CIC, Autodesk in partnership to push CAD, CAM for indigenous production

By Godfrey Ofurum

Clintonel Innovation Centre (CIC), a manufacturing innovative technology firm, based in Aba, the commercial hub of Abia State, said it has entered into a partnership with Autodesk, the global producer of engineering softwares, including AutoCAD, Inventor, Fusion360.

This is one of the global partnerships that we are building to enable us bridge the engineering skills gap in Nigeria, Tochukwu Chukwueke, an electronic engineer and founder of Clintonel  Innovation Centre (CIC) and Advanced Engineering Centre (AEC) said.

He explained that the partnership would help prepare local engineers to meet the demand for indigenous products development and manufacturing.

The partnership is also expected to lead to the building of prototypes, design and fabrication of moulds for mass production of some identified machines.

“We are willing to collaborate with companies to mass produce these equipment, as well as make the designs, prototypes and moulds available to the public for easy replication

“In addition, we are also making available our digital fabrication lab including, 3D printers, CNC machines, Arduino micro-controller boards, and other machines, to any inventor, designer or engineer within Nigeria working to produce industrial equipment,” he further said.

Lack of modern equipment and spare parts to maintain available ones have stifled manufacturing in Aba and Nigeria for a long time now.

The firm had earlier acquired computer aided design (CAD) and computer aided manufacturing (CAM) equipment for digital fabrication. Computer aided design (CAD) is a computer software that designs and creates different products, while computer aided manufacturing (CAM) is the use of computer software to control and automate factory machines.

Chukwueke explained that his firm has succeeded in procuring a computer numeric machine (CNC) to help manufacturers to have seamless production.

According to him, “it is precise, because it is computer controlled. There is no human error. It is absolutely accurate. So, this is the technology that is in use by manufacturers in advanced countries, like Germany, United States, China, among others.

“The good news is that we have brought that technology here. And we are going to be doing it here to make it cheaper for them. It is also faster and we will provide after sales service support, which they don’t have at the moment,” he assured.

He explained that the machines, which were acquired in November, 2019, from the United States of America were of the highest quality in that category.

He continued: “This technology is precious, because CAD and CAM are used to build everything. In fact, every product in the world today is produced directly or indirectly, using CAD and CAM technology.

“For instance in garment making, sewing machines used in cloth making were produced with CAD and CAM technology. I gave you an example with bottled water, the plastic bottle is produced with CAD and CAM technology.

“Moulds for plastic tables and chairs are produced with CAD and CAM technology. It will have an impact across all manufacturing sectors. It will be used to design and build machine tools.

“For instance, in the plastic sector, the injection moulding machine is produced with CAD and CAM technology. With what we have now, we can design and build such a machine,” Chukwueke pointed out.

He stated that by investing in CAD and CAM technology, his firm would help the country to save billions of dollars of foreign exchange annually.

“And because it supports industries, it will create hundreds of thousands of employment for young people,” he stated.

He commended the Abia State government and its partners in the promotion of made-in-Nigeria goods, noting that patronising home made goods is what Nigeria needs at the moment.

According to him, Nigeria is losing a lot of foreign exchange and a lot of jobs, “so if we can build equipment that are currently imported, we can create enormous amounts of jobs and solve unemployment challenges in Nigeria,” Chukwueke said.

“That was what China did. China used to be one of the poorest countries in the world, but today, China is the manufacturing hub of the world. So, we can reproduce that in Nigeria, by building capacity in the areas of computer aided designs and computer aided manufacturing.

“If we succeed in this, we will retain in Nigeria the billions of dollars that we are losing in foreign exchange in importing tools and products. In addition to that, we can also begin to export those technology to our neighbours in Africa and the rest of the world.

“We at Clintonel are at the forefront of that and we are introducing technology needed to make made-in-Nigeria a reality,” he stated.