CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
30 November 2004
Implementation Investments
Delcam's 10,000th Customer is Leading Thai Press Tool Manufacturer
Delcam is pleased to announce that Summit Auto Body Industry, Thailand's largest supplier of pressed automotive parts, has become the 10,000th customer for the Power Solution range of CADCAM software. The company, which is based near the new Airport on the east side of Bangkok, supplies pressings to most of the major car companies in Thailand. It has added both the PowerSHAPE design software and the PowerMILL CAM system to its existing range of software.
The order represents another important success for Delcam in automotive press die manufacture. "While we are still best known in the mould and die area, a growing number of press tool manufacturers are using our software," claimed Delcam's Asian Business Development Director Tim Mitchell. "We have users both in leading automotive companies, such as Hyundai in Korea and First Auto Works in China, and in press tool manufacturers, including Ogihara, the world's largest independent supplier of tooling for automotive body work."
SAB employs more than 1,800 staff covering every stage of press tool development and pressing manufacture. The company takes in part designs from its customers, develops tooling designs, manufactures the tooling and produces trial pressings within its tooling development section. Once these samples have been approved, SAB undertakes full-scale manufacture, including robot welding and bonding of sub-assemblies, and detailed quality control.
The Delcam software will be used at SAB for various stages in the press tool manufacturing process, including the design and machining of foam patterns for the tooling and finish machining of the cast tools. The investment in the new software is another stage in the company's drive to become established as a global leader in the development and production of high-quality automotive components.
When asked about the reasons for choosing the Delcam software, Mrs. Sirinun Junsuwan of SAB highlighted a number of critical benefits. "Firstly, we were impressed by the very high quality of data translation," she began. "We have to receive many different data formats from our customers. In our tests, Delcam's PS Exchange was the best in both speed of translation and the quality of the imported model."
"Secondly, the PowerSHAPE software makes it easier and quicker for us to create the die face from CAD model of the part. The software interface is quite friendly, making it quick to learn and easy to use," she added. "Another impressive feature of PowerSHAPE is the new morphing function that allows us to respond to engineering changes or to compensate for "spring-back" effects much more quickly. With morphing, we can change the complete model in one operation and don't have to remodel each part of the geometry over and over."
"With PowerMILL, the speed of toolpath generation is the biggest benefit," said Mrs. Junsuwan. "CAM used to be a serious bottleneck with the CNC operators having to wait for toolpaths. Now, this is no longer a problem since with PowerMILL we can program faster than we can machine."
"It is also important that the toolpaths are so reliable, which gives the CNC operators confidence there will be no collisions," she added. "Our machinists are always requesting different strategies to give faster machining and to get better quality. With PowerMILL, our CAM engineers find it easier to edit and optimise the toolpaths. They can produce programs that are more efficient, with fewer lifts and less air cutting than we experienced with our previous CAM system."
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