Founded over 100 years ago and now employing more than 100 people, the sub-contractor Walter Goetz Co produces a wide range of semi-finished and finished metal products for prototypes and small to medium-size production runs. The company has a range of CNC cutting machines — a mix of laser, water-jet, punching and combination punch/laser technologies — from several manufacturers.
In the mid-1990s, managing director Stefan Burghard recognised that programming the machines was becoming a bottleneck within the business. “We had three different CAD/CAM systems in use. It was a significant effort when, for example, a new job had to be re-programmed for another machine if a machine was unavailable due to workload or maintenance. In addition, it took a long time for staff to learn how to use all three systems. If a programmer was away due to illness or holiday, some production areas would stagnate, because other programmers would need additional training time on the appropriate software. This was time that we did not always have.”
Although the company wanted to use a single CAD/CAM system, it quickly became clear that it was not possible to use the software supplied with each machine brand to program machines from other manufacturers, so Walter Goetz searched the market for software that could drive a wider range of brands and technologies. During this research, Mr Burghard discovered JetCAM
(www.jetcam.com).“The system impressed us from the beginning. It is simply and logically built, so that staff can quickly become proficient in its use. I could now buy any brand of machine without having to worry about the programming process. We would simply order a new post-processor, and nests that yesterday were running on a Trumpf laser could today run on a water-jet machine — with the click of a mouse.”
As newly purchased machines became more complex, the software was adapted to take advantage of the new features. A fully automated Trumpf Trumatic 6000L with SheetMaster automation could be controlled with the same precision and ease as the previously manually loaded TC500. Walter Goetz’s head programmer Mr Klein says: “We programmed our Bystronic Bystar with its proprietary software for a while. Even though it was a reasonable system, it was still an isolated solution — and I was the only one that could operate it. As a result, we simply had a lack of flexibility in busy periods.”
In August 2010, the company bought a post-processor for its Bystronic machine from JetCAM’s German distributor Blechwelt. From that moment, all of the company’s machines could be programmed by both of Walter Goetz’s programmers.
Mr Burghard added: “The JetCAM software has proved to be by far the most economical solution for us. We keep our system current through updates supplied by Blechwelt, and any programmer can control all the machines with the same level of programming quality. Moreover, when we need to introduce new people to CAD/CAM programming, we can train them in-house and have them quickly up to speed.”
In another development, JetCAM recently launched a new version of its JetCAM Orders Controller software. JOC Lite II benefits from a complete re-work that gives a user-installable product requiring less than 30min training. The software allows users to remotely create order lists of either components or complex assembly structures for sending to JetCAM Expert CAD/CAM for nesting.
The software comes with some 20 tutorial videos that lead the user through all stages of set-up and usage. Once the software is installed, users can create an unlimited number of work-sheets — perhaps for different operators, machines or even by day of the week. A video demonstration of JOC Lite II can be viewed at JetCAM’s Web site.