Mould maker grows thanks to CADCAM software

A Delcam product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Mar 15, 2006

CADCAM software and a team of designers help Yorkshire-based mould maker to grow at a time when many British toolmakers are cutting staff numbers, or closing down all together.

A combination of Delcam's CADCAM software and a team of designers has enabled Yorkshire-based Ryetools to succeed in the increasingly competitive UK mould making industry.

At a time when many British toolmakers are cutting staff numbers, or closing down all together, Ryetools owner Darren Hugill is planning to triple the size of his business and increase the maximum weight of the tooling his company can produce from 3 to 10tonne.

Hugill attributes the success of his business to the strong emphasis on design within the company.

"Our main strength is our ability to develop an efficient tool design at the beginning of any project", he said.

"The upfront information collated between project management and design is critical and gives us huge benefits with the speed and integrity of the tooling design".

"Customers can, and do, have the confidence to approve our tooling with the minimum, if any, alterations".

This accelerates the process and with all queries being dealt with early enough in the project's life.

The firm passes these speed benefits onto manufacturing.

"Overall, putting more effort upfront into the design cuts many hours out of the total design through manufacturing process", he said.

"Furthermore, better design ensures that the tool will operate more efficiently on the injection moulding machine".

"Buying our moulds may require a slightly larger initial investment by our customers in comparison to overseas manufacturers".

"However, they recoup this extra cost many times over because of the shorter cycle times and consequent increases in productivity that are achievable with better-designed and better-manufactured tooling".

"Even though my staff are primarily tooling designers, they can also undertake product design work for our clients".

"This allows us to provide a more complete service, which also helps us to win more business".

"It has been an essential part of the company's strategy to spread our dependencies into all the main industry sectors, which has proven to be extremely successful".

This versatility is essential given the wide range of initial data that is provided by Ryetools' diverse range of customers.

For example, a project to develop a mudguard design for mountain bikes began when the client brought in an existing model that had sections cut out of it and had been twisted into a new shape.

In another case, a drinks pack that doubles as a shot glass was a variant on a style seen by the customer in another country, while a floodlight design was sent as a very approximate CAD model.

In each case, the designers at Ryetools were able to develop a completely accurate final product design, from an incomplete initial specification, which preceded the manufacture of fully-qualified tooling.

Hugill founded Ryetools 17 years ago.

The company has used Delcam's Powershape design software and Powermill CAM system for eight years after recognising the need to move away from 2D design methods.

"I chose the Delcam package because of its strong reputation for toolmaking and because other local companies were using it", he said.

"Then, after we successfully benchmarked the software, we invested in it".

"I have looked at most other systems during this time but I have always decided to stay with Delcam".

"Powershape's handling of poor quality data is second to none; the repairing of both surfaces and solids is excellent".

"Similarly, Powermill offers all the machining strategies we need for our range of machine tools, including our new high-speed machines".

"There is continual development of the software, with upgrades every few months".

"On top of this, the support is excellent for both the software and the hardware that we also acquired from Delcam".

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