital Industries Software for several reasons. We offer a full suite of integrated solutions that address the entire design-through-manufacturing process, and the applications are scalable, enabling EIGSA to optimize its economic investments and expand the system based on project needs. In addition, EIGSA valued the fact that Siemens owns and develops Parasolid® software, the widely used geometry engine for 3D solutions.

EIGSA first implemented Solid Edge in its design engineering group, and later expanded use of Solid Edge to detailed engineering and manufacturing. “We started with one license of Solid Edge, and now we have 14 licenses,” says Espinosa Bravo.

Some features of the Siemens PLM solutions are especially useful in EIGSA’s development process. One example is the weld design capability, which enables engineers to map weld locations, taking into account the materials and machines involved in the welding process. The weld maps aid in visualization of the manufacturing process and also help quality managers to develop documentation required for quality records.