Advanced Machine Tool
(AMT) is a 35-year old company specializing
in the development of motors for appliances.
For years they had successfully used
a pair of CAM programs, Mazak’s
CAMWARE and ShopCAM from D. Broderick
Software to handle their manufacturing
needs, which at the time was 2D only.
However, early in 2003, they had the
opportunity to begin doing work for
the automotive industry, which would
involve 3D contour machining (see
figure 1 and 2). That is when Andy
Gecowets, the Machining Foreman and
head of Manufacturing Systems at AMT,
decided that it was time to look for
a CNC program that could handle this
new work.
Figure 1 and 2 – A tooling for
automotive parts developed at
Advanced Machine Tool.
Evaluation
Gecowets and two others co-workers,
Thung Thainnon and Gary Hunt evaluated
several products, including MasterCAM
and SurfCAM. Then after hearing about
VisualMill and downloading a demo,
Gecowets noticed how easy it was for
Thainnon and Hunt to pick it up. “No
sooner was the program downloaded
and our guys had already imported
a SolidWorks part and were creating
a toolpath. It didn’t take long
to realize VisualMill would be able
to handle what we needed,” Gecowets
recalls. “After seeing what
the various competing programs could
do, there just wasn’t enough
difference to justify buying software
that was five times the price of VisualMill.”
So AMT went ahead and purchased one
seat of VisualMill. While Thainnon
and Hunt had picked up the demo very
well, Gecowets was still expecting
that once the software was installed,
the two would need some professional
training. However, it was never necessary.
“Thung and Gary had CAM experience
and were computer literate, but still
I expected that they would need some
professional training…but that
wasn’t the case.”
Upgrading to
VisualMill 5.0
Since then, AMT has upgraded to VisualMill
5. One of the favorite new capabilities
at the shop is the new 2D drawing
tools. Gecowets pointed out how they
are now able to modify drawings they
receive directly inside of VisualMill,
rather than having to first import
them into AutoCAD, thus saving time.
Speaking of interoperability, AMT
also uses SolidWorks and Gecowets
mentioned that the direct import that
VisualMill has with this program works
very well. “Once in a while
if there is a glitch, we just ask
the person who created the file to
save it in the Parasolid format and
that takes care of any model translation
problems.” So far AMT uses VisualMill
mainly for 3D machining, but when
he’s had to do 2D work, Gecowets
feels that it is just as good as either
CAMWARE and ShopCAM.
Return On Investment
When asked about the ROI, Gecowets
said that it was realized on the very
first VisualMill project. “We
did a rear and tail light assembly
for GM (see figure 3 and 4) and because
we were able to handle our own 3D
work and not farm it out, that paid
for the software right there.”
Gecowets also pointed to other ways
the software has helped AMT make back
what they put into the software financially.
He noted “in the past, with
our low-run, 2D-only work, we never
had a job that needed to run a long
time, so the machines here were never
fully utilized. Now we have the machines
run unattended all night, which has
made us more productive and profitable,
which further increases our return
on our investment.”
Gecowets concluded by saying, “when
I see our programmers effortlessly
using the software and the ease that
VisualMill imports a solid part, finds
the regions and generates the NC program,
I know that it is working. The process
happens so quickly and smoothly –
while at the same time our capabilities
have been enhanced. All I can say
is that I am a satisfied customer.
Figure
3 – A mounting housing
for a molded plastic tail-light
housing that was designed in
SolidWorks and imported into
VisualMill 5.
Figure
4 – Driven by VisualMill,
a robotic arm mills out excess
flash at Advanced Machine Tool.
