KONRAD Forsttechnik GmbH from Preitenegg, Austria, has already amassed a large number of research and innovation awards. The family enterprise employs about 90 staff members for building about 260 special machines for timber harvesting annually. One priority of its products is their suitability for terrain with difficult accessibility such as precipices or swamps. The export quota of 60% is mainly sold to Central Europe but also to South Africa, Malaysia, Brazil or Siberia.
Complex technology – easy handling
Technical highlights such as separately driven and steerable wheels, remotely piloted cable crane systems, sensors and on-board calculation for cutting to length, a large amount of control electronics in the control cabin or complete truck superstructures need a planning tool that is as innovative as it is reliable. Because the manufacture is 90% external, this moreover requires an exceedingly high quality of the diagrams. After a thorough check of the market, KONRAD has therefore opted for Engineering Base (EB).
The sophisticated hydraulic system e.g. for continuously rotatable cranes and the complete electrical engineering must be easy to use, and quick on-site repairs must be possible. Because usually loggers are no professionals for electrics and often work far away from civilization, an important criterion was a realistic representation of the parts in the diagram to enable the user to identify parts in the machine. Another advantage for KONRAD was the fact that EB uses MS Visio with its known, intuitive method of operation. „It may happen that I do not work with the tool for some time“, says Gerhard Kreutzer, responsible for the design with EB. „But due to the easy handling one is immediately familiar with it again.“
Tremendous gain in time
© KONRAD Forsttechnik GmbHBecause of the complexity of the underlying technology, the logic behind the display is even more important, however. Here EB scores especially with its database. The latter enables a highly efficient reuse of modules once they have been designed. „Initially the creation of one‘s own symbols appears to require considerable effort; once they are present in the database, however, the gain in time is tremendous“, says the engineering specialist. „Working with modules and the freedom of graphics use are the features that have convinced us“, summarizes Kreutzer.
