Friday, July 24, 2009

TekSoft to distribute CNC sheet metal software

Under the terms of a licensing agreement Lantek has granted TekSoft distribution rights for Lantek sheet metal software through TekSoft's international VAR network.

TekSoft and Lantek have signed a software licensing and distribution agreement.

Under the terms of this agreement, Lantek grants TekSoft distribution rights for Lantek sheet metal software through TekSoft's international VAR network.

The software for punching, laser, waterjet, plasma and oxyfuel machines will be marketed under the FABWorks name.

TekSoft, a leading provider of CAD/CAM applications since 1981, develops and markets CAMWorks, which is available for machining centers, turning, mill/turn, multiaxis and wire EDM applications.

CAMWorks is a SolidWorks Certified Gold CAM Product that provides state-of-the-art machining capabilities seamlessly integrated into SolidWorks 3D mechanical design software.

FABWorks also provides an integrated interface between the SolidWorks design environment and the FABWorks machining environment.

Parts that are designed in SolidWorks can be automatically unfolded and transferred directly to FABWorks for machining.

The benefits of this agreement were clear to both companies and negotiations were concluded quickly.

"TekSoft has over 20 years of experience in developing and selling CAD/CAM software through a large VAR network.

When they decided to expand their product range to include sheet metal software, they investigated the fabrication systems available in the market and talked to our competitors," stated Alberto Martinez, Lantek's managing director.

"In addition to Lantek's best-in-class CAD/CAM software, our international reputation as a leading software company in the sheet metal industry made their decision an easy one." According to Mike Coleman, President and CEO of TekSoft, "We seek out the best-in-class solutions, we negotiate and we license.

This allows us to provide a full suite of established and proven CAM solutions while offering ongoing enhancements.

The agreement with Lantek enables us to quickly offer our customers a product that is at the forefront of the sheet metal software industry." Coleman also stated that TekSoft is offering FABWorks at a significant discount to its existing ProCAM fabrication customers to encourage them to make the transition.

* About TekSoft - TekSoft develops and markets CAMWorks, which is available for machining centers, turning, mill/turn, multiaxis and wire EDM applications and ProCAM, a stand-alone CAD/CAM product.

TekSoft sells its products through 140 resellers in 40 countries and has an installed base of over 33,000 licenses.

TekSoft is a subsidiary of Geometric Software Solutions Co .

(GSSL), a leading PLM services provider with over 20 years of experience in CAD/CAM/CAE, PDM and MPM.

Based in Mumbai, India, GSSL has business development headquarters in Merrimack, NH, USA, and sales offices in Germany, Singapore and Japan.

GSSL is publicly traded on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange in India.

* About Lantek - Lantek develops and sells CAD/CAM software for the sheet metal industry.

Lantek CAD/CAM software product range includes punching and cutting software for oxyfuel, plasma, laser and waterjet machines as well as software to drive press brakes, tube cutting machines and production management software.

Lantek is one of the leading software companies in the sheet metal industry with distributors worldwide and branch offices in Spain, France, Germany, Italy, UK, USA, Japan, South Korea, India, and Czech Republic.

Lantek is a recognized provider of sheet metal software with more than 5,400 customers in 76 different countries.

http://www.manufacturingtalk.com/news/tfy/tfy106.html

CNC sheet metal investment raises capabilities

A sheet metal subcontractor, specialising in lower-volume, higher-specification work, has invested in a CNC laser cutting system, two press brakes and 3D offline programming software.

A sheet metal subcontractor, specialising in lower-volume, higher-specification work, has invested in a CNC laser cutting system, two press brakes and 3D offline programming software.

Brian Palmer, managing director of Tharsus Engineering, has a clear vision of where the company's future lies, and has just invested in LVD technology to give him the capacity to achieve it.

"What we want to do is move up the knowledge ladder," he says.

"We have actively tried to specialise in lower-volume, higher-specification work, because if you only quote on volume jobs you risk losing them abroad.

A good job for us is one where we can apply a bit of thought and make money by doing it intelligently.

There are still jobs where we are quoting against drawing, but more and more we are doing the design, making the prototypes and taking it into production." The new LVD equipment supplied to Tharsus includes a CNC laser cutting system, two press brakes and CADMAN B 3D offline programming software.

The whole package has been selected to complement existing capabilities, including Radan offline programming software, so that the company has the best possible range of equipment to do the type of work that it wants to target.

According to Palmer, the fundamental reason for buying the laser was that the company's two punch presses were at saturation point and he needed additional capacity.

"The laser opens new markets to us and gives us new capability, but it is our job to make sure that we put profitable work on it.

There is a temptation to go and fill up its capacity, but we need to be intelligent and put the work on it that is going to give us the margins.

We are unlikely to have a competitive advantage over a specialist laser shop, for example.

One of the skills we are going to have to develop is routeing jobs intelligently.

There are lot of advantages to having a laser, and it was the one bit of capability that the business didn't have.

So we knew we wanted a laser and what clinched it for LVD was the Axel's cost-to-performance ratio." The two new press brakes at Tharsus have also been chosen to fill in the gaps in existing capability.

The company already has a press brake with a pressure referencing bend compensation system, but LVD's Easy Form Laser system offers a number of advantages on certain types of part.

"The pressure referencing system needs to be operating at 10% of maximum tonnage, but on many of the smaller and thinner parts that Tharsus forms, the bending force may be measured in hundreds of kilos rather than tonnes," says Palmer.

"As with the Axel, the Easy Form Laser press brake complements our existing capacity and offers us advantages in certain areas.

If we are intelligent in the way we use the machines we've now got all the bases covered." Palmer says: "We need this type of system because we are programming offline using the CADMAN B 3D and Radan software and we want to deskill the forming.

Offline programming means that instead of the machines standing idle while someone is doing the programming you can send the program down the wire to the machine.

The operator does not have to know how to program or work out how to produce a complex part, and the Easy Form Laser means that angle correction, which is one of the more skilled elements of press braking, is essentially automated too." The final piece in the 'jigsaw' is LVD's recently launched PPRM.

This is a fast, compact machine that takes advantage of reluctance motor technology first developed for the textile industry to achieve far higher bending speeds than conventional hydraulic machines.

It can deliver working speeds of up to 25mm/s and is ideal for bending small- to medium-sized high-precision parts.

Palmer says that before Tharsus had the PPRM the bigger machines were often only bending at a fraction of their capacity - using only a small part of the bed length and tonnage available.

"A lot of the time we were using 100 tonf (1000kN) , 3m bed length machines to form parts that only required hundreds of kilos of bend force, which meant they were not operating anywhere near as quickly as they could have been.

The PPRM frees up the bigger machines to do what they do best, and it is a faster, more intelligent use of capability.

The PPRM is a light machine - you can move it round with a forklift, it has a very small footprint and the tooling is compatible with our other machines.

It is the highest specification machine of its size on the market." * About LVD Strippit - The LVD Strippit Group designs, manufactures and distributes a comprehensive range of sheet metal/plate working equipment, including laser cutting systems, turret punch presses, press brakes, guillotines and automated flexible manufacturing systems - all supported by its CADMAN PC-based, Windows compatible programming system for punching, laser cutting and bending.

The Group's UK subsidiary, LVD, has its headquarters, showroom and service centre in Banbury, Oxfordshire.
http://www.manufacturingtalk.com/news/lvd/lvd152.html

CNC sheet metal company noted record sales

CNC sheet metal working machine tool and laser systems builder, Trumpf, reported record sales and record orders received - ales rose by 18% to EUR 1.65 billion or US$2.01 billion.

The Trumpf Group closed its fiscal year 2005/06 on June 30, 2006 with record sales and record orders received.

Sales rose by 18% to EUR 1.65 billion/US$2.01 billion.

The laser and machine tool manufacturer realized an even bigger growth in orders received: approximately 20% to EUR 1.76 billion/US$2.14 billion.

In October 2006 the technology group will publish the final figures and results.

"After an excellent year we expect to have another good year," said Dr Nicola Leibinger-Kammueller optimistically.

Dr Leibinger-Kammuller became president of the Trumpf Group in November 2005.

Trumpf grew worldwide.

Strongest indications of this growth came from Eastern Europe, Northern America and Asia.

Also in Western Europe and Germany demand increased.

The machine tools and electronics business fields were motors to the positive development.

Also the laser technology, medical technology and power tools business fields partly achieved considerable sales growth.

The fourth consecutive growth year resulted in 450 new jobs worldwide.

This is a plus of seven percent.

In Germany, growth was about 5%.

At the end of fiscal 2005/06 Trumpf employed about 6,500 people, more than 4,000 of whom were in Germany.

Expenditure on fixed assets reached EUR 82 million Euros/US$100 million and exceeded the last year's figure by about 50%.

The group expands its capacities at nine locations, among them Ditzingen, Freiburg, (both Germany) and Seoul (Korea).

* In more detail - Nicola Leibinger-Kammueller, president of the managing board of the Trumpf Group, was quoted as saying during the company?s annual press conference that the current fiscal year is also going well.

Trumpf is expecting sales to reach more than EUR 1.8 billion.

The reason for the company?s positive outlook, among others, is its orders on hand totaling 470 million Euros.

The first three months of the new fiscal year have supported this expectation: Sales and orders received both rose by just under 25 percent.

The company benefited from the global boom in investment goods.

All regions contributed to the success of the Trumpf Group.

The company recorded the strongest gains in Eastern Europe, America and the Pacific Rim.

Sales in Germany rose by 7.0% to EUR 451 million.

Germany thus remained the company?s largest individual market.

Growth also had an impact on employment.

Worldwide, Trumpf created 439 new jobs, 242 overseas and 197 at home.

This corresponds to a 7.3% increase.

Overall, Trumpf employed 6,488 people on June 30, 2006.

Employees were hired primarily in Germany, the USA, Switzerland and France.

* Machine tools are the 'engine' of success - the 'engines' for the company?s success were machine tools for sheet metal processing.

Growth in the Machine Tools/Power Tools Division increased its sales by 23% to EUR 1.44 billion.

Trumpf has thus continued to expand its position as Europe?s largest machine tool manufacturer.

The Laser Technology/Electronics Division enjoyed an 8.5% sales increase to EUR 438 million.

The Electronics business field recorded strong gains.

Among other things, it produces process power generators for the manufacture of flat screen monitors and has positioned itself as one of the world?s leading suppliers.

The Medical Technology Division boosted its sales by 10% to EUR 108 million.

Overall, Trumpf invested EUR 120 million for research and development.

This corresponds to a 12% gain.

The company?s R and D quota is 7.3%.

* Trumpf paves the way for worldwide growth - the ratio of equity to total assets was 45.6%.

With an after-tax cash flow of EUR 183 million, Trumpf has sufficient liquid assets at its disposal to be able to invest heavily in the coming fiscal year.

The company?s investment volume grew by 75% to EUR 89 million.

66% of that was allocated to projects in Germany.

Trumpf invested EUR 44 million alone in the expansion of its headquarters in Ditzingen, Germany.

There, it built a service center and a new employee cafeteria.

The company has other building projects under way in Liberec, Czech Republic; Monterrey, Mexico; and Seoul, South Korea.

Leibinger-Kammueller explained: ?Through these investments, we are strengthening our German locations and considerably improving our position in overseas markets.

Basically, we are currently building all over the world.? The company is confidently looking forward to 2006/07 and sees its greatest growth opportunities primarily in Europe and Asia.

The number of employees will also continue to grow.

http://www.manufacturingtalk.com/news/tru/tru231.html

Friday, July 17, 2009

Heavy hitters strike back

Once renowned for its heavy engineering prowess, the UK's manufacturing sector is regaining a reputation for large scale machining after a period of transition. Machinery reportsImage: Glenrothes-based sub-contract specialist KSW Engineering has recently installed a Doosan DB 130CX horizontal borer, supplied by Mills CNC


Where heavy engineering in the UK once entailed shipyards and steel mills, a period of change has seen the sector re-emerge in a more high-tech guise. Today, heavy engineering shops are more likely to be making parts for power generation, oil exploration, yellow goods, large machinery and aircraft wing contracts than for submarines or smelting plants. According to Heller Machine Tools (012...), many machine shops seeking heavy duty solutions opt for horizontal machining centres, a decision based on factors such as machine robustness and power.

Heller offers horizontal machines with up to 3 m of capacity in the X-axis and typical of its large/heavy engineering installations is Rochdale-based Chelburn Precision Ltd, a sub-contractor supplying to sectors such as oil and gas. The company has installed two Heller MCH 460 machines with 4 tonne capability on the tables. Torque is 822 Nm, while travel in the X and Y axes is 2,000 and 1,600 mm, respectively. Quality, robustness of machine and capacity were the over-riding factors in selecting the Heller horizontal machining centres, rather than conventional borers.

"The Hellers have galvanised our market position by enabling us to offer large, complex component machining within short lead times and at competitive costs," says Ken Ackers, business development manager at Chelburn.

Another sub-contract specialist in large parts machining is also expressing its preference for horizontal machining centres. Burgess Hill-based HPC Precision Engineering has recently installed a Makino A100 twin pallet, 4-axis model of 1,700 x 1,350 mm capacity. Supplied by NCMT (020...), the machine has been added to two similar machines in a flexible manufacturing system (FMS) that produces structural fuselage components for aircraft such as frame supports and bulkheads.

NUCLEAR KNOWLEDGE
The nuclear industry is certainly generating plenty of activity in the UK at the moment, thanks largely to the €5 billion ITER (International Tokamak Experimental Reactor) project. MG Sanders of Stone in Staffordshire, for example, has recently won a contract to supply components for JET (Joint European Torus), a science and technology feeder project for ITER.

To help fulfil its obligations, the company is using a recently installed Toshiba BMC800 horizontal machining centre, supplied by Leader CNC (024...). The twin-pallet BMC800 can process components measuring up to 1.5 by 1 m, with the special Inconel billets it machines costing anything from £3,000 to £10,000 per block.

The same company has also invested in a large vertical machining centre in the form of a 4-axis Mikron VCE 1600 Pro from GF AgieCharmilles (024...).

Elsewhere, heavy machining specialist DavyMarkham of Sheffield also has an interest in ITER. In fact, the company is now part of a consortium bidding for the construction of the main reactor vacuum vessel of the ITER nuclear fusion reactor being built in Cadarache, France. The consortium comprises Davy Markham, precision fabricator Metalcraft of Chatteris, engineering consultancy AMEC and The Welding Institute (TWI).

Europe and Korea are building the ITER vacuum vessel, which consists of nine D-shaped vacuum vessel sectors, each weighing about 450 tons. Its external diameter will measure 19.4 m, with an internal diameter of 6.5 m, and once assembled, the entire structure will be 11.3 m high. Fabrication tolerances for the whole vessel, including field assembly, are expected to be less than 20 mm for both height and width. When all of the vacuum vessel's shielding and port structures are included, it will weigh in excess of 5,000 tonnes.

Europe is providing seven vacuum vessel sectors, with the remaining two supplied by Korea. Contracts for the ITER vacuum vessel are likely to be placed later this year or early in 2010.

Kevin Parkin, managing director of DavyMarkham, explains the background to the consortium: "The ITER vacuum vessel is a significant engineering challenge that no single company is capable of supplying," he says. "So we've put a consortium together with fabrication specialist Metalcraft, AMEC providing design and programme management services, and TWI offering technical support, to enable us to present a solid technical and commercial case."

DavyMarkham is, of course, no stranger to producing such sizeable parts. Earlier this year, the company secured a $20 million order for the supply of mining hoists for gold producer IAMGOLD Corp of Toronto, Canada. The contract includes the largest double drum hoist supplied to North America in recent times, with a diameter of 6.4 m, a drum width of 2.4 m and a payload capacity of 20 tonnes. It will serve as the mine's main production hoist, operating at depths down to 2,652 m.

To help fulfil such contracts, DavyMarkham has accumulated extensive heavy machining capacity. In fact, its largest machine bay comprises of a machine bed that covers half of its entire floor area (34.5 by 14.7m). CNC ram borers surround this huge bedplate, enabling very large workpieces to be machined.

Most of these ram borers are Asquith models, with X-axis capacity up to 14 m. Today, incidentally, Asquith Butler machines are produced at purpose-built premises in Brighouse, West Yorkshire (01484 ...), where the largest machine manufactured to date has a 30 m X-axis and is being used for the manufacture of TGV coach panels.

BIG PARTS; BIG MACHINES
Any form of mining or exploration at depth usually entails the design of large, robust components, which, in turn, requires machine tools with similar attributes to carry out manufacture.

A case in point is Glenrothes-based sub-contract specialist KSW Engineering, which has recently installed a new Doosan DB 130CX horizontal borer, supplied by Mills CNC (01926 ...), to machine large parts for the oil sector, such as wellhead housings.

The DB 130CX travelling column machine boasts large X, Y and Z-axis travels (4,000 by 2,000 by 2,000 mm), all fitted with linear scales to optimise accuracy. The machine has a high torque spindle (25 kW), with a three-range gearbox for heavy duty machining and fast metal removal rates.

Image: Burgess Hill-based HPC Precision Engineering has recently installed a Makino A100 twin pallet, 4-axis model , supplied by NCMT

Sometimes the machine tool industry can generate its own demand and such was the case recently at the Worcester headquarters of Yamazaki Mazak (01905 ...), where the company had identified the need to increase its capacity for large castings for its machine tool beds and columns. The solution arrived in the shape of one of its own Versatech V-100N models – the only one of its kind in the UK.

"We use our Versatech to machine the beds and columns for the range of machine tools we manufacture here at Worcester," says Richard Austin, Yamazaki Mazak's general manager - direct production. "By making use of the new features on the machine, we can reduce cycle times by as much as 20 per cent. These are significant savings when you consider that some of our machine beds can be on the Versatech for between five and six hours."

Among the many new features introduced with the latest range of Versatech machines are a high speed spindle, a fully CNC universal head, high pressure through-spindle coolant and a table change system that allows the Versatech to be integrated into an FMS.

Image: Mazak is using its own machines to make machines – a Versatech, seen here machining bed castings

"The universal head gives a significant advantage where the process demands both horizontal and vertical approaches to the machined faces. The fact that this head can, within a matter of seconds, change orientation, without the need to change heads, saves considerable amounts of time," says Mr Austin.

Positioning and accuracy of the up to 10,000 mm long bed (V-140N) is controlled by moveable servomotors positioned on the ballscrew nuts of the X and Y axes. In the X-axis, linear guides and twin ballscrews provide the high response rates and positional accuracy required. This combination also delivers rapid traverse rates of up to 30 m/min (V-100N) and high rates of circular interpolation. Accuracy is aided further by the addition of temperature-controlled oil through the cores of each ballscrew, minimising thermal distortion, due to high speed operation of the machine over extended periods.

The machine installed at Yamazaki Mazak's Worcester facility is also equipped with an optional two-table changer system.

"The previous machine had a pallet changer, so we are not seeing major productivity improvements with this system. However, one advantage is that the new system can be integrated into an FMS, if required. This is something that is already in place at one of Yamazaki Mazak's factories in Japan," concludes Mr Austin.

Big in Holland
Dutch machine tool builder Unisign (0031 773 073777) says that its recently launched Unicom 8000 CNC machining centre is the largest ever built in the Netherlands. It has X, Y and Z axes of 3,600, 3,300 and 1,600 mm, respectively, while height below the bridge is 2,300 mm; width between columns 3,000 mm.

The first Unicom 8000 is for Unisign customer Habets in the Netherlands and will be used to produce planetary gear carriers for a wind turbine supplier. The second machine has already been ordered by automation and power specialist ABB of Switzerland.

http://www.machinery.co.uk/article/19203/Heavy-hitters-strike-back.aspx