The Challenge: Quality, Volume and Speed with Low Cost
Organisations which manufacture products have traditionally operated in a highly competitive environment where throughput times and associated costs must be minimised. Today many organisations must also compete directly with manufacturers located in regions where operating costs and overheads are significantly lower than they are in Australia. The challenge facing manufacturers in this region is to deliver quality products in ever growing volumes as quickly as possible and at the lowest practical cost.
The Solution: 3D Digital Design and Automation
Today’s successful manufacturers rely on a very high degree of automation, with their output closely coupled to three dimensional digital design models. Whether they manufacture directly from the digital product definition or develop tooling from product definitions as an intermediate step, any changes made to the product design must be seamlessly and associatively transferred to the manufacturing database, in real time.
- Time and Cost Benefits
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Operate CNC Production Runs which are Time and Cost Efficient
When the time comes to machine some tooling or create a finished product directly from a drawing, manufacturers need to efficiently generate toolpath code for their CNC machines. A 5% saving in cycle time can significantly reduce the costs associated with a large production run. It may be the difference between a manufacturing task being profitable or not. Computer-aided manufacturing software allows programmers to accurately predict and optimise cycle times and minimise tool wear.
Minimise Material Waste
If you work with sheetmetal or if you mill or turn parts from solid billets, scrap is often a significant by product. Nesting components to minimise waste is an important process for many programmers. Computer-aided manufacturing software automates this important task.
- CNC Benefits
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Generate CNC Work Offline
Programming any CNC machine at the controller is very inefficient for anything other than the simplest parts. For parts or tooling with even modest geometric complexity the numerical code for manufacture can only be efficiently generated off line, using a dedicated computer-aided manufacturing solution. Computer- aided manufacturing databases couple directly with the digital model of the product or tooling to be manufactured. They offer the programmer a virtual machining environment where all machining operations can be defined and visualised in full 3D without the need to test at the machine.
Generate, Validate and Store Your CNC Toolpath Codes
Once thoroughly verified the numerical code can be rapidly generated using a post-processing utility custom matched to the CNC machine controller. The code is then uploaded to the CNC machine for immediate deployment without the need for time consuming entry or editing via the controller. The complete manufacturing database can be stored offline for future re-use or adjustment as required.
- Associated Products
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Related LEAP Products:
Production Machining
Complete Machining
Creo Elements/Direct Sheetmetal
Advanced Assembly
Expert Framework