Page 30 - MetalForming-Feb-2018-issue

Fabrication: Nesting Software
module for finding efficient nest pat- terns over a predetermined time peri- od. Klingebiel says the addition of this module helped decrease waste by 10 percent, with even fewer remnants being created. “Previously, we could end up with dozens of remnants across each order,” he says. “Now, only the last nest of each material might contain a remnant.”
The software also allows Ribo to store multiple revisions for compo- nents, reducing the likelihood of mak- ing older part versions by mistake. The time-saving Tool Teach feature allows the software to learn complex tool placement for future and similar part geometries. The software’s ability to store tooling logic benefitted Ribo as it changed machines multiple times before arriving at its current setup: a Trumpf 5000 punching machine and a Trumpf L3030 laser-cutting machine with a Trumalift SheetMaster load/ unload handling system. Using single- component automatic processing, Ribo was able to automatically re-import and retool the components for the new machines. “We had some 33,000 nests for the punch and 20,000 for the laser,” notes Klingebiel. “We were able to have the system process the files we needed to retool overnight, and they were ready the next day.”
In 2014, Jetcam released what Klingebiel says was “a godsend”—auto- matic sheet processing, which can apply tooling and skeleton- destruction logic to the entire sheet with a single mouse click. “This provided us with the luxury of being able to pick either the punch or laser,” he says. “We can decide which parts are cut on which machine based on their complexity and then tool the entire nest with a single click. I’ve found it to be almost 100-percent accurate, and any tooling issues are easy to rectify.”
Finally, in 2016 Ribo improved its automation of CAD import and order- ing of components with Jetcam Orders Controller ( JOC). “The switch from the old system to JOC should not be under- estimated,” says Klingebiel. “It wasn’t one step up, it was five steps up. Pre-
viously we’d import our DXFs, send them to the order-management sys- tem, manually enter amounts and then split them between cutting technolo- gies. With JOC, we simply import a sin- gle CSV file with all of our parts and send it for processing. JOC creates com- ponent files and nests them. One of our products—a food cart—has 45 sheetmetal parts. Previously it would have taken me 3.5 hr. to process them. Now they’re done in 90 min.”
United Kingdom Success
For HC Coils Ltd., Gosport, United Kingdom, a manufacturer of heat-
The Tool Teach feature allows Jetcam software to learn complex tooling for
new parts at HC Coils, a U.K.-based manufacturer of heat-exchanger
products. Shown is a collar- punched coil-tube plate.
exchanger products, the
decision to upgrade its nest- ing software came in 2010. The company was using a CAM system for its punch presses, but was experiencing issues, recalls John Yeomanson, drawing office manager. “We had no automatic nest- ing then,” he says, “meaning that I had to employ someone all day to literally
play ‘Tetris’ to lay up nests.”
Once HC Coils began looking at
nesting possibilities, it found Jetcam software had the functionality and ease-of-use it was looking for. Like Ribo in Germany, HC Coils opted for Jetcam with free-form nesting along with JOC. Installation and training took just two days for both machines, Yeomanson recalls, adding that “it was easy to pick up how to use the software.”
HC Coils had several thousand com-
28 MetalForming/February 2018
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Programming time at HC Coils dropped 85 percent, enabling a day’s worth of nests to be programmed in less than an hour. Shown are aluminium-cased low-profile coolers waiting for fans to be fitted.