Product category:
CAM and software for sheetmetal, punching, profiling, EDM, etc
News Release from: Jetcam International | Subject: JETCAM Expert software for profiling
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 21 July 2004
CAM update reclaims 2.1/2 months
machining time
As a result of receiving a free software update under maintenance a fabricator is seeing up to 20% faster cutting time - free-form nesting module also paid for itself in under one month.
Cimbria Manufacturing A/S, a part of the Cimbria Group based in Thisted, Denmark, had relied on a US-based CAM system to program their existing Trumpf punch, punch/laser combination and Messer Griesheim machines In addition to proving slow to learn and complex to use they could only get US-based support at inconvenient hours
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 26 Dec 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
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Cimbria enquired about a software update, but the cost to update to the latest version was unrealistic.
They decided to buy another system instead, and chose JETCAM Expert, which was supplied through Camtek APS, the Danish JETCAM distributor.
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JETCAM Expert Premium with MRP interface was installed and was integrated seamlessly with Microsoft Navision C5 (Concorde) XAL MRP system.
This integration provides JETCAM Expert with an up-to-date list of jobs with parts to program and/or nest.
A year later they purchased two Bystronic laser machines, for which postprocessors were purchased.
Of the initial training Per Vesterby, Programmer, said: "I learnt JETCAM in just two days.
What I particularly liked was that it is very easy to move jobs between machines.
If the Trumpfs are overloaded I can generate code for the Bystronic in 1-2 minutes.
For me JETCAM is clever.
When making a drawing, JETCAM's CAD facilities allow me to do most amendments quickly within the software instead of having to use AutoCAD." Cimbria has maintained an up-to-date maintenance contract since installing JETCAM and has seen several major enhancements which have further improved their efficiency.
In 2004 they updated to the latest user release, which delivered two major new features - enhanced bump nesting and intelligent lead-ins.
Of the bump nesting Per commented: "Every time we need to put a new part onto an existing nest we use bump nesting.
If I can't drag and drop the part onto the nest I know there's not enough space - simple." Intelligent lead-ins provided more surprising improvements, however.
"With intelligent lead-ins we are saving between 15-20% of machine cycle time, which across the two Bystronic machines equates to 2 x 2 months of additional capacity per year!" With steel prices continuing to escalate, Cimbria also wanted to optimize material usage and subsequently purchased JETCAM's high performance nesting engine (FFHPN).
The module allows Per to build a queue of items to nest which can then be left to run overnight, yielding the most optimum nest.
If required, nests can be created by part due-date based on a variety of parameters.
The results were startling: "We are seeing around 5% saving on all nests.
Our material costs are easily over ?1.2m per year, so the new nester paid for itself in less than a month and is now generating clear and tangible profits.
Queuing nests also freed up at least an hour of my time every day." With the recent software updates supplied free under JETCAM's maintenance contract and the purchase of JETCAM's high performance nester Cimbria has seen savings that run into several hundred thousand Euros, for a fraction of the cost.
Capacity has increased dramatically, material usage has improved and programmer time decreased.
Per concluded; "Local support is excellent, the system is so easy to use and the time savings speak for themselves.".
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