Product category:
CAM, CNC and production management software
News Release from: Alphacam | Subject: Nesting and manufacturing software
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 30 November 2006
Software's material savings are not hot
air
At Cameron Balloons the use of Alphacam nesting and manufacturing software has not only dramatically improved material utilisation, but significantly enhanced production throughput as well.
Today's high raw material costs are forcing manufacturers across all industry sectors to look at ways of maximising the yield from their bought-in supplies Nowhere is this more true than at Cameron Balloons, where the use of Alphacam nesting and manufacturing software has not only dramatically improved material utilisation, but significantly enhanced production throughput as well
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 2 Aug 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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Cameron Balloons is the country's leading manufacturer of hot air balloons for recreational, promotional and commercial use.
The company is owned by its founder, Don Cameron, and today employs 74 staff at its 4600m2 site in Bedminster on the outskirts of Bristol.
It's certainly come a long way since the production of its first balloon, the "Bristol Belle", nearly 40 years ago.
Today, the organisation turns over more than GBP 4 million and produces around 150 hot air balloons every year, along with hot-air and helium airships, gas balloons, advertising blimps and cold air inflatables for promotional, scientific and military use.
It also designed and manufactured Breitling Orbiter III, the first manned balloon to circle the globe nonstop and more recently, the hot-air balloon that set a new world altitude record in India at 68,986 feet.
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Likewise, Cameron pioneered the production of custom-designed promotional balloons in the UK, which it has supplied in shapes ranging from racing cars to houses and giant mobile phones to drinks cans - and virtually everything else in between.
"It's been the growth of these one-off designs, as well as the demand for logos and lettering on balloons, that has helped to justify our recent investment in a new Zund L2500CV fabric marker and cutter equipped with the Alphacam nesting and manufacturing software", says Cameron's Production Director, Lindsay Sadler.
The company is no stranger to Alphacam, having previously used the system on a Zund flat bed plotter bought around five years ago.
According to Graphics Co-ordinator Sian Jones, fabric panels for Cameron's standard range of hot air balloons are produced using paper templates generated by the plotter.
The panels are then cut by hand up to 48 panels at a time using powered "pizza blade" tools.
"However, the production of logos, or advertising messages in specific typefaces, is altogether more complex", she adds.
"In the early days we used to take flat artwork and project the image onto a wall to create the required paper pattern, before finally cutting the lettering or panels by hand - literally on the shop floor".
"But using Alphacam greatly simplifies the task".
"The system incorporates a wide selection of TrueType fonts, and easily accepts scanned images", Jones continues.
"Once the required geometry is imported into the system, the nesting software really comes into its own".
"Due to the weave of the fabric and the loads imparted on the panels as the balloon is inflated, parts are effectively directional, so can only be rotated through 180 degrees in the nest".
"This constraint is easily handled by Alphacam, which not only maximises material utilisation, but also produces the required cutter path at the touch of a button".
In a back-to-back benchmark test, the company nested some representative parts manually, then undertook the same exercise using the Alphacam system.
Doing the job by hand took 2.5 hours just to nest the panels and required 15 metres of material.
By contrast, the Alphacam system completed the task in around 30 seconds and only needed 12 metres of material to achieve the same result - a 20% saving in material usage alone.
"With as many as six different types of fabric specified in every balloon envelope we produce, each costing up to GBP 40 per metre, it is not difficult to see how we have achieved payback on the new system in less that six months", adds Jones.
A further measure of Alphacam's success can be gauged by the fact that in the 12 months before its introduction at Cameron the company recycled almost 30 tonnes of cut fabric.
Within a year, that figure had been reduced to around 0.5 tonnes, despite an overall increase in production.
"Another consideration when we are producing logos is the need to take into account the stretch of the fabric under load", says Ian Lewis, who operates the Zund.
"For example, to achieve a circular design on an inflated envelope, you have to start with something that is more shaped like an apple".
"Again, this can easily be accommodated using the Alphacam system".
Cameron's latest Zund machine has a six metre long table and is designed for use with 1.5 metre wide nylon, polyester or vinyl fabrics in rolls up to 200 metres long.
In operation, the required part geometry is initially either created in the Alphacam system or imported, typically in "rtl" format.
Any geometry modification can be undertaken and constraints - such as the number of sets required - can be specified prior to the initiation of the nesting operation.
The resulting nest layout is displayed on screen for checking and/or final amendment by Lewis before it is converted automatically into the required HP GL plot file format used by the Zund machine.
The system's drawing and cutting capabilities are also put to good use on marking out balance lines used as stitching guides on individual panels - again to take account of the stretch of the material under load.
"Previously, this would take around two hours per balloon to complete", explains Jones.
"But, like the nesting and cutting operations, this is now achieved automatically at the touch of a button".
"The installation of the new Alphacam-equipped Zund marker and cutter has made major improvements to both our throughput and material utilisation, particularly on specials and one-offs", she adds.
"So much so, that we have recently transferred our earlier Zund plotter to sister organisation, Lindstrand Hot Air Balloons in Oswestry, and upgraded its Alphacam system to the latest software release".
"Now our colleagues in Shropshire can look forward to making the same sort of savings in material usage as we have", she concludes. Request a free brochure from Alphacam ...
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