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Below is our recent interview with Dave Dulong, the Founder and President of Access Manufacturing Systems:
Q: Could you provide our readers with a brief introduction to Access Manufacturing Systems?
A: Headquartered in Salem, New Hampshire, ACCESS Manufacturing Systems is the largest CAMWorks® reseller in the world. For 30 years, ACCESS has delivered best-in-class manufacturing software and accessories, along with unsurpassed industry expertise, to thousands of companies across the nation.
CAMWorks, which was first introduced in 1997, is a state-of-the-art CNC programming solution designed for product-oriented manufacturing companies. The CAMWorks platform is the most advanced CAM programming software available that enables users to get products to market faster, more efficiently and within budget.
Our extensive industry knowledge with leading CAM technologies has allowed our customers to reduce setup time, double machine capacity, and improve overall quality.
Since we absolutely believe that exceptional products and stellar service go hand in hand, a variety of comprehensive training courses are available to ensure our customers receive a substantial return on their CAM investment.
Our team of engineering and manufacturing experts are available to assist customers with any issue that may arise.
Q: You’ve recently received HCL Technologies CAMWorks 2018 Worldwide Top Sales Partner of the Year award; could you tell us something more?
A: The 2018 CAMWorks Partner Summit was really a great event. It was organized as a platform to re-engage, refuel, and launch CAMWorks VARs to achieve desired goals.
For us, our goal has always been to deliver the most advanced CAM solution on the market to machining companies across the nation. More importantly, however, we take pride in providing extensive industry expertise to help our customers enhance their overall machining operations.
We received the Worldwide Top Sales Partner of the Year award among more than 60 CAMWorks VARs from Asia Pacific, Europe and the United States. Our team works very hard, so it really was an honor to be recognized not only for our sales growth, but also for our product knowledge and best-in-class service and support.
Smart manufacturing was also a main discussion throughout the partner summit. The ever-increasing rise in computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) technologies, has shed light on outdated product development processes.
That said, our team has been very focused on tightly integrating CAD and CAM, in an effort to bridge the historic divide in the design-to-manufacturing process. A bridge between product design and manufacturing requires not just new tools, but a new approach to how parts and products are made. Only by rethinking the entire development workflow, can faster, stronger, more collaborative methods be realized. An outdated model of work results in loss of information, alteration of design concepts, and stagnation of innovative ideas.
In smart manufacturing, information is available when it’s needed, where it’s needed, and in the form in which it is most useful. By definition, smart manufacturing is a connected and seamless flow of intellectual property to all teams within a company. This kind of manufacturing intelligence actively integrates design, manufacturing and innovation.
Bridging these types of tech gaps can fortify advanced manufacturing and save an estimated $57.4 billion annually, with a 3.2 percent reduction in production costs.
So, we really do look to improve the customer experience beyond the use of our innovative CAM software offerings.
Our team was pleased to participate in several sales partner roundtable discussions, focusing on these types of industry trends and advanced CAM technologies within the smart manufacturing ecosystem.
The partner summit also provided a preview of CAMWorks 2019 and future development, along with an introduction to exciting new CAMWorks products and partnerships, which we are very eager to share with our customers when the time is right.
ACCESS application engineers were also able to complete the most up-to-date CAMWorks certification programs and testing at the partner summit.
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Q: Who are the primary clients of ACCESS Manufacturing Systems and what are some of the key challenges you are helping them solve?
A: We provide innovative CAM software solutions to any business with a machine shop. Our customer base spans a multitude of industries, such as robotics, aerospace, government/military, energy/power, transportation, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, heavy industry, plastic fabrication, job shops, woodwork/millwork, and education.
Regardless of industry, we focus on solving the same set of key challenges that every business with a machine shop faces.
Our team of experts first set out to assist customers with launching CAMWorks as the single common user interface for all of their CAD and CAM needs. This allows them to integrate all of the engineering and manufacturing information required to produce a part, into a single common database.
This integration facilitates improved product quality by allowing engineering and manufacturing teams to use one database for both product design and final machining.
The implementation of this single common database is paramount in addressing the following key challenges for CNC programmers:
– Inefficient manual programming of mill machines and no ability to update toolpaths when a design changes.
Seamless integration within the design environment, allows our customers to automatically accommodate changes to the part model, which eliminates time consuming CAM system rework due to design updates.
– The constant requirement of selecting the geometry for holes, pockets, profiles and other common manufacturing features.
With the CAMWorks patented Automatic Feature Recognition (AFR), the software can recognize part features, including irregular pockets, taking the drudgery out of the day-to-day programming needs. AFR also works on all imported geometry such as IGES, STEP, SAT and others. Additionally, cost estimators can utilize the benefits of AFR to automatically calculate the number of setups and machine time to better predict costs.
– Inconsistency in machining strategies, from one CNC programmer to the next, resulting in lower productivity.
Compared to other traditional CAM software, our solution is the key to reducing programming time by as much as 90%. This is because CAMWorks has the ability to associate the best machining strategies for a particular feature using a proprietary rules-based engine and recalling those strategies for future programming.
Q: What advantage does ACCESS Manufacturing Systems have over its competitors?
A: The most significant advantage we have over our competitors is our 30 years of experience writing custom post processors.
The most critical function of a post processor is to translate toolpaths to machine-readable code (also known as G-code), which then communicates with CNC machines. Our unique ability to customize post processors is the driving force that allows our customers to decrease setup times, reduce machine cycle times, and remove manual editing.
Additionally, we serve a vast regional expanse, providing advanced CAM technologies throughout New England, the Mid-Atlantic, South-Atlantic, South, and Mid-West. This is exactly why we are the largest CAMWorks® reseller in the world, with offices in New Hampshire, North Carolina, Florida and Illinois.
With decades of experience in the manufacturing industry, there truly is no other CAM solution provider who can surpass the collective industry intelligence offered by ACCESS.
Q: Can you give us insights into CAMWorks’ top features?
A: The robust CAMWorks software contains three major features that completely outdo the competition. These features illustrate why there is no other CAM system on the market that can surpass the machining intelligence of CAMWorks.
Automatic Feature Recognition (AFR)
Using a typical CAM system, a user must import the model from whatever design system it was originally drawn in. Then they must manually define each feature to be machined. This is a tedious process involving chaining of the geometry to form individual features. For example, to define a pocket they must manually select every element that makes up the feature. Then they would have to tell the system that these elements need to be chained together to form the shape. Typically, the elements are flat and have no depth. The user must specify that depth. Once all these things have been completed, the CAM system can then identify what the feature is. This process must be performed for every feature on the model.
By contrast, CAMWorks uses Automatic Feature Recognition (AFR). The AFR engine will interrogate the solid model in SolidWorks or CAMWorks Solids to automatically find the prismatic features on the part. It will find holes, rectangular, round, and irregular pockets, bosses, slots, corner slots, etc. on all sides of the part. AFR can literally cut hours of time from the process of programming.
Is AFR a panacea? Can it find every feature on every part no matter the complexity? Frankly, no. The user can get to a level of complexity with intersecting features that is too much for AFR to figure out. How much will it find? That depends on the type of work the customer is doing. If they are doing mainly plate work, such as a tool and die shop, then AFR will probably find everything on the model. For more complex parts, AFR may find 70 or 80 percent of the features. No matter what the percentage is, CAMWorks is still doing the lion’s share of the work for them.
What about the things AFR does not find? CAMWorks uses an interactive feature definition wizard to allow the user to add the machinable features that AFR did not find. Even if AFR found absolutely nothing on the model, the wizard would allow them to define the features much faster than a conventional CAM system.
Technology Database (TechDB)
What is the TechDB all about? Once the programmer has defined the features to be machined, they must then instruct the CAM system on how to machine them. This is another tedious process to go through. Usually, each machinable feature will require several tools to do the job. With a typical CAM system, the user would have to define the tools and processes manually for each feature. If there were two or more similar features, they would have to still define the machining methods for each one manually. This can take a tremendous amount of time.
The Technology database from CAMWorks eliminates all that work. The TechDB is a Microsoft Access database that lists all of the machinable feature types that CAMWorks supports. For each of those feature types, the user can define the exact methods and tools they would use to machine the part. Every user is going to want to machine them in a different fashion. The TechDB will automatically apply the appropriate tools and methods for each feature, whether the feature was defined automatically by AFR or manually using the interactive wizard.
The TechDB has an easy-to-use graphical interface that allows the user to input their preferences without being a database guru. Again, this can cut out a large amount of work for the programmer.
The power of the TechDB makes CAMWorks ideal for customers that manufacture similar parts in a variety of different sizes, known as families of parts or customers who manufacture similar features on different parts (families of features). In truth, virtually all companies program similar or identical features repeatedly and, therefore, can benefit by using CAMWorks Tech DB. The more often companies program similar or identical parts or features, the more time they can save by using the Tech DB. By using the Tech DB the feature only needs to programmed once, from then on CAMWorks can program the feature (and similar features) automatically.
Associativity
One of the most difficult aspects of programming is reacting to change. Design engineers are charged with coming up with the best design possible. Many times they are going to make changes to the model. On the manufacturing side of things, the programmer must reprogram the part. Using a typical CAM system, they must usually do everything from scratch. The original part they programmed is no longer accurate, and so neither is any tool path they created. They would have to re-import the part and do everything over again. If it took 5 hours to do it the first time, it’s going to take 5 hours again.
All CAMWorks machining data is associated to the model. If a change is made to the model, CAMWorks recognizes it and asks if the tool path should be redone. By answering yes to one dialog, CAMWorks will completely reprogram the part. From a programming point, changes are free.
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Q: Why ACCESS? What makes you the best choice out there?
A: Our team at ACCESS has been specialized in advanced CAM technology and custom post processors for 30 years.
To put it quite simply, no one does CAM better than us – no one.
Q: What are your plans for the future? (Events, Partnerships, Product Launches, Etc.)
A: IMTS 2018
ACCESS technical experts will be available at the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS), in CAMWorks Booth 133320 for demos of CAMWorks & SolidWorks CAM. The event will be held at McCormick Place in Chicago, IL from September 10-15, 2018. Schedule your VIP appointment today and check out our IMTS Special Offer: CAMWorks – Summer Heat Promotion! For more information visit this.
Roboris Inc. & Eureka Virtual Machining
We are excited to announce that we have just recently began to represent Roboris Inc. and the Eureka Virtual Machining solution. Eureka is an innovative application for simulating CNC machine tools and programming robots (through CAD/CAM). However, Eureka provides more than just simulation. It analyzes machining results under many scenarios to detect and remove mistakes, reduce production time, while providing machining process reports and time summary sheets. More information on this industry-leading robot milling application will be available on our up-and-coming website.
Web
We will be launching a new and entirely redesigned website, offering easy access to essential information regarding our best-in-class products and services. Stay tuned for our official launch announcement!
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