From three to one: General Industry Coverage

END USER: Walter Goetz GmbH, 011-49-7433-9027-0, www.waltergoetz.de.
CHALLENGE: Overcoming a bottleneck caused when programming different machine tools with various CAD/CAM systems.
SOLUTION: A single CAD/CAM system that can program multiple machine brands.
SOLUTION PROVIDER: JETCAM International s.a.r.l., 011-44-870-760-6469, www.jetcam.com.

Walter Goetz GmbH, Balingen, Germany, with more than 100 employees, provides subcontract services to produce semifinished or fully finished metal products for prototypes or small and medium-sized production runs. To achieve this, the company continually purchases and upgrades CNC cutting machines, including laser, waterjet, punching and combination punch and laser equipment from multiple builders.

Stefan Burghard, managing director at Walter Goetz, eventually realized that programming the machines was becoming a production bottleneck. “We had three different CAD/CAM systems to program the machines,” he said.

It was a significant effort when, for example, a new job had to be reprogrammed for another machine if a machine was unavailable due to heavy workload or maintenance requirements. In addition, it took a long time for the staff to learn how to use several systems. If a programmer was away, a production area would stagnate because other programmers would need training time on the respective software.

The company decided to commit to a single CAD/CAM system because it was simply not possible to use the software supplied with each machine brand to program machines from other builders. Burghard researched the CAD/CAM market for a solution and came across JETCAM CAD/CAM software from JETCAM International s.a.r.l., Monaco.

Courtesy of JETCAM

JETCAM CAD/CAM software allows Walter Goetz to buy any brand of machine tool and simply purchase a new post-processor to program the machine.

Courtesy of JETCAM

Walter Goetz bought a post-processor from JETCAM’s German distributor Blechwelt for its Bystronic Bystar laser cutting machine to replace the machine’s proprietary software.