Product category:
CAM and software for sheetmetal, punching, profiling, EDM, etc
News Release from: Jetcam International | Subject: JETCAM Expert sheet metal CAM
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 07 January 2005
Sheet metal CAM programming time reduced
by 30%
CAM programming time was reduced by 30% due to automatic features and the reduction of repetitive processes by Stored Engineering Knowledge Technology databases.
B C Barton was founded in 1898 and provides solutions for the design and manufacture of hot and cold presswork, along with welded fabrication products The majority of parts are punched on the Amada and Nisshinbo machines, although a Burny Oxyfuel is used for the heavier material
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 2 Mar 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
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Originally a user of Camtek's PEPS FAB product, they migrated to JETCAM Expert when Camtek and Jetcam became a part of the same group in 1999.
Said David Bolton, Programmer/Operator; "It was a natural progression to go from PEPS to JETCAM.
The installation and transition processes were pretty seamless.
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We installed two licenses with rectangular nesting capabilities." After JETCAM Expert was installed one user was trained, and subsequently delivered training in-house.
Bolton, who was trained in-house, commented; "I had no experience of CADCAM software, but was up and running very quickly.
It was easy to learn and gave me as much or as little control as I wanted.
For example, although I have frequently used the commonline cutting function, if I want to tool a job manually, perhaps if I am tooling close to a clamp, then I can." B C Barton immediately benefited from the new software's functionality.
Programming time was reduced by 30% due to automatic features and the reduction of repetitive processes by use of the SEKT (Stored Engineering Knowledge Technology) databases.
Operator sheet printouts were also more in-line with the way the company worked.
In 2004 B C Barton were approached by a competitor pushing a new product.
They were offered a trial of the system, which they accepted.
Bolton added; ?We saw a demo, which looked pretty slick, and while we were happy with JETCAM Expert we decided to take the trial to see if the grass was greener on the other side.
Instead we found a muddy hole! We had to upgrade our PC to run the software, and two days were swallowed up by the company trying to get the software talking to our machines.
Ultimately it was over-complicated and has remained in the drawer ever since." As a company employing different cutting technologies for products bound for an ever-increasingly competitive market, B C Barton is always looking at ways to reduce costs and improve efficiency.
They subscribed to an ongoing maintenance contract with Press and Shear, and in addition to technical support they also receive several free software updates per year.
Of the updates Bolton said; "The updates always have new features that are of benefit, whether it is a function that speeds up the programming of a nest or running it on the machine.
Even minor features, such as a recent modification to the zoom facilities makes the system just that little bit better.
In terms of support, I have not needed to call them for about a year, but whenever we have called questions are answered either straight away or within an hour." B C Barton prides itself on it family traditions and employee values.
It also believes in getting the very best out of its existing equipment.
David endorsed this further by concluding; "The updates we get from Jetcam mean that we can continue to squeeze even more out of our existing machine tools.
It is highly flexible and fully functional, and I learnt it quickly, even without any previous CAM experience.".
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