Bowens International is a world leading manufacturer of professional photography equipment. Based in the UK, the chassis and components of most of its products are manufactured in-house. In 1997 it purchase a Wiedemann turret punch press, which was supplied with JETCAM Expert. The company let its maintenance contract on the software lapse until 2008, when it was in the process of bringing out a new range of products.

Blair Stephenson, Mechanical R&D Engineer, explains: “I started using JETCAM around 2002 after other staff retired and moved on. We'd recently updated to the latest version at the time, which worked very well. After a day’s training I was up and running, and have provided all down-stream training since then.”

As the system was running reliably Bowens let the maintenance contract on the JETCAM software lapse until 2008, when it decided to re-assess its IT infrastructure. Blair adds: “At the time we were working on the new product range and looking at ways of streamlining our production processes. We updated our AutoCAD software and upgraded the PCs running the CAD along with JETCAM in the production office. We again took a look at a competing CAM system that had been offered to us several times in the past, but it still looked far too complicated for what we were trying to do, so we decided to update our maintenance contract with JETCAM and upgrade the software to v16.”

An engineer from local JETCAM distributor Press and Shear Ltd went on-site, updated the system and all related geometry files, and provided training. Blair cites the user interface as being the main reason for JETCAM’s ease of use: “JETCAM don't change the interface just for the sake of it. It is intuitive, displaying only the tools I need in relation to the screen I'm in at the time. If I need a member of staff trained I know that I can easily train them myself. Features such as the CAD cleaning automate many procedures, making the system very fast. Also, it’s been a big benefit having Press & Shear supplying and installing the updates for us so that we can concentrate on running the business. We rarely have to call on support, but whenever we have any questions they are answered quickly.”

Since the update Bowens has noticed a number of benefits. By automating various stage of the programming process Blair saved three weeks of his time. “We were halfway through a six week task of programming for the new products when we updated the license. Afterwards I was able to complete the remaining three weeks work in just two days, which immediately paid for the update.” JETCAM’s enhanced sequencing delivered a 10% improvement in machine cycle time by further optimising the cutting path. The software itself ran faster, with features such as double-hit detection taking less time to run. The new finishing cuts function allows for sheet stability to be maintained by specifying when and where the final cut that releases the part should be placed. Common line punching is used on sheets less than 3mm thick to reduce scrap by using a single punch to separate parts rather than leaving a skeleton.

Bowens acknowledges that it is not yet fully utilising the power of v16, but now that the new range is in full production more time is available to dedicate to implementing and training on them. Blair concludes: “At present many of our nests consist of single-component arrays, so we want to focus on bringing our material costs down further through more efficient nesting. We can also reduce programming time further by further automating tool placement and by utilising JETCAM’s new tool teach mode. The remnant sheet management facility will also be of benefit to us.”

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