Case study : Simplifying Machines

Eagle Seals and Systems India Ltd (ESSIL) manufactures mechanical seals and
sealing support systems for core sector industries like chemical, petrochemical,
fertilizer and pharmaceutical industries.

The company's engineered seals are designed to meet the ever-growing need for
longer-lasting seals in applications where speeds exceed 10,000 rpm, pressures
are greater than 100 kg cm2, and temperatures are less then 200 degrees C or
greater than 600 degrees C. ESSIL has a large range of pusher seals with more
than 20 varieties of multi-spring and eight varieties of single coil spring
seals including bi-directional options.

CAM needed

ESSIL has a variety of 3, 4 and 5-axis mill-turn CNC machines. These machines
were programmed manually for 15 years. But the need to speed the programming
process, combined with the desire for better machining quality and surface
finish, convinced the company that it was time to upgrade to a CAM solution. In
its search for CAM software, ESSIL originally evaluated six programs but none
had a post-processor that could successfully generate code for the company's
Mazak Integrex machine, a combination turning center and full-function machining
center.

CAM Express and Solid Edge Machinery and industrial products At this point,
ESSIL got in touch with Gnosis InfoTech, a value-added reseller (VAD) for
Siemens PLM Software products. A Gnosis representative demonstrated the
functionality of the CAM Express solution from Siemens and its interoperability
with ESSIL's CAD software, Solid Edge, also from Siemens. The demonstration
clearly showed the strength of CAM Express compared to other CAM software.
“Between that and the support that Gnosis could provide in terms of training and
post-processor development, we decided to implement CAM Express,” said PN Mehta,
GM-Manufacturing, ESSIL.

Speaking about the deployment, Kailash Ghandat, Proprietor, Gnosis said,
“Eagle had machines that were complicated. Most manufacturing machines are 3 or
5-axis. However, in this case two machines that were 7-axis machines. We took on
the responsibility to work on those 15-16 machines.” Ghandat added that the
challenge was to develop a post-processor and that took a while.

Overcoming hurdles

Gnosis provided training that started out with the basics and progressed to
an advanced level. The VAR developed a post-processor with the help of Tata
Consul­tancy Services, which allows ESSIL to take full advantage of the Mazak
Integrex machine. With this support, successful cutting was achieved on every
machine and ESSIL has since been reaping the benefits of the Solid Edge/CAM
Express solution. For example, the company is expecting to reduce machine
programming time in the range of 15 to 25 percent due to the increased
productivity of the programmers. The company has also achieved its goal of
improving machining quality and surface finish.

Ruth Samson

ruths@cybermedia.co.in