Product NX Business challenges Develop complex molds requiring highest levels of precision Meet customers’ demands for lower costs and faster turnaround Provide ideas as well as technical expertise Manage the time and cost associated with design changes Keys to success A digital library of mold design and production knowledge Automated mold design operations 3D files and viewing software reduce paperwork Results Reduction in product development time Faster time-to-market More efficient, more advanced products lead to customer satisfaction Benefits include better performing products, cost reductions and faster time-to-market From garden furniture to auto components Gruppo Meccanica Generale, founded in 1964 under the name BI.MA., is the leading company in Italy and Europe for integrated plastic material and injection mold solutions. For more than 20 years the company has been providing product development, mold design and production services, mainly for the domestic appliance, automotive, packaging, garden furniture and luggage sectors. Between 60 and 65 percent of the company’s turnover comes from European job orders. With 200 employees and three production plants, Meccanica Generale has a strategy of investing in R&D and engineering so that it can offer state-of-the-art, high- quality products. Moreover, it is the only company of its kind that manages to implement turnkey projects with an inte- grated co-design approach, supporting customers from product conception through production startup. Industrial machinery and equipment www.siemens.com/nx Gruppo Meccanica Generale Knowledge re-use is mold maker’s strategy for success 100 medium and large molds every year Every year, Meccanica Generale delivers an average of 100 medium and large molds. Typically, job orders that are complex, such as those requiring accurate process- ing and the utmost precision, are handled in-house while outside suppliers produce accessory parts. (These parts are tested and checked at Meccanica Generale.) Examples of the company’s products include machine tubs and flanges (it is one of the leading producers of these items)
Transcript
ProductNX
Business challengesDevelop complex molds requiring highest levels of precisionMeet customers’ demands for lower costs and faster turnaroundProvide ideas as well as technical expertiseManage the time and cost associated with design changes
Keys to successA digital library of mold design and production knowledgeAutomated mold design operations3D files and viewing software reduce paperwork
ResultsReduction in product development timeFaster time-to-marketMore efficient, more advanced products lead to customer satisfaction
Benefits include better performing products, cost reductions and faster time-to-market
From garden furniture to auto componentsGruppo Meccanica Generale, founded in 1964 under the name BI.MA., is the leading company in Italy and Europe for integrated plastic material and injection mold solutions.
For more than 20 years the company has been providing product development, mold design and production services, mainly for the domestic appliance, automotive, packaging, garden furniture and luggage sectors. Between 60 and 65 percent of the company’s turnover comes from European job orders.
With 200 employees and three productionplants, Meccanica Generale has a strategy of investing in R&D and engineering so that it can offer state-of-the-art, high- quality products. Moreover, it is the only company of its kind that manages to implement turnkey projects with an inte-grated co-design approach, supporting customers from product conception through production startup.
Industrial machinery and equipment
www.siemens.com/nx
Gruppo Meccanica Generale Knowledge re-use is mold maker’s strategy for success
100 medium and large molds every yearEvery year, Meccanica Generale delivers an average of 100 medium and large molds. Typically, job orders that are complex, such as those requiring accurate process-ing and the utmost precision, are handled in-house while outside suppliers produce accessory parts. (These parts are tested and checked at Meccanica Generale.) Examples of the company’s products include machine tubs and flanges (it is one of the leading producers of these items)
and automotive components (primarily for trucks). The company also has a facility that focuses on preliminary mechanical processing activities (roughing-out and deep drilling) and post testing of molds. There is also a CAE department and a fluid dynamics and structural simulation center serving the product engineering departments, a testing center and a special product division that designs, produces and sells advanced mold cooling control systems.
Like all mold suppliers, Meccanica Generale faces a number of challenges from its customers. “The major difficulties are the budget reductions and the radical shrinkage of product development time,” explains Simone Giardinieri, in technical office management at the company. “It means that mold development must begin while the product is still being developed. If the product is to be inserted into a com-plex system, mold changes will increase proportionally. Knowing how to efficiently manage the changes, and the time and costs of such changes, has become a fundamental challenge.”
“The flexibility of NX allows us to modify a mold in a short time and with a minimum impact on the structure.”
Simone Giardinieri Technical Office Management Gruppo Meccanica Generale
“Today, to be competitive, we also need to offer new ideas before taking action,” Giardinieri continues. “Good ideas, sup-ported by reliable tools and advanced technology, are what enable us to deliver advanced solutions to our customers within an even more limited timeframe.”
Mold design software supports knowledge re-useMeccanica Generale has been a Siemens PLM Software customer since 2000. “There are several elements that led us to choose NX as our CAD system,” says Giardinieri. “Basically, we were looking for a solution that would drastically reduce product and mold implementation time, as well as the time needed to produce mold components.”
The ability to capture and re-use knowl-edge was a critical requirement, as Giardinieri explains, “We needed to create a library containing the common construction specifications of our three plants. By using our know-how to generate features, information, files or simply ideas, a library would make it possible to share that data with all operators. We also needed a common platform because it would allow us to create and update the mold project in real time. Finally, we wanted a dynamic tool that would enable us to develop the integration between CAD and CAM environments. NX was the answer to all our needs.”
Customer’s primary businessGruppo Meccanica Generale provides integrated solutions for plastic materials and injection molds. www.mggroup.it
Customer locationJesi Italy
Automated operations and less paperwork“With the type of molds we produce with NX, it is possible, for example, to achieve a level of automation that was not possible in the past when we were using 2D,” says Giardinieri. The ability to gather a series of operations in a macro represents a huge advantage for the operator, who is then guided in the creation of a well-defined component. This has led to the creation of libraries in 3D, from which it is possible to preview finished pieces. With the NX™ solution, it is also possible to view cooling processes and, consequently, their distribution on the component, a crucially important feature. Mold designers can assess at a glance whether a mold is balanced or not.
One of the benefits of this approach has been a reduction in total product develop-ment time. Moreover, a remarkable decrease in paperwork is now noticeable
in the workshop. In the near future, the company intends to reduce the use of paper support to a minimum by making 3D digital files available to assemblers. It will not be necessary to install a CAD environment in the workshop. Instead the company will use JT2Go file technol-ogy along with a 3D viewer from Siemens. Because the appearance of an object in 3D is completely different than a 2D “flat” perspective, this will give operators a better understanding of what they will be assembling.
“This is the strategy of Meccanica Generale – investment in advanced technologies,” adds Giardinieri. The implementation of NX is consistent with, and an important part of, the company’s overall strategyfor success.
“ With the type of molds we produce with NX, it is possible to achieve a level of automation that was not possible when we were using 2D.”Simone Giardinieri Technical Office Management Gruppo Meccanica Generale
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