“Ours is something of a ‘rags to riches’ tale,” explains Davies. “Much of our phenomenal success can be attributed to our investment in Edgecam offline programming software. It is, quite simply, one of the best investments we have made – and it paid for itself in the first month.”

Prior to the installation of Edgecam nearly two years ago, all of Itasco’s operators programmed their own machines – a task which that was extremely time-consuming and was prone to ‘human error’. Now, all of the programming is carried out offline by just one person prior to machining of the component – virtually eliminating down time at the machine tool.

A further advantage is that the majority of Itasco’s subcontractors also use Edgecam – a system that is capable of receiving files in IGES, VDA-FS, DXF and DWG formats – making it easy to import data supplied by customers.

“The fact that our customers are using the system as well saves us so much time – and add that to our NCRs (non-conformity rates) going down to zero literally overnight – and you have an unbelievable ROI,” enthuses Davies. “It has to be a major benefit for us – we don’t make the programming-related mistakes that we did when it was a manual process, which had a detrimental effect on the efficiency and productivity of our business.”

Company internal procedure dictates that all programmes are checked and verified utilising 3D simulation models prior to downloading via a DNC network link to all the machines.

“The components we manufacture are normally complex and carry a very high value, therefore mistakes in programming could prove very costly,” explains Davies. “Edgecam gives us the flexibility to analyse every tool path and has built in features to ‘flag up’ any collisions that would normally go undetected.”

www.itasco.co.uk