A recipe for success

The Kaspar Schulz family business was established in 1677 in the beer city of Bamberg, Germany. It is recognized as one of the oldest manufacturers of brewing machinery in the world. The 10th generation owner, graduate engineer Johannes Schulz-Hess, manages about 125 employees.

The custom production of brew houses and complete systems for all beer types, as well as microbreweries for operation in restaurants, continues to expand. Right now, a new facility is being constructed for building and testing systems that will be delivered throughout the world.

The combination of Kaspar Schulz’s brewing tradition and new technologies is proving to be a recipe for success. For example, the company has developed a gentle boiling method for wort, where a masher with a radial agitator helps provide consistent product quality in spite of different raw materials or a compact malt house. With this system, it is now possible to germinate and kiln-dry in one drum in conjunction with the most modern control technology. As a result, microbreweries are able to raise their brand identity and profile in a cost-effective manner. Such solutions are developed in open offices on one floor of the administrative building in a dialog between brewery production engineers and designers.

Enjoying 10 years of success with Solid Edge

In 2004, product development was shifted to new 3D technology – the 2D/3D computer-aided design (CAD) system Solid Edge® software from product lifecycle management (PLM) specialist Siemens Digital Industries Software.

“Solid Edge convinced us with its convenient module for pipe routing, XpresRoute, outstanding 2D-functionalities and the intuitive user guide,” says Christian Montag, the team leader of design and CAD officer at Kaspar Schulz. “In addition, a module for sheet metal construction was integrated right from the start. We have not regretted our decision!”

Over the years, Solid Edge was installed on additional workstations, as needed. During this time, Siemens Digital Industries Software continuously updated the software, keeping Solid Edge at the leading edge of product development technology.

“We aim to regularly install the newest version because there are always so many improvements,” says Montag. He became familiar with these improvements at the customer days event sponsored by Solid System Team, a Siemens Digital Industries Software partner. Solid System Team also assists with training programs and support. “They always respond quickly when we have questions,” says Montag.

The Solid System Team also provides two other solutions, Smap3D PDM and Smap3D Plant Design. The latter provides additional convenience in the design, planning and 3D design of pipelines with the piping as well as the piping and instrumentation diagram (P&ID) modules.

Utilizing synchronous technology

One of two teams of designers works together on an individual project that is dimensioned with the building plans of the client. The architect provides DXF or DWG files that are read and further processed with Solid Edge.

“Data exchange with the architects, import as well as export, works very well,” says Montag. “We mainly request third party data about parts from suppliers in the STEP file format, and we’ve never had any problems processing that data.”

Different components of the plant are developed by individual members of the team. The cylindrical containers are available as parameterized modules in a type of modular system. The variables can be accessed via Excel® spreadsheet software so that, in a short time, new specifications with the required dimensions and capacities are available.

“That is why we continue to build our models sequentially,” says Montag. “We use the synchronous technology of Solid Edge with its speedy options for direct processing above all for the modification of third- party data.”

All sheet metal parts are defined and developed within the Solid Edge Sheet Metal environment. A material table contains all the parameters for sheet copper or high-grade steel V2A or V4A, in thicknesses of between 2 and 25 millimeters. Using a number of predefined values, the module can be used to calculate all the necessary parameters for sheet metal processing, from floor production to cutting cones to size. The final contour data is then passed on in DXF format to the plasma cutting equipment.