Page 24 - MetalForming April 2014

Better Software
qualified welders. New capital-equip- ment additions include 100- and 250- kVA resistance-welding machines, and a laser-assisted LVD Strippit Easy- Form-series press brake with in- process bend-angle monitoring and correction.
The equipment joined the existing equipment residing in the 69,000-sq.-ft. production facility including a pair of laser-cutting machines—a 3000-W LVD
Strippit and 3500-W Bystronic—and a Beyeler Bystronic 200-ton press brake that features automatic bend-angle compensation. All of this has the firm fit to offer quick turnaround on proto- types, first-article and short-run pro- duction, as well as high-volume pro- duction, finishing and quality inspection.
Now a designer and fabricator of complex parts and welded assemblies
for a range of applications, including material-handling and conveying equipment and specialized HVAC units for railcars, AW Mercer made, in 2011, another significant software investment to supplement its SolidWorks upgrade. It replaced a 6-yr.-old sheetmetal-nest- ing package with SigmaNest, from Sig- maTek, Systems, Cincinnati, OH.
“Our existing nesting software was extremely inefficient,” says Estep, “which really became an issue when we looked to ramp up our engineering- services offerings to customers. The sheetmetal nests it automatically cre- ated for the lasers, as well as for our CNC turret-punching machines and shears, did not efficiently utilize mate- rial. This caused our engineers to spend an inordinate amount of time overrid- ing the nests manually to make them more efficient.
“With SigmaNest,” Estep continues, “that manual intervention has disap- peared, reducing nesting time by 70 per- cent or more and freeing up thousands of hours of engineering time per year.”
SigmaTek has even made it easier for SolidWorks users to integrate design with manufacturing, with its latest release—Version 10. In SigmaNest Ver- sion 10, SolidWorks PDM Integration allows for the import of SolidWorks files directly into SigmaNest without having to first check out the file from the PDM vault.
“With this integration,” says Sig- maTek northeast regional sales man- ager Ryan Lustig, “SigmaNest accesses the design vault and checks out files through the importing process. This streamlines the design-to-manufac- turing process for users, while ensuring they can keep their files secure and current.”
One Stand-Out Project
AW Mercer general manager Tim Meade recalls one specific nesting proj- ect that he used to convince corporate management that the firm had quickly recouped its investment in SigmaNest.
“We had to set up and develop a large order for an HVAC railcar project,” recalls Meade, “that comprised 400
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