SPRING wishes everyone Happy Holidays and a Great Happy New Year 2013

CUST 2012: delivering the state of the art and major innovations for users of NCSIMUL

 

Drawing over 130 user representatives, the 2012 edition demonstrated

the growing interest in SPRING Technologies solutions

SPRING Technologies, vendor of solutions to enhance production processes, announces that its latest User Club conference, CUST 2012, held on November 9 in Frankfurt and November 20 in Paris, was an outstanding success for SPRING Technologies and its customers, beating expectations with over 130 attendees. In the world of machining, this annual gathering of the NCSIMUL SOLUTIONS user community has become a marquee event, providing an opportunity for SPRING Technologies and its customers to get together to exchange ideas, news and experience.

Each year, customers volunteer to present first-hand accounts of how they are using the solutions in the SPRING Technologies portfolio, and explain, with figures, the benefits and ROI they are drawing from their applications.

In France, CUST was honored to be invited by SAFRAN Group and was supported for event logistics by the ASTECH technology cluster.

KEY FIGURES:

·        2 events: Paris and Frankfurt

·        Over 130 representatives, +75 companies of all sizes, from SME to major groups

·        6 thematic workshops focusing on the main modules in the NCSIMUL SOLUTIONS offering

·        A global satisfaction rating of over 16/20*

·        100% of attendees said they would come back or be willing to come back next year

*figures taken from the analysis of attendee satisfaction questionnaires at CUST 2012.                                                                          

HIGHLIGHTS: SPRING Technologies presented its vision of the process/value chain, from CAD/CAM to the Workshop, and explained how its NCSIMUL SOLUTIONS offering fitted into this process. The company demonstrated its technological leadership and consolidated its position as a major developer and vendor, specializing in processes for the Workshop.

“We made a number of announcements, previewing the technologies that we’ll be releasing in 2013,” explains Olivier Bellaton, General Manager of SPRING Technologies, “notably, the upcoming version of NCSIMUL, NCSIMUL Machine 9, whose cutting-edge technology has been demonstrated on the new Intel PC Ultrabook running in the Windows 8 Pro environment, a development that reflects our close partnerships with Microsoft and Intel. NCSIMUL Machine 9 makes optimal use of today’s standards in ergonomics and hardware capability, delivering an even more comfortable user experience. We’ll be releasing full details in January 2013 at our annual press conference.”

Process-oriented workshops focused on themes that are central to manufacturing expertise. This included key state-of-the-art manufacturing processes such as machining simulation, cutting tool management, cutting optimization, post-processors, technical content publication and real-time monitoring of CNC machine status.

“These process-oriented sessions help users to clearly identify the benefits delivered by the solutions in our portfolio, dedicated to their business areas, and reveal the added value from our synergistic solutions. This synergy is what makes our offering unique on today’s market”, adds Philippe Solignac, Corporate Marketing Director of SPRING Technologies.

The last word goes to Gilles Battier, CEO, SPRING Technologies: “CUST has been designed for our customers and they are the people who make it what it is. This year again, the event was a huge success. We are proud that over 130 people came to our sessions in France and Germany.

We develop innovative and reliable technology that is an asset for manufacturers all over the world, in any sector of industry. Our mission is to offer our customers “smart” solutions that are Instrumented, Intelligent, Interconnected, and process-oriented to enable them to make the best possible use of their CNC machines in real time and for the duration. In a word, our aim is to help them maximize their productivity and safety in the workshop.”

Medical Manufacturer Adopts NCSIMUL for Machining Simulation

To verify and optimize its machining operations, medical products supplier Paragon Medical, Inc., Pierceton, IN, has selected NCSIMUL, the CNC machine simulation solution from SPRING Technologies, Cambridge, MA.

Paragon Medical is a Tier-1 turnkey manufacturer of cases and trays, surgical instrumentation and implantable components. Paragon established its Global Design Center to enable the company to close the loop between development and manufacturing via project management, design, research, analytical testing and prototyping.

NCSIMUL, a component of SPRING Technologies' NC software offering of CAM software and services, is a comprehensive machine simulation software for simulating, verifying, optimizing and reviewing machining programs meant for CNC machines.

For the complete story click here 

“Unleash the Power of NC Simulation”. NSCIMUL 9.0 - Coming in Q1 2013 Trailer

In order to support the upcoming release of NCSIMUL Machine 9, SPRING Technologies is glad to share with you the trailer of NCSIMUL Machine 9, named “Unleash the Power of NC Simulation”.

BOBST adopts NCSIMUL for its machining simulation

NCSIMUL cuts out mudas in the workshop, saves 50% of machine time,

and fits seamlessly into BOBST’s comprehensive Lean Manufacturing policy

As a supplier of solutions for the production environment, SPRING Technologies invites users to share their success stories. BOBST has implemented NCSIMUL, the machining simulation solution that is an integral part of SPRING’s NCSIMUL SOLUTIONS offering, and talks about its experience.

The Company:

BOBST is the world's leading supplier of equipment and services to packaging manufacturers in the folding carton, corrugated board and flexible materials industries. The company designs and manufactures special machines, either standard or customized.

Founded in 1890 in Lausanne (Switzerland) by Joseph Bobst, the company now has operations in over 50 countries, 11 production plants across the world and a workforce of 5,000. In fiscal 2011, it generated 1.27 bn Swiss francs of consolidated revenue (around €1.06 bn, $1.4 bn).

Since January 2010, the group has been organized as three Business Units, the first two, Sheet-fed and Web-fed, offer equipment for a range of manufacturing sectors targeted by BOBST. The third, Business Unit Services, offers its customers full service, via BOBST’s global network of support centers, guaranteeing optimal operation of production resources.

With a portfolio of over 1,520 patents worldwide, BOBST invests 7% of its revenue each year in R&D, as well as high-performance technologies in order to maintain its rank as a top player on the packaging market.

The Challenge:

In Switzerland, BOBST has concentrated all its product development cycle processes at a single site, Mex near Lausanne, and has introduced the TEAM (Tous Ensemble A Mex) project to develop tight bonds and collaboration at the site. One of the measures it has taken is the acquisition of new 5-axis Mill-Turn NC machine tools and has reorganized its production tool around a Lean Manufacturing philosophy. Its goal is to optimize its production processes and resources in order to increase the share of added value for customers.

“Back in 2010 we started to anticipate the needs of our future production centre”, explains Pascal Fuchs, CAM system Manager at BOBST’s VPLM Group Competence center.

“We use CAD software ─ Dassault Systèmes CATIA ─ to create all our NC machining programs, to ensure that we could get our production resources operational as quickly as possible.”

BOBST evaluated and pilot tested other software on the market before opting for the machining simulation solution that best matched its environment: NCSIMUL from SPRING Technologies.

“We needed a solution that would integrate seamlessly with our CATIA CAM applications to ensure that our NC toolpaths would be reliable, and check our ISO codes, before the machine tool was even installed”, adds Pascal Fuchs.

This is why BOBST intends to improve its overall equipment effectiveness (OOE) in the workshop by reducing and even eliminating the checks on the physical NC machines.

NCSIMUL cuts out mudas in the workshop, and fits smoothly into our comprehensive Lean Manufacturing policy.

The Benefits:

The NCSIMUL solution from SPRING Technologies has proved to be an indispensable asset for the introduction of new production resources at the Mex site, and is part of the TEAM project. This has enabled BOBST to validate its new manufacturing concepts on complex machine kinematics, notably featuring 5 axes, multiple heads and collinear axes.

The simplicity and user-friendliness of the software, and above all the quality and reliability of the results have made it easy for all the engineers and technicians to take the machining simulation solution on board.

Currently, all the NC programs without exception are checked with NCSIMUL before deployment on the machine “and we have a maximum success rate”, says Pascal Fuchs.

“Previously, to bring a new 10-hour machining process for a part on stream, we spent four times longer, with the production machine tied up to set up and check the program”, he explains. “With NCSIMUL, we save 50% of machine time, i.e. 20 hours for the first machining run.”

Summing up his experience Pascal Fuchs says: “we have been working with SPRING Technologies for two years and our close partnership has enabled us to take NCSIMUL forward to match our needs. A truly win/win relationship.”

For more information on BOBST go to: www.bobst.com 

For more information on NCSIMUL or SPRING Technologies go to www.springplm.com