EDGECAM Helps To Level The Playing Field
 

Manufacturers have been shown how “three of the strongest names in the world in their field,” can help solve today’s biggest challenge.

Paul Williams, UK Product and Applications Manager for cutting tool specialist Sandvik Coromant, says the partnership between Sandvik Coromant, machine tool builder DMG Mori, and CAD/CAM software EDGECAM, ensures UK manufacturers can compete in a global economy.

He says today’s manufacturing challenge arises from manufacturers in developed economies having both higher and different costs than those in developing economies.

Explaining to delegates at EDGECAM’s Productivity Day that the solution was to drive down costs per part, he said the relationship between CAM, cutting tool and machine tool, played a major role. “Reducing the total manufacturing cycle through reduced downtime and economic machining will improve both effectiveness and efficiency.

DMG Mori, Sandvik Coromant and EDGECAM are three of the strongest names in their own areas of expertise in the world. The technology is available for everyone – events like this show manufacturers the benefits of working with it. It’s all about focusing on the right issues and then improving them even more.” 

A point echoed by DMG Mori UK Managing Director Steve Finn. “We don’t sell pieces of cast iron – we sell solutions, and can provide the full package of machine tool and cutting tool, along with the right CAM software to ensure getting the very best from the hardware.”

And he says EDGECAM’s two releases of updated software a year guarantee future-proofing. “Machine tools are a major investment for both small operations and large blue-chip companies, and EDGECAM ensures they’ll continue performing to optimum standards throughout their overall life of 20 years or more.”

Delegates at the Productivity Day, at DMG Mori’s UK headquarters, saw live machining demonstrations highlighting how the partnership between Mori Seiki machines programmed with EDGECAM and using Sandvik Coromant cutting tools, produces accurate components first time.

EDGECAM’s Strategic Partnership Manager Wesley Tonks says: “We’re working with machine tool and cutting tool partners to help customers build an efficient and productive process.  We’re bringing the three disciplines together which manufacturers need to embrace, in order to be successful.

“The same cutting tool can be applied in several ways, and EDGECAM is regarded as having highly productive and efficient cutting strategies, giving manufacturers the confidence to try new things in their production processes.”

Waveform Turning, one of the items of new functionality in EDGECAM 2015 R1, featured at the Productivity Day. “We’ve developed Waveform Milling over the last couple of years; now it’s available for turning strategies, too,” says Wesley Tonks.

Which is something delegates said they would find extremely useful. Rob Duncan, from Linkham Scientific Instruments says: “We invested in a new mill-turn machine early in 2014, and it’s already reducing cycle times. But using EDGECAM’s new Waveform toolpath generation for turning, will make an even bigger difference.

“We see EDGECAM as a vital tool...we look at the latest enhancements and use them to get the very best from our considerable machine tool investment.”