CAM is a productivity tool

Manufacturing Engineering, Nov 2001 by Summers, Brian R

CAM software is a valuable tool in today's shop. A co-- founder of CNC Software, Brian Summers answers our questions about his field's products and prospects.

Manufacturing Engineering: What should a manufacturing engineer look for when evaluating a CAM package?

Brian Summers: It's likely that no system will meet 100% of your needs. However, some things to consider are: What are your current needs? Will the shop grow? What type of jobs do you hope to be doing in five years? Can this programming software meet your future needs? Is the software supplier healthy and growing? Does the CAM company have good support and a strong dealer channel? How long has the CAM dealer been selling that software? Has the dealer changed packages in the past? Is it easy to find tech support? Is the software "broad-range" enough to meet your needs when you invest in different types of machines such as wire EDM, routers, and lathes? Is the software associative? Associative toolpath-- model linkage lets you save machining knowledge, and can greatly improve efficiency on future jobs.

ME: Where do CAM producers find programmers who understand both manufacturing problems and software languages?

Summers: Many software programmers don't have this knowledge. For those who do, such knowledge can help the developer understand how certain features should be implemented to coincide with the actual machining process. For developers less familiar with machining practices, the CAM company needs to rely on input from their dealers, technical staff and project management team. We maintain a working shop where we test our software. Testing can help a programmer understand the machining process, and provide real-world machining experience.

ME: How much difference can any software package make in a process?

Summers: Applying a machine process on the CAM level will definitely make a significant difference in the program. Because machines are designed to machine in a specific way, functionality that addresses these processes in the software can be very beneficial-such as tool motion to address remachining and high-speed machining. Motion or process built into a CAM system can be applied even to traditional machines, making use of efficient tool motion on a machine that was not necessarily intended to do so.

ME: Why is CAM software often perceived as expensive?

Summers: It's easy to perceive any software as expensive, primarily because it's not obvious what you're paying for. With a machine tool, you can quickly see the quality of the machine and the parts it's capable of machining. With software, the quality isn't obvious until you have a chance to work with the product and use the features. Because the customer only receives a CD and a manual, it's difficult to appreciate the thousands of man-hours of programming time needed to create the software. CAM software is also sometimes perceived as expensive when compared to CAD software. What many people don't see is how support-intensive CAM can be compared to CAD. CAM software often has to have many ways to do the same thing because of user preferences, which raises the cost of developing CAM software.

ME: How long does it typically take for a user to recover the cost of investing in CAM software? Summers: In some cases-depending on the size of the company and the size of the job-a user can recover the initial investment on the very first job. And frequently the software also allows the user to program parts that were previously "impossible" to create by hand, such as complex molds and precision aircraft work. Because CAM is a productivity tool, perhaps the shop owner should also be asking about the costs of not owning a CAM system.

ME: When will consolidation begin in the CAM industry, which presently consists of many small firms?

Summers: Consolidation has already happened on a small scale, but it's interesting to see the different effects it has on the companies being acquired. When a company is purchased to acquire the customer base, if the purchasers remove many of the people responsible for the company's success, it's unlikely that company will continue to be a presence in the market. When the acquired company remains largely unchanged, it seems to continue to flourish. Also, if many companies remain privately held, the consolidation process will be minimized.

Deals

UGS (Cypress, CA) entered into an agreement with Shandong Gongda Software Co. Ltd. (Shandong, China) to market 1000 licenses of Solid Edge CAD software to smalland-medium-sized manufacturers in China's Shandong Province.

Gibbs and Associates (Moorpark, CA) has an exclusive agreement with Daewoo Heavy Industries of America (West Caldwell, NJ) to provide GibbsCAM CAM programming software for CNC machines and controls for Daewoo to resell in support of their machine tools. It also allows Daewoo distributors to sell GibbsCAM software, and makes GibbsCAM Daewoo's internal CAM system of choice.

Distributors

Intelligent Manufacturing Software Inc. (Haverhill, MA) announced that Incat Limited (Hemel Hempstead, UK) is an authorized distributor of the IMSpost family of NC post-processing products for users of CATIA CAD/CAM software.