Founded in 1987, Plastteknik
is a one-stop complete solution company
that helps customers right from basic
concept through the product completion.
With its own internal resources and
development staff, Plastteknik carries
out product development, CNC milled,
turned and vacuum formed prototypes,
mold making and injection molding.
Due to the knowledge and
expertise found among its employees,
as well as its expertise in providing
a complete solution, makes Plastteknik
a much sought after company that is
contacted by companies and institutes
that require technology training and
consulting.
CAD/CAM History
Jörgen Andersson,
CAD CAM engineer says even prior to
1998 the company had been using a DOS
based CAM program. He says “In
the beginning I used to but it was not
user friendly enough”. The company
then started looking out for CAM software
and found VisualMill.
Jörgen
Andersson programming in VisualMill
Plastteknik started off
using VisualMill 2.0 in the beginning
of February 2000 and have been MecSoft’s
customer since then. The company has
standardized on VisualMill for CAM programming
and Jörgen is primarily responsible
for the use of this software.
Decision to buy VisualMill
According to Jörgen,
VisualMill comes with one of the best
price performance ratios in the industry.
He says:
“The decision to
buy VisualMill was based on price and
functionality. Also as we already design
in SolidWork, we had no need of a CAM
program with CAD functionality.”
VisualMill comes with
CAD tools that tailored for the machinist
and not the designer. This does not
burden the CAM user with the cost of
buying CAD functionality that seldom
gets used, as is typically the case
with other systems in the market today.
Another important reason
for the choice was that VisualMill incorporated
the Parasolid kernel, the same one that
SolidWorks employs. This allows VisualMill
to read SolidWorks files directly and
allows for flawless transfer of geometry
data.
Application of
VisualMill
Jörgen says–
“When the mold is
designed and the construction is ready,
I prepare the tool paths on the saved
SolidWorks files. In case adjustments
are needed we make this changes in SolidWorks
and regenerate the tool paths in VisualMill.
Compared with other CAM
software VisualMill very user friendly
and easy to use”
From Design
to Manufacturing
VisualMill, with its
powerful 3D machining functionality,
helps Plastteknik machine and produce
injection molds for plastic parts with
intricate details mostly using 3D surfaces
with inserts.
Jörgen adds that
“We even produce graphite electrodes
for spark erosion machining with complicated
surfaces and VisualMill works great
for this application.”
Plastic injection
molds machined and produced using
VisualMill
Jörgen
Andersson and Åke Stenlund
(industrial designer)
Learning Curve
Jörgen has had no
formal training in VisualMill. Due to
its intuitive and excellent user interface,
little or no training is required to
run VisualMill.
“I haven’t
had any training, I learn by asking
other using other CAM programs and learn
to find these operations in VisualMill.
To use the program with it’s base
operations didn’t take long time,
but we still learn new functionalities
after 5 years of use.”
All in all VisualMill
has allowed Jörgen to produce intricate
parts cost effectively and has helped
Plastteknik stay ahead of the technological
curve for the past 5 years. Jörgen
has no hesitation in recommending VisualMill
to others looking for a CAM product.
