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Product category: CAM, CNC and production management software
News Release from: Jetcam International | Subject: Jetcam Expert 1
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial Team on 01 March 2004

AutoCAD compatibility is key to CAM
choice

Constructiebedrijf W ten Ham decided to research the market for a CAM system to compliment its existing AutoCAD installation.

Constructiebedrijf W ten Ham, based in Ede, The Netherlands had been using its Haco punch press to manufacture subcontracted components, together with its own range of stair components since its installation in 1996 The machine's controller had basic CAM functionality, taking in a DXF file and producing a nest; however this was extremely inflexible and prone to errors

After several years this began to limit the number and complexity of components the company was able to manufacture, so it decided to research the market for a CAM system to compliment its existing AutoCAD installation.

After evaluating the market it chose Jetcam, supplied by WIA Industri'le Automatisering.

Jetcam Expert 1 was installed and two users were trained on the system.

Bram ten Ham was one of the users trained: "We learnt the system in only one day.

I liked the interface - all of the relevant options are available on each screen as you move through the software".

Once the company put the system to work it immediately delivered several benefits that ultimately reduced the overall time it took to create parts.

Previously the controller's CAM software would tool parts at only one angle automatically, and this procedure was also error-prone.

In addition to this, manually reprogramming the tooling configuration was very difficult and left code open to even more errors.

Jetcam could now tool components at different angles, tooling the job correctly each time.

This in turn reduced the programming time from hours to minutes, the number of errors, machine cycle time and the material used.

In addition to undertaking subcontract work the company also has to fit in increasing demand for its own range of stair products.

As a result of the increased capacity the company now no longer needs to subcontract out additional work.

With any product that is relied on in a business support can be a critical issue.

"We have had bad experiences of software and hardware support in the past, but Jetcam is the only product that has lived up to expectations.

WIA has also been very helpful - when I have a question I just e-mail over a DXF file and I'll generally get an answer within a few hours, or even quicker".

W ten Ham has also received several software updates under its maintenance contract which have yielded additional benefits: "With the most recent release, for example, it is now even easier to change tools manually".

The company has expansion plans which include larger premises and a laser machine.

Ham comments that the punch press is busier than ever before, citing that an overall cycle time improvement of around 10% coupled with massively reduced NC code generation times allows it to get maximum efficiency.

"The more complex the job we take on, the greater the efficiency.

We now have shorter lead times and can offer our customers a better service in terms of the complexity of the parts we can manufacture".

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