The Fabricator - August 2009

Instead of looking up a 22-digit part number, workers need only read a short

identifier showing the part number and revision: as a hypothetical example, 123-

002 would be the second revision of part no. 123. (This also sped the cutting operation because the laser etches part numbers onto the blanks; a 22-character part number takes some time to etch.)

To work toward automated work flow, as Lars explained, it makes sense for companies to start at the most downstream bottleneck—that is, ma-

Join us for networking

Mazak Optonics Corp. in Elgin, Ill.

Be Our Guest

FMA is sponsoring a networking event at Mazak Optonics Corp. following its Wind Energy: Opportunities for Fabricators Conference. This is your chance to meet others involved in manufacturing while enjoying great food and drinks at a fascinating location.

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Where;; ; -AZAK;/PTONICS;#ORP;;s;;;;;;'ALVIN;#OURT;s;%LGIN;;)LL;;;;;;;

Meet Dr. Chris Kuehl Chris is FMA’s economic analyst and founder of Armada Corporate Intelligence. Chris also authors Fabrinomics, FMA’s bimonthly economic update e-newsletter. His analysis can help you to understand recent economic news and how it can impact your business.

Chris will do a Q&A on alternative energy and its business growth potential for the fabrication industry. Want Chris to explore a specific topic? E-mail fabrinomics@fmanet.org and he’ll address the topic at the event. Chris’s appearance is being sponsored by FMA AdvantagePlus member Main Steel Polishing.

About Mazak Optonics Corp. Tour the world’s largest laser-focused technology center. Visitors can explore the benefits of various stages of automation within the 50,000-sq.-ft. facility. The showroom and classrooms provide ample hands-on demonstration and training.

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chine programming—and work backward. Cooper did just this, eliminating duplicative work done at the double-beam folding machine. Why have an operator key in a program on the floor when the bend angles have already been determined in the 3-D CAD file, especially if associated software can determine manufacturability and, as described previously, automatically accept or reject the 3-D CAD file’s bend angles?

The next level, said Lars, is to “tie together multiple [manufacturing] technologies, and the backbone of that is what we call an engineering data warehouse, for advanced bill of materials management.” This advanced BOM would tie manufacturability information, derived from data on the various machine tools on the floor, to the 3-D CAD drawings, as well as order files from a company’s ERP system.

A product at Cooper now goes through engineering before being turned into a production order and sent to manufacturing. If the software finds a manufacturability problem, it stops the order before it’s on the floor, and the manufacturing services team sends it back to design engineering. Such manufacturability analyses, though, could happen even earlier in the process, during design. “The analysis could confirm—within minutes—that, yes, we can cut it, bend it, weld it, and paint it,” Popchock said.

In other words, a design that can’t be manufactured shouldn’t be proposed in the first place. The company hasn’t accomplished this goal yet. But considering the fact that software checks orders for manufacturability before a job goes to the floor, prepares files for nesting, and automatically programs parts for folding, it would seem Cooper Power Systems is well on its way. ■

Senior Editor Tim Heston can be contacted at timh@thefabricator.com.

Cooper Power Systems, 2300 Badger Drive, Waukesha, WI 53188, 262-547-1251, www.cooperpower.com

Logic Design Corp., 161 W. Wisconsin Ave., Suite 2E, Pewaukee, WI 53072, 262- 695-1300, www.ldcglobal.com SigmaTEK Systems LLC, 1445 Kemper Meadow Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45240, 513-674-0005, www.sigmanest.com