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Software speeds CNC punch press programming

Edited by the Manufacturingtalk editorial team Nov 1, 2005

Looking for a more efficient way of making its plenum boxes and pan adapters, a manufacturer is now able to reduce programming time for CNC punching from 30 to 5 minutes.

Ruskin Air Management supplies and manufactures fire protection and air distribution products at its Whitstable factory in Kent.

The company was looking for a more efficient way of making its plenum boxes and pan adapters, which are similar in design but vary individually in size.

Steve Sammonds, production engineer at Ruskin Air Management, realised that defining the designs through parameters would make a huge difference to how quickly they could be programmed, and would make it more economical to produce them in-house instead of by subcontracting.

"We evaluated several systems and found that none of the others was able to apply parameters to the plenum boxes and pan adapters as easily as SigmaNEST." Each box takes 2 minutes to punch on Ruskin's Amada Euro 258 punch press.

Now, with the library of eleven standard shapes created by Steve Sammonds, programming time has been reduced from 30 to 5 minutes, enabling the company to manufacture around 1000 variants over a three month period.

Sammond explained, "I simply enter the sizes of the individual box and the system calculates the design and generates the CNC programme for the punch press." As part of the manufacturing process Ruskin uses SigmaNEST to automatically nest the boxes, achieving an average of 80% utilisation on its 1250mm x 2000mm sheets.

Bringing work back into the factory has had a positive impact on the utilisation of the Amada.

Sammonds said, "We are running an 8am to 4pm shift and we are now achieving 85% machine utilisation".

"Currently, a quarter of our work is special shapes".

"Our aim is to increase this to a third".

"By creating additional parametric programmes for SigmaNEST we will be able to achieve our target by bring more work back in-house, thereby making further savings in subcontracting costs." * About the SigmaTEK Corporation - formed in 1992, with offices in Cincinnati, Ohio, Seattle, Washington, USA; international offices in Europe, Japan and Australia, and a worldwide distribution network, over 4000 SigmaNEST systems are now in use round the globe.

SigmaNEST software maintains its technological leadership in sheet metal nesting and cutting by a relentless commitment to research and development, providing customers with tools to maximise material utilisation and increase machine throughput while minimising programming time and effort.

Authorised training centres around the world provide after sales technical support and education to optimise productivity for users.