There are many reasons why companies operate different makes of cutting and punching machines and have a combination of technologies such as laser, plasma and waterjet.
These choices provide a lot of flexibility for manufacturers enabling them to have the best mix of technologies and capabilities to suit their customers’ demands, meet production, delivery and cost targets as well as keeping capital expenditure within budget.
The complications are that CNC programming is different for each machine, operating methods, maintenance and spare parts are all specific to each of the machines and users will require extra training to get the best efficiencies.
For many years, Lantek has been providing solutions to companies that use multiple machine vendors, overcoming the need for multiple programming systems, minimising the need for extra training, making it possible to easily switch between machines and cutting technologies.
Now we have even more advanced solutions which overcome these difficulties which will, at the same time, deliver more efficiency and productivity by integrating the cutting processes with management and monitoring systems throughout the company, making investment in different brands of machine tools and technology a success.
Four challenges associated with the coexistence of several machine tools:
There are many advantages to this software which will enable the coexistence and efficient running of different machines in your factory:
These solutions are certainly not generic, like a DXF file is, and they have been developed for specific systems.
Lantek Expert is integrated with other Lantek software solutions – automated manufacturing management (Lantek MES Manager), resource planning (Lantek Integra - ERP) and advanced analysis (Lantek Analytics). These systems give managers a thorough overall view of the plant, optimally planning production and finding out the requirements of each department in real-time.
Having the capability to add on these functionalities, specifically designed for sheetmetal manufacturers, offers a path to overall plant efficiency and the tools necessary to be competitive in the Industry 4.0 era.
By rationalising the control and programming of all the different machines and cutting technologies in their plant into one software system, manufacturers can have the flexibility of the machine make and technology that suits them best and take the first step to factory wide digitisation.
Lantek www.lantek.com/uk