A start-up subcontractor was struggling so hard to program its punch press to produce the complex parts it needed, that it considered switching all manufacture to its laser \u2013 until investing in the world\u2019s most powerful sheetmetal CAD\/CAM software, Radan.<\/p>\n
The software that came with its 51 station triple track turret Amada AC 2510 NT got Bolton Sheetmetal Ltd going with the basics, but Managing Director Martin Farrow says they needed Radan\u2019s advanced sheetmetal technology to take them to the next level.<\/p>\n
Martin says in the pre-Radan days they never punched anything with a radius \u2013 all those components went on to the Amada 3015 4kw Mark 11 laser. \u201cThe punch is a superb machine, and we knew it was capable of doing absolutely everything we wanted…but with our original software even something fairly
\nsimple, like a square plate with a radius on each corner, was beyond it.\u201d<\/p>\n
It reached the stage where 90 percent of parts were cut on the laser, just to avoid what he says was the hassle and lengthy time to program the punch. \u201cWe were spending hours on it. I was having to step in and try to program it myself, and it could take me a day to complete the program. When I was on
\nholiday, if a job hadn\u2019t already been programmed, the punch just wouldn\u2019t be used. Now when I\u2019m away I have every confidence that the team will be able to get the punch to do whatever they need it to, and that\u2019s fantastic for us.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmada are the machine specialists, and we\u2019re really pleased with both the laser and the punch…and Radan are the software specialists. We now take Radan for granted because it\u2019s so simple to use and quick to produce the programs we need.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Radan Combi system which drives both their laser and punch, was only installed in May this year, but proved its worth immediately, and within three months Bolton Sheetmetal were punching more components than they were lasering. \u201cWe can now mirror a part to get two components together, we\u2019ve improved material utilisation with common line cutting, and capitalise on part removal with a shute. A lot of companies just don\u2019t understand the benefits that more powerful software gives them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Swift tooling of the part, and the powerful nester, mean they no longer restrict sheets to just one type of part. \u201cI\u2019d never mix parts on a sheet with the old software, mainly because we had to tool the entire sheet, but with Radan we just tool the part,\u201d says Martin.<\/p>\n
It also increased their flexibility, giving them the option of easily switching work between laser and punch, depending on which type of cutting a job is best suited to.<\/p>\n
Although Bolton Sheetmetal is only two years old, the family running it have over 40 years experience in the industry. Martin used to work for the sheetmetal company his father set up in 1974 \u2013 now Martin\u2019s father works for him. They operate with ten employees, many of them family members and close friends, from 5,500 square foot premises near the Reebok Football Stadium. A major laser contract is to manufacture doors and door frames for the prison service, and they punch chassis channels for DAF trucks. Other products they manufacture, mainly from galvanised, stainless and mild steels, along with Zintec, include shop fittings and office furniture.<\/p>\n
They found that Radan Combi was ideal for their independent punch and profile requirements, while also providing a seamless transfer of parts between the two technologies.<\/p>\n
Martin also says Radan\u2019s Quick Estimate function is proving invaluable for them, run in conjunction with their MRP system. \u201cWe get a dxf file from the customer, tool it up and click Quick Estimate, which gives us the time the job is likely to take and the optimum sheet size to use. We import that information into our MRP system which produces an accurate quote for us to send to our customer, based on Radan\u2019s information.\u201d He says their next investment is likely to be Radan\u2019s high performance and versatile 3D modelling package, Radan 3D.<\/p>\n
And Radan\u2019s bottom line benefits in the short time they have been using it? \u201cIt\u2019s not only saved us a person\u2019s wage by freeing them up to do other things, and wiped out all the hassle we had, it\u2019s given us much more scope. We can now take on jobs we couldn\u2019t even have considered before. Radan is advanced sheetmetal technology and I wouldn\u2019t have invested in it if I didn\u2019t know it would enable us to take on more complex work and keep us ahead of the game in this very competitive industry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A start-up subcontractor was struggling so hard to program its punch press to produce the complex parts it needed, that it considered switching all manufacture to its laser \u2013 until investing in the world\u2019s most powerful sheetmetal CAD\/CAM software, Radan. The software that came with its 51 station triple track turret Amada AC 2510 NT […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8278,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,1],"tags":[277,314,1132,1148],"class_list":["post-8276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-case-studies","category-uncategorized","tag-bolton","tag-case-study","tag-punching","tag-radan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfgtechupdate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfgtechupdate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfgtechupdate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfgtechupdate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfgtechupdate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mfgtechupdate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfgtechupdate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfgtechupdate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfgtechupdate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfgtechupdate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}