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broken tool holders, collets, wrenches, etcetera. We’ve tripled in size since then so that savings has been huge.” Norbert doesn’t shy away from investing in products, software, and tools that make the shop more efficient or safer. Their electronically controlled FTS toolboxes are tied directly to the ERP system and even some of their basic measurement tools are Bluetooth and transfer data right to the server. If you can automate it to save time and reduce the risk of user error, then sign him up. When CNC West Magazine was onsite a companywide training was under way for their new Global Shop Solutions ERP system. That was followed the next week by training in Paperless Parts quoting software and High QA inspection management software.
SOFTWARE
Paperless Parts is PSP’s new quoting system and as the primary person doing quotes Norbert’s enthusiasm was evident. “Man, I am so excited to implement Paperless Parts. It is almost idiot proof. After teaching it what tooling we use, what machines we have, how aggressive to attack a part and so forth, and the algorithm takes over. We feed the solid model into the software, and it basically kicks out a quote and tells us which machine to run it on and generates a cycle time. The more we use it the more it learns, and the more accurate it becomes. I still go in
and make minor tweaks, but we’ve tested it on parts we’ve been running for years, and it is really close right out of the gate. The best feature is it seamlessly integrates with my new ERP software, Global Shop Solutions as well as High QA inspection manager. I will be able to quote a part with Paperless Products, run it through High QA and right into Global Shop Solutions ERP system. It will automate so much for us that we can go from quote to manufacturing in minus three days now on most jobs. We are talking days’ worth of time savings. I’m quoting 5 axis parts that used to take upwards of half an hour in 5 minutes. It’s unbelievable.”
AUTOMATING MACHINE TOOLS
PSP got away from being a Swiss only shop in the early days of Norbert’s ownership. He began by adding traditional milling and turning into the mix, but the appeal of loading material and dropping a finished part was too much to resist for long. For PSP the way forward was multi axis machining. “Originally I purchased a bunch of vertical mills,” laments Norbert. “It was a mistake, but once I switched to 5 axis and horizontals our quality and complexity soared. Whatever you can do on a standard vertical I can do 3 or 4 times faster on my 5- axis machines.” PSP have Nomura 9 axis Swiss screw machines, 4 -axis lathes with live tooling and milling and 5- axis horizontal
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CNC WEST June/July 2021