Ever lost a customer or had production congestion due to inaccurate cycle-time calculation?

The problems

Job quotes: Manual cycle time estimates can often be wildly inaccurate. If you are running a job shop, if the estimate is too high you lose the order, and if it is too low you produce at a loss. And how much time do you spend each week estimating the cycle time manually when you could be spending the time more usefully?
Scheduling: Whether you run a job shop or produce your own parts, you must make a schedule for a new part much before you have even cut the first part. So how do you make an accurate schedule without an accurate cycle time?
Program efficiency: To arrive at the shortest cycle time, you must try out a number of alternate processes and cutting parameters, each time quickly and accurately calculating the cycle time. When you write a program manually, you barely have the time to estimate the cycle time once. How sure are you that your program results in the least possible cycle time?

The solution
CAD/CAM's cycle time calculations have less than 1% error. When calculating the cycle time, CAD/CAM considers every single tool motion made, and all miscellaneous functions like tool change, pallet change, door open/close, etc. which add to the cycle time. Acceleration and deceleration times of the axes and spindle are considered. All these values are the actual parameters of your machines.


NC programs the way you want them.
A program in a format unfamiliar to the machine operator can be dangerous. For example, the operator might start machining after the tool offset block when restarting after a power down and cause a collision.

The solution
In CAD/CAM's highly versatile Generic post processor builder, post processors can be configured to output programs very close to or exactly the way you want them.


OK, the program's done - now who's going to document it ?
You have written a killer program and the parts are cut and delivered . What if the same job came to you after 6 months with design changes ? You spend hours trying to decipher the old program and rewrite it.

When you give your operator a program, how do you tell him what tools are to be used ? If you are like most programmers, you probably give him a hand-written list or expect the operator to read the program and ready the tools. On the shop floor you are so hard pressed for time that you barely have enough time and patience to sit down and document your program.

The solution
CAD/CAM generates shop documents automatically. It saves you time and ensures that documentation is up-to-date

Cycle time sheet
Study it, print it, or send it to your customer. CAD/CAM generates a complete detailed cycle time sheet in seconds.
Study it to reduce the cycle time. When you make a change in the cutting parameters in an operation, it just takes a couple of seconds to see what the new cycle time is.
Print it and file it away for future reference.
Print it and send it to your customer as a supporting document for your job quote.
The data can be saved in .MDB, .XLS, .DOC or .RTF format. You can interface it to other databases and process it further

Tool list
Study it, print it, or send it to your customer.
The tools list can be printed out and filed for future reference, or given to the machine operator. Reduces two frequent causes of tool collisions - tool mounted in the wrong position in the magazine, and wrong tool offset entry.

Tool layout sheet
Print it, send it to your customer or file it for the future.

CAD/CAM generates a detailed tool vs. operation layout sheet in seconds.
The machining process for a part is displayed as a set of pages with details of each operation on a different page: Area machined, tool used, cycle time, tool path.

Print it and file it away for future reference.
Print it and send it to your customer as a supporting document for your job quote.
If you are a machine tool seller, send it to your customer with proposals for tooled-up machines

Spindle power graph
Are you under-utilising your machine?

The problem
You do not have the time, the patience or the formulae at your fingertips to calculate the spindle power for every operation. You have no idea if you are using just a fraction of the available power or exceeding it and thus harming the spindle motor.

The Solution
The spindle power graph enables you to check over and underuse of the spindle's capacity, and ensure that the machine's power is used to the fullest extent.