Teamwork triumphs

At the recent MTA Manufacturing Industry Awards, Delcam was presented with the ‘Best Supplier Partnership' award for its relationship with the Coventry Engineering Group.

The awards, which formed part of the MTA's annual dinner, took place at the ICC in Birmingham during February. This particular category celebrates successful relationships between a customer and supplier, covering any business partnership that has delivered excellence in innovation, sustainability, value or delivery.

“It was very pleasing to receive an award recognising our high levels of customer service, especially as the ceremony took place in our home city,” commented Delcam's marketing manager, Peter Dickin. “We have received many awards, including three Queen's Awards, for our technical innovations so it is very satisfying to see our support staff get the recognition they deserve.”

Coventry Engineering uses Delcam's FeatureCAM feature-based CAM software to program three Mazak Integrex mill/turn machines. The combination of the machines and the Delcam programming system has increased productivity and shortened leadtimes while maintaining consistently high product quality.

“We have seen a significant increase in productivity through the ability of the Integrex machines to machine many of our parts in one hit,” reported the Group's manufacturing manager, Gary Skraga. “In addition, by using FeatureCAM for our programming, we have been able to take on much more complex parts.”

The increased complexity prompted Coventry Engineering to invest in a CAM system for the first time, having relied on manual programming for its earlier, less sophisticated equipment. “Our first Integrex, which we added about seven years ago, allowed us to take on work that we couldn't have attempted before,” explained Mr. Skraga. “However, as we moved into more complex parts, programming with the manual control was becoming too long-winded so we needed to move over to using a CAM system.”

“FeatureCAM has made programming so much easier – especially the feature recognition capabilities,” he added. “The software also gives you the flexibility to modify the toolpaths. If you don't like anything in the program, you can override it to get exactly the results you need. In addition, the support from Delcam has been excellent. Any issues we have are sorted out within a day.”

He continued: “FeatureCAM can take designs directly from our four seats of SolidWorks and generate the toolpaths quickly. We can also ask our customers for solid models instead of drawings.”
The Coventry Engineering Group comprises three companies which were brought together following a management buyout in 2003. The core businesses are Coventry Toolholders, which designs and manufactures spindle nose tooling and Centreline, which produces driven toolholders. The Group's Engineering Services Division offers a precision subcontract manufacturing capability.

Delcam
www.delcam.com

Coventry Engineering Group
www.coveng.co.uk