CNC Metal Fabrication Inc., in Toronto, builds electronic instrument cabinets. It acquired its first JETCAM Expert CAD/CAM software license with a Finn-Power press in 1992, but also acquired other CAM systems with other machines that, over time, needed consolidating.
Chandrakant Patel, Engineering Manager explained; “We’ve replaced the first Finn-Power twice since 1992, and with each new Finn-Power machine we’ve used JETCAM without problems. We had an old CAM system that was driving another punching machine, but this had no automatic tooling capability and was difficult to use.”
Another system also proved too difficult to learn and did not have the same level of functionality as JETCAM for parts that require both laser and punching operations, and thus needed programming on two separate systems.
By this time CNC Metal had used JETCAM Expert with high-performance rectangular nesting to drive three Finn- Power punch presses and a Danobat punch press. After replacing the Mitsubishi with a newer model they standardized on JETCAM, and purchased postprocessors for their two licenses to drive the new laser.
Comparing JETCAM to the two other systems, Patel cited several examples of savings resulting from efficiencies the software has delivered. “The biggest saving has been in programming time. The old system had no auto-tooling, so tooling up punched parts is 50-70% faster now, with programming reduced overall by around 30%. Although most of our runs are short, our sheet utilization has improved by up to 20%, which has reduced our scrap levels by up to 90%.”
He said JETCAM’s ablity to store tooling data on the part, not the nest, means the shop can store both punch and laser information, and then generate a nest for any of the machines immediately. Patel said newer features have further reduced programming time and improved the quality and speed of getting to a finished part.
