Lantek, a multi-national company in the development and sale of CAD-CAM/MES/ERP and a pioneer in the digital transformation of companies operating in the sheet metal and fabrication industry around the world (www.lanteksms.com/us), has incorporated over 60 new features into its Lantek Global Release 2019 solution for the design and cutting of sheet metal parts and production planning.

Asier Ortiz, technical director of Lantek, said: “In the current connected world, there is little doubt that data is the raw material that enables progress in manufacturing development, adding value and providing a competitive advantage in the market.

"With this in mind, a major part of Lantek’s R&D effort has been aimed at obtaining quality data to allow the integral control and management of any cutting machine and process.

"This enables us to raise production levels and increase agility, while reducing complexity.”

The improvements include over 40 general improvements to Lantek Expert CAD-CAM 2D sheet metal cutting software — such as managing the destruction of holes, skeletons and remnants — to assist the operator in the evacuation of finished parts.

Automated processes have also been introduced to simplify work-flow.

“By automating tasks, routine processes are concatenated, and nesting groupings can be improved according to the customer’s needs,” said Mr Ortiz.

“We have also optimised data collection and control capabilities, increasing our cutting-machine database, which currently includes over 1,200 models from practically every manufacturer on the market, as well as improving the quality of production data collected.”

For improved integration and management of 3-D models for the cutting and bending process, the 2019 version has been enhanced by the integration of the main CAD systems, thereby increasing the possibilities for working with programs and files incorporating all of the main 3-D graphic formats that are currently on the market.

The 2019 version incorporates new machine models, and it includes the latest methodologies for laser tube cutting (Lantek Flex3d Tubes).

“Optimised cutting depends on the mechanical capacity of the machine and — for the operator — the simplification of cutting management, the management of remnants and the evacuation of the part,” adds Mr Ortiz.

Meanwhile, Lantek’s MES production management and planning system incorporates 19 new features designed to optimise production.

For example, with the new MES Monitoring module, users will be able to see production planning fully and in real time in different views, sequences or Gantt charts.

There is also a series of general efficiency improvements, including nesting with sheet metal selection, entire production traceability, data collection and improved data quality in more ranges of machines, reports and filters.