Baker Baynes (Pty) Ltd

Revolutionizing Metrology: How the National Metrology Institute of South Africa is Using Autodesk Fusion 360 and Fusion Machining

The National Metrology Institute of South Africa (NMISA) is a leading organisation in the field of metrology, which is the science of measurement.  Established under the Measurement Units and Measurement Standards Act 18 of 2006.  NMISA is responsible for maintaining the national measurement standards and providing calibration and measurement services to industry, government, and the public.  Bhekinhlanhla Dlamini, a Toolmaker at NMISA, joined this dynamic institute at the end of 2021.  NMISA was already involved in a project for a Food and Beverage company that specialises in creating standards for ingredients used in certain mixes of food.  These standards are then used as reference material for various food manufacturers to produce their line of food products.The scope of the project was to continue the design and production of a specialised hoist that would be used as a lifting tool in their reference material facility.Design ChallengeNMISA’s software was limited to Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) and the subscription had lapsed.  When the cost to renew the existing licenses linked to their CNC machines was investigated, the feasibility to continue became a topic of conversation.Furthermore, the hoist had been designed by an external design company and the design drawings were available in PDF format.  NMISA needed the capability to not only communicate with the CNC machines but required a design function to tweak the designs as the project evolved.Dlamini was tasked to investigate alternative options that would align with NMISA’s budgets as well as cater to the capabilities needed for this Hoist project, as well as offering accessible growth for future projects.After much research, NMISA landed on Fusion 360 and the Fusion 360 Machining Extension.  They were pleasantly surprised at the affordability of the software as well as its capabilities. Now it was time to put Fusion 360 to the test and see if it could deliver on their project needs.

BRT Station Design

HHO Consulting Engineers was faced with the following challenges: 1) “Terrible” concrete retaining walls – creating a “barrier” between BRT busway and mixed traffic 2) Using current technology, it was difficult to communicate the impact of the retaining walls 3) Needed alternative design presentation to communicate the real impact of the walls 4) Design experience did not allow for a realistic visualization for project stakeholder understating, buy-in and sign off

ANDM Water Project

Ceenex had GIS (geographic information system) data in the form of a standard database, which they did not know how to incorporate to derive the data automatically. Their current processes relied purely on AutoCAD to produce these ward maps which was seen as a very manual and tedious process, lacking accuracy and exact positioning.