Inventor of the Monrth - March 2012

Autodesk has named Sunkist Research and Technical Services (Sunkist Research) - a division of international fruit supplier Sunkist - as the Autodesk Inventor of the Month for March. Sunkist Research engineers earned the recognition for the company’s use of Autodesk Product Design Suite software to develop a flat fruit-packing machine that doubles hourly throughput.

Existing flat fruit packing machines pack a single layer of fruit into a box during each cycle. The key breakthrough of the new flat fruit packing machine is that it can feed a layer of fruit into two boxes at once. Instead of processing 200 boxes of fruit per hour, the machine can potentially process 400 boxes per hour.   

“The Autodesk Product Design Suite - and specifically Autodesk Inventor software - have both been invaluable tools and big parts of our success in developing solutions that help maintain our lead in the citrus industry," said Alex Paradiang, director of engineering, Sunkist Research. "Autodesk software helps us display our engineering talents to our customers and shows them that we are constantly innovating on their behalf."

Autodesk Inventor was at the core of the design and engineering process, enabling Sunkist Research to create a digital prototype of the new flat fruit packing machine. In addition to easily checking for interferences, Inventor provided finite element analysis (FEA) tools to help determine the appropriate metal thickness for hours of continuous use.

Inventor of the Month - March 2012 Official Press Release

Image Credits: Autodesk, Sunkist