manufacturing process, according to the company. Full stock material addition and removal is provided along with full kinematic machine simulation. More simulation is available for CAM users from simulation specialists CGTech (Irvine, CA), with its Vericut NC simulation, verifi cation and optimiza- tion, as well as from Spring Technologies (Cam- bridge, MA, and Paris), developer of the NCSimul simulation and verifi cation package. “Simulating NC programs in a virtual machining
environment prior to running them in the physical workshop is endemic and spans manu- facturing automation from process con- cept to shop fl oor,” said Bill Hasenjaeger, CGTech product marketing manager. Process analysis features within simu- lation are probably the most important aspect of the systems, something that end users are beginning to recognize as they become more sophisticated, said Hasenjaeger. “It’s easy to lose sight of this important fact in the very visual world of machining simulation and the animation of the machine. Pretty pictures are nice, but process simulation is an engineering analysis tool,” he added. “It doesn’t matter how nice the images look if the simulation is unable to alert the user of process problems, such as small-but- disastrous workpiece gouges. Unfortunately, some software simulation methods reduce accuracy for faster simulation speed while hiding unrealistic fl aws with graphics shading ‘tricks’—not only are the fl aws hidden, but so are process errors.”
PLM (see “Redefi ning PLM” in the September 2015 issue of Manufacturing Engineering and online at
http://tinyurl.com/ob6gv5k). The anticipated deluge of IoT devices and how they’re handled in the PLM sphere may be just the ticket. PLM developers such as PTC (Needham, MA)
have anted up, with investments in IoT and the Big Data analytics area including its $112 million purchase of IoT developer ThingWorx in 2013, and a $105 million acquisition of predictive analytics sup- plier Coldlight in May 2014.
“PLM systems now need to manage the complete configuration of product data, including the software and for many legacy PDMs, this is just not possible.”
Smart, connected products are driving manufac- turing and PLM, said Kevin Wrenn, PTC’s divisional vice president and general manager, Product Lifecycle Management. “Once composed solely of mechanical and electrical parts, products have become complex systems that combine hardware, sensors, data stor- age, microprocessors, software, and connectivity in myriad ways,” Wrenn said. “These ‘smart, connected products’—made possible by vast improvements in processing power and device miniaturization and by the network benefi ts of ubiquitous wireless connectiv- ity—have unleashed a new era of competition.” Digital manufacturing tools like the Tecnomatix
Product Lifecycle Management The outlook for enterprise PLM software is positive,
with researcher CIMdata Inc. (Ann Arbor, MI) recently reporting PLM grew 6.8% last year over 2013 levels to reach a total of $37.2 billion. Much of PLM’s growth is coming from the fast-growing simulation side of PLM, which consists of CAD, CAM, CAE, digital manufactur- ing and PDM tools. For 2015, CIMdata is forecasting that the simulation and analysis subsector of PLM will grow 7.5% overall to reach revenues of $5 billion. While PLM overall has shown solid growth, the segment has had much more traction in the aero- space/defense and automotive industries than in other areas of manufacturing, and both developers and users alike may need to rethink their approach to
version 12 Process Simulate from Siemens PLM Software (Plano, TX) and the recently introduced FastSuite Edition 2 from Cenit AG (Auburn Hills, MI, and Stuttgart, Germany) help PLM users quickly and accurately lay out their factory fl oor plans, simulat- ing all of the required process manufacturing before fi nalizing the plant layout. “A lot of companies are simply not aware of virtual simulation or a ‘digital factory’ and how it can help them,” said Helmut Ziewers, vice president, Digital Factory Solutions, Cenit AG. “As awareness grows, manufacturing businesses are fi guring out dif- ferent ways to utilize this new tool.” The elements of IoT, Big Data, the cloud, 3D printing and advanced robots are creating new
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