DesignroRm.Valcea

SC DESIGNRO SA was founded on 20th of November 2003 as a result of the externalization of the Design Department of the SC Oltchim SA, according to 26/1990 and 31/1990 laws.

The new society took over the entire activity of providing basic design, detailed engineering design and technical consultancy of existing Design Department of SC Oltchim SA since 1970.

The combination of tradition, experience and the latest technical news makes SC Designro SA to provide optimal and cost-effective solutions for: technical, functional and design situations, as well as for environmental protection and emergencies.

The Designro SA specialists have over 30 years experience in industrial and civil engineering in the following fields: technology, assembling, equipments, construction, electrical and automation equipments, etc. As for making use of design tools, they have gone through all the stages: from pencil, pen, sketch board, templates to ruler and flowering scaled by the soft and the hard. The complexity of our works, the large number of projects and the short period of time required for achieving our goals imposed upon the introduction of new design technologies in DESIGNRO: Soft and Hard. We considered them to be the best tools for carrying out the projects up to the most complex and detailed stage of completion. We should bear in mind that in the industrial field there is a long way from the “there is” stage to “here is an example” stage, sustained by a lot of hard work. One cannot satisfy anyone with artificial examples. No book, law or algorithm can give you the exact solution or the shortest route from buying a computer to creating with it something with a direct applicability.

In order to pass to a new design system, we needed the appropriate software and hardware equipment and staff specialized in working with such new tools. The acquisition of software and hardware required only!...money, but the most important and the most persistent problem was represented by the staff, which was very well trained, but in which the average age was of 45 years ( meaning the age at which very few had the opportunity to study in college something about working on a computer). Just think how eager for preparing professionally for a very new domain can be a man who has only three to five years left until retirement! This on the one hand, and on the other hand- what professional experience (starting from the technology until the last detail of completion) can a recent college graduate have?! Therefore, in this context there had to be found an algorithm which solved a problem of “linear programming” that depended on a series of “linear inequalities”. Moreover, the design activities not only had to continue, but also the complexity and the number of projects to be done had increased, because all the companies on the industrial platform had already entered into a fast-paced rhythm of revamping, modernization and…there wasn’t much time left! Do not forget, however, that the work of a designer cannot be simply measured by the instruments of an accountant mentality (<>, etc.). It was inescapable the urgent procurement of  well trained professionals who would ensure the materialization of the ambitious Modernization and Development Programs in which the companies that were beneficiaries were involved,  and also who would ensure the change of structure and employees’ mentality in the design sector.

As a result, we left talking and began acting. Our staff attended introductory courses about computer use, starting with the operating systems, utilities, text editors and continuing with AutoCad, Genius and Genius Vario by Autodesk; AutoPlant by REBIS; PRO II by SIM SCI; Axis and Tekla XSteel by ConSoft; CAESAR II, CADWORKX and PVElite by COADE Company, etc. (specific software used in order to do the necessary documentation for the completion of civil and industrial goals). The courses were conducted in several stages-to ensure the continuity of the design activities, as well as to give the opportunity to participate to all those who were interested.

The actual beginning of using AutoCad was bashful; a few R 12 AutoCad licenses installed on PC 386. The first drawings were unpretentious: sketches, building site orders in A4 or A3 formats. The design documentations were developed by making use of all the available tools to design: some chapters were typed using the typewriter, others were typed using a computer, the drawings were developed partly on the computer and partly on the sketch board and the tabular calculations were partly done using the soft and partly by filling in manually the columns. Time was and has remained a great enemy for us, designers. Designers must develop the necessary documentations in due time, hence we, who had the initiative, must continue what we have started; we cannot draw back. The enthusiasm of working on the computer- starting with the basic geometric elements (line, circle, arc, cube, parallelepiped, etc.) and continuing with the most complex simulations and completion details (reactors, columns, heat exchangers, metal and concrete structures, electrical and automation networks, etc.) was so great that I couldn’t describe it in words. Designing in Designro was and has remained a school. Saturdays and Sundays were and have remained days of self training. Designro is like Titu Maiorescu’s “Junimea”: Everybody can come, but remains who can”.

You shouldn’t think that we did not encounter difficulties: some generated by our own ignorance, others arising from the everlasting battle between “old” and “new”, the latter being quite difficult to solve, as one has to change people’s mentality and swallow one’s pride. At DESIGNRO, we can certainly say that the “new” has won the battle. The close collaboration between those who are experienced in designing and those who know how to use the soft- makes the designing team an enviable family. The new terminology from the explanatory dictionaries about computers and the documentations on software initiation learned by the former designers and by the designing rules and norms learned by the new members of the team- make the two generations of designers to understand each other, to approach each other and cooperate closely in the development of documentation. Each designer has succeeded in acquiring knowledge gradually and only by using it in the development of documentations. Also, we managed in a short period of time to replace the draftsmen with very good computer operators, with good knowledge of the drawing software (actually, the same people).

The facilities provided by the new versions of software joined with the symbols of the databases created by us have resulted in the increasing of productivity, of quality, the reduction of the period of time necessary for the completion of documentation and not least have given us the professional satisfaction which can be understood only by a designer. Just think of what a designer feels when he strolls with an arrow through his/her 3D drawing representing a facility, in which, after a few months, he/she will make the same stroll directly on the field! Although I have experienced these moments several times, it is hard to describe through words those feelings.
The 3D representations of the facilities in various location options enable you to choose the best variant in terms of functionality, environment protection, access roads and not the least, in terms of aesthetics.
The developed documentations are represented by both 2D and 3D drawings: technological schemes (flow sheets or P&ID) drawings as a whole (top views, sections, details), design drawings for special items, location study or completion of projects (containing technological stages, access roads, roads, railroads, trestle bridges, canals, pits, underground or over ground networks, warehouses, unloading/loading ramps, toilets, DCS, MCC, etc.).

Thus, we managed in a short period of time to develop all types of documentation with the aid of the computer. All of these were possible with the spectacular sustaining software and hardware and with the help of our encouraging supporters-the leadership of the companies on the Southern Industrial Platform (beneficiaries and/or effecters of the objectives of DESIGNRO projects): SC Oltchim, SC Caustic Soda Plants Govora, SC Vilmar, CET Protechim, Oltgoup, TMUCB, Govora SA, IMSAT PROGAZ, SET, etc.

Moreover, we consider that the whole economic development of Valcea County, and why not, the economic development of the entire country encourages us and makes us believe that we will not remain without design topics.

If Archimedes said “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world”, I can only tell you this: work together with DESIGNRO and you will manage to change not only the architecture of your house, enterprise or city but also people’s mentality.