Using standardized tooling libraries can make manufac- turers much more effective, said Vynce Paradise, director, product marketing, Siemens PLM Software, who noted that the company has been working with Sandvik for about two years on tooling libraries. “We’re hoping to get the industry to adopt this,” he added. “It's important for our joint cus- tomers that they will be able to spend less time manually adding tooling data to their libraries.”
In the future, this easy access to standardized catalog data will be a part of PLM systems, Paradise said. This effort can also leverage data from third parties like CIMSource, bringing in tool data from the Web. With the Siemens’ Tool Component function, Paradise added that “we can map attributes from standardized catalogs to existing cus- tomer standards. Having access to fully populated tool libraries will make them more effi cient in planning, and help them make smarter decisions on which tools to select for optimum machining. The CAM programmers will go to the tool library, search and fi nd cutting tool assemblies and use 3-D models of these within their NC programming sessions.”
“What we’re seeing is a
shift to the democratization and the availability of more simpler analysis tools.”
Another key Siemens development is its new Shop Floor Connect for Team- center, which allows direct access to production-ready work packages that remain under full PLM control inside Teamcenter until they are needed on the shop fl oor, Paradise stated. “We can connect the SFC [Shop Floor Con- nect] system directly to machine tool controllers so that we can offer a ‘PLM
connected DNC’ capability,” he said. “DNC is the old term still used for Direct Numerical Control. Using SFC for Teamcenter eliminates the need for separate, unmanaged shop-fl oor PC- based DNC systems.”
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