Applications
Where the reach question actually bites.
The same solver applies across bulk loading and unloading. These are the arrangements where getting the geometry wrong is most expensive — and where a solved model is worth the most.
Tank car top loading and unloading
Hatch position varies with car type and with how accurately the car can be spotted. The arm has to reach every hatch in the fleet the customer runs, from a fixed pivot, without swinging into plate clearance. This is the arrangement the solver was built for.
Tank trailer top loading
Shorter reach, tighter tolerance, and a driver on a platform. The binding constraints move from plate clearance to access geometry and fall protection, which is why the OSHA validator runs against the same model.
LPG and CO2
Product-type quick-fills load a starting configuration for pressurised services from established top-loading design conventions, so the model begins from the right assumptions rather than a generic arm.
Spill containment and track pans
Containment pan geometry is generated procedurally to published specifications for the track length being covered, so containment scope is sized against the same layout as the loading equipment rather than estimated separately.
Gangways, stairs and platforms
Gangway articulation, stair stacking and platform structure are modelled as part of the assembly. Access is where most compliance findings live, and it is much cheaper to check it in the browser.
Supporting steel
The structure carrying the arm and the access is represented with standard shape definitions, which keeps the supporting steel inside the same countable model as everything else.
Representative problems
Three failures a solved model prevents.
These are the recurring patterns behind field change orders on loading projects. They are described as problem patterns, not as customer claims.
The arm that reaches the sample car
Reach is validated against the one car type available during specification. The customer's actual fleet includes a longer car with a hatch further from the pivot, and the shortfall is discovered at commissioning — when the fix is a structural change, not a settings change.
Caught by: solving the envelope against every car type in the fleet before quoting.
The clearance nobody owned
The arm reaches, the platform is sound, and in its parked position the assembly intrudes on plate clearance. Each discipline checked its own scope and nobody checked the swept volume against the vehicle envelope.
Caught by: evaluating plate clearance against the solved envelope, in the same model.
The access afterthought
Loading equipment is specified first and access structure is added late to suit it. The result satisfies the process and fails a fall-protection review, and the platform is redesigned after steel is priced.
Caught by: building access into the same assembly and validating it as you go.
Project references. Named customer case studies are available under NDA on request — we do not publish client projects without written permission. Ask on the call and we will bring what we are able to share.
Which of these is your recurring one?
Bring the arrangement that keeps generating change orders and we will build it in the walkthrough.
Sam Doyle · 247 Industrial Platform · Cary, NC