two computers showing bim 3d model and design plans

Design Assist

With TransLogic, you can draw on 100+ years of experience. Our Design Assist experts have the modeling tools, industry knowledge, and vision to draft or enhance designs for a system that can act as the client’s transport backbone for years.

What is Design Assist?

The smoothest building projects begin with the guidance of forward-thinking owners and a great architect, but even the most experienced firms and consultants can’t be expected to know every intricacy of a facility — such as in the case of high-tech pneumatic tube systems. That’s where we come in.

Simply put, Design Assist is an additional service whereby our experts are brought in early in the design phases (during initial pre-design or schematic design), typically alongside an architect, owner, construction manager, or all three, to maximize efficiency, ensure serviceability, and address potential future road blocks.

Building Information Modeling (BIM):

The TransLogic Design Assist service is where experience and technology overlap. When you choose to engage Design Assist early in your drafting process, it’s more than reviewing drafts - it’s taking a consultative approach that considers the customer’s big-picture tube system vision and ensuring that it will deliver.

TransLogic has specialized personnel that can run simulations, create 3D models, and coordinate directly with architects, engineers, and owners to ensure that the proposed tube system design can meet all of our customer’s space planning, performance, and serviceability needs.

3d computer model of pneumatic tube system — Pictured: A 3D schematic of TransLogic tube system

Design Assist Consultation

While our experts can help at any step of your tube system journey, our Design Assist service is most beneficial at the pre-design, schematic design, and design development phases. In other words, early consultation can lead to a design that better serves the entire construction process.

1. Plan your new construction build

Leveraging our 100+ years of experience makes building a new tube system easier. Having a well-thought out plan is critical to the outcome of the overall project. Incorporating Design Assist early in your planning process — well before the construction document or permitting begins — helps prevent costly construction errors, supply woes, permitting headaches, and other unaccounted hurdles when it comes to building out modern tube systems.

2. Architects draft building designs

Early consultation with the TransLogic team can drive your design process. Design Assist helps architects plan for all aspects of a pneumatic tube system up front. Though many architects in the healthcare space possess apt tube system knowledge, they can’t be expected to be familiar with every nuance. By involving our experts, both the architect and the customer are set up for success without incurring unnecessary costs that are caused from reworking design.

3. General contractor coordinates resources

To stay on budget and on time, engaging with TransLogic Design Assist services is key. By having all of the expert knowledge beforehand, the general contractor can better manage the project schedule and coordinate exactly the resources they need no less, no more.

As you coordinate with various technical partners and consultants, it’s highly advised that you incorporate tube system design into these conversations. We are happy to work alongside these partners to help our customers drive their initiative.

What is Not Part of Design Assist?

Design assist is often an all-encompassing term for various industry professionals. To better understand the TransLogic Design Assist service, below is is a list of what is not part of our program.

1. It’s not modernizing an existing system

New construction usually comes with new tube system designs. While modernizing or upgrading existing tube systems is one of our core competencies, it is typically not part of the TransLogic Design Assist service.

2. It’s not “design build”

It’s important that Design Assist is not confused with design build. Design Assist isn’t engineering certified, but rather it enhances the design before it reaches the design build phase. The TransLogic Design Assist service is an expedient consultation that ensures vendor alignment.

3. It’s not applied to other systems

Some companies offer a general design assist service, which can be helpful with well-known systems like HVAC. For tube systems, which will often execute thousands of transactions per week, you’ll want a Design Assist partner with both specialized expertise and experience. At TransLogic, we specialize in one thing — pneumatic tube systems.

Why Design Assist is a Win-Win:

Once the general contractor begins construction, major modifications to the design can result in serious logistical hurdles that can kick off a chain-reaction of unintended delays, permitting issues, material waste, and costly down time.

Using the TransLogic Design Assist service early in the design process gives you the opportunity to draw on our 100+ years of tube system experience. Our experts offer their guidance and run custom-tailored computer-based simulations to evaluate the following aspects of a custom pneumatic tube system:

Blower systems: the number of blowers, types of blowers, size of blowers, location of blowers, performance requirements.
Stations: the number of stations, station locations, types of stations.
Tube design: the number of offsets in a given system, strategic placement of transfer control units or transfer units.
Electricity/power: the required power infrastructure to maintain operations.
Physical dimensions/space: how well the system fits alongside other infrastructure.
Service access: accessibility of the critical components. Both regular maintenance and emergent repair should be able to be completed swiftly.
System performance: system designs that meet the client’s specific needs.
Special considerations: clients regularly require a unique build out for things such as transporting radioactive specimens, connecting multiple buildings, etc.

The result is a design that streamlines the implementation process while maximizing performance, efficiency, and reliability — with significant financial savings, now and in the long run.