Page 23 - MetalForming Magazine August 2022
P. 23

 FABRICATION
   Today’s fabricating technology promises the ability to produce high-quality components job after job, in a variety of applications. And, in each issue, MetalForming is committed to informing you on how fabrication equipment delivers.
CNC punching takes center stage in this month’s fabrication coverage. Learn how a Florida manufacturer of switchgear invested in a CNC punch-shear combination machine to update its technology, and expand its capabilities and capacity.
Also, we explore nesting strategies, as there’s much more to successful nesting than simply adding more parts to a sheet.
Contents
20 News&Technology
22 CNCPunching:Machine Management and Nesting Capability Form Powerful Combo
26 CNCPunch-ShearCombo Powers Vertical Integration
News & Technology
 Lantek Open-Systems Approach Provides Route to Smart Factory
With dedication to an open-systems approach, Lantek, developer of sheet metal CAM, ERP and MES software, helps OEM machine-tool manufacturers optimize the functionality and performance of their machines while enabling sheet metal- manufacturing companies to take advan- tage of new, productivity boosting software and cloud-based technologies.
Integral to this approach, according to Francisco Perez, Lantek’s OEM channel director, is Lantek’s neutral stance for its OEM partners, giving them the confidence to trust Lantek with information about the individual technology advances each is working to develop. To facilitate this secure coordination, Lantek has estab- lished a focused and dedicated department to manage the 150 OEMs it now supports.
In fact, many innovations in the software developed by Lantek come from such col- laboration, Perez reports, noting that “in working with sheet metal manufacturers and machine tool builders, the company incorporates their requirements while anticipating the direction the industry is heading, providing features and innovations that add real value for customers.”
Lantek has developed software to sup- port many sheet metal devices and tech- nologies including bevelling, drilling, inkjet/laser marking, pallet handling, etc. As these technologies became more com- mon in the market, Lantek implemented
generic solutions so that a range of dif- ferent machines with these capabilities could be driven from Lantek’s standard Expert CAM software simply by configuring the postprocessor to suit the requirements of each machine.
Recent projects have included collab- oration with OEMs on collision avoidance on their fiber laser cutting systems. Automa- tion for sheet metal machinery is another area of successful collaboration, as well as laser tube cutting.
And today, as industry migrates toward smart-factory settings, companies are examining how smart techniques can be used for their applications. Mature products such as Lantek MES and Lantek Analytics, reports Perez, are designed specifically for the sheet metal industry and enable manufacturers to integrate their machinery with their customers’ business systems— key to smart-factory efforts. Lantek, accord- ing to Perez, can supply the tools and the technology for integration at a much deeper level, connecting machine per- formance with the KPIs that manufacturers wish to monitor.
In sum, closed software systems of the past are now unsuitable for today’s manufacturers, offers Perez.
“Open technology and OEM collabo- ration,” he says, “are paramount for the success of the sheet metal industry.” Lantek: www.lantek.com
   20 MetalForming/August 2022
www.metalformingmagazine.com














































































   21   22   23   24   25