Bombardier’s CAM system pays for itself in two months

In fact, the implementation paid for itself in just two months on material savings alone. Says Phil Bagshaw, senior application specialist at Bombardier: “We were looking for a company that was very progressive, which Jetcam appeared to be. Also, their nests were approximately 5—7% better than the closest competitor.” So last year, Bombardier installed five licenses of Expert Premium, along with Jetcam’s nesting module to drive its AGFM ultrasonic composite cutter. Remote control processing was used to automate nesting. Jetcam Expert was installed on a Citrix server to allow users to run on thin clients throughout the organisation world-wide. Jetcam Orders Controller (JOC) was also installed on the server accessed by programmers, logistics and production staff. Then further licenses were added this year to drive its Multicam router, with the most recent implementation being for its Shoda Quad 4 router. Says Bagshaw: “We never considered using Jetcam Expert for the Multicam router, as this machine is used for prototyping and spares. However the success of the composite project demonstrated that it was worthwhile.” Looking in detail at the benefits, material savings were 15—20%. “This meant that the software paid for itself in two months due to composite material savings alone,” says Bagshaw. Beyond that, with the automation now in place, once a component has been designed and its outline geometry made available, the job is done. Staff simply order parts from JOC, and CNC programs arrive in the appropriate network location a few minutes later. Further savings came on the shop floor, with machine cycle time seeing a 5% improvement due to a saving of 120 hours per year since the software no longer forces the cutter head to rise after each cut. Also, programming time was slashed, with component tooling made virtually instantaneous. Previously, if an error was noticed on a component, it would have to be repaired in CAD and run back through CAM. Now operators can perform modifications within Jetcam. “On average 10—15% of plies need adjusting. Couple this with the overall speed and ease of use, and we saw a 500% improvement in composite programming,” says Bagshaw. Next, Bombardier realised a further saving of 5% against software maintenance of the previous system, while its support staff say users now require only a fraction of the assistance required on the previous system. Finally, Bombardier reckons it’s saving more time and has significantly reduced errors, notably by automatic printing of part/ply information. “Prior to Jetcam Expert, parts were misidentified up to 30% of the time,” says Bagshaw. Bombardier is already on its third installation of Jetcam Expert in its Saint Laurent facility, with its Belfast facility also now using the system.