Delcam is pleased to congratulate its customer Cavalier Tool & Manufacturing on being awarded MoldMaking Technology’s annual Leadtime Leader Award for 2015. The Award, which recognises the outstanding efforts and growth of North America’s top mould manufacturers, will be presented at an awards ceremony on Wednesday, 17th June, during the 2015 Amerimold expo in Rosemont, Illinois.
Each year, MoldMaking Technology searches for companies that have successfully set a higher standard for overall innovation, efficiency, quality and commitment in mould manufacturing. “Cavalier Tool was chosen for the 2015 Award in recognition of the way the company has transformed its business by implementing a standardised, flexible process, advanced technology and a people-centric philosophy. Cavalier Tool attributes that have contributed to this win include: an appetite for technology, precise customer profiling, a solid social media campaign, a new EDM cell, unattended operations, a focus on more value-added activities, co-development of new electrode software, automated machine monitoring, offsite educational training and much more,” said Christina Fuges, Editorial Director of MoldMaking Technology.
Cavalier Tool was one of the first users of the Delcam Electrode software for the design, manufacture and inspection of electrodes, with the company’s feedback providing important guidance in the development of the system. Subsequently, the company, which creates 200 or more moulds each year, has gone from outsourcing about $600,000 a year on EDM to pulling all that work back in-house with a single OPS Ingersol machine and Delcam’s software.
Brian Bendig, the President of Cavalier Tools, praised Delcam, saying “Delcam did a really good job of working with OPS Ingersoll in Germany to construct a solution that simplified the EDM process for Cavalier Tools.”
Mark Langlois, the EDM Leader for Cavalier Tools, described the transition to be “like night and day”. “Before the Delcam software was added, the EDM process was long and drawn out,” he remembered. “Now, we just take data from Delcam Electrode directly to the Ingersoll equipment so there’s no typing. Everything is perfect.”
“We had Delcam customise a few items inside the program menu so that it would meet Cavalier Tool’s needs,” added Mr. Langlois. Delcam was also able to work together with OPS Ingersoll to create a custom script to streamline the programming of the machine’s operations.
“EDM was a long process, now it’s just a couple of clicks; I can get my electrode, with literally almost no work. Click, click, click: done,” claimed Mr. Langlois. Once the electrode design has been finalised, it can be put straight into Delcam’s PowerMILL CAM system for machining.
Mr. Bendig highlighted that the increased productivity from having Delcam Electrode and the OPS Ingersol machine has paid for all the costs incurred from buying them. “At Cavalier Tools, we’re always trying to get things done more efficiently: with Ingersoll and Delcam products, we can outdo everybody else.”
