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Swift Technologies Limited, a Cambridgeshire, England-based
materials technology company, provides the manufacturing industry
with unique solutions to traditional problems. The company's Swiftool
Rapid Manufacturing System aids in quickly and economically producing
plastic or polymer moldings. The technology is based on a smart
polymeric tooling medium that facilitates the blending of materials
and manufacture of mold tools on site. The process involves application
of pressure and vacuum to the Swiftool composite via purpose designed
vacuum presses.
Swift Technologies' equipment varies in size from
presses as small as a household refrigerator to as large as a commercial
truck. Paul Shepheard is the company's technical director. He says
Swift Technologies' (Swiftech) reason for doing business is to provide
tools as fast as possible.
"Traditionally, injection mold tools can take anywhere
from one week to 16 weeks to manufacture," says Shepheard. "At Swiftech,
we can fulfill orders in between one to 16 days. We are much faster.
How? Our tooling system fast tracks the tool making process." Engineers
and designers are also finding better ways of doing their jobs,
such as initiating very sound proactive practices at the early stages
of each job, including the use of Moldflow Part Adviser and Moldflow
Mold Adviser software from Moldflow Corporation.
Swiftech operates two business models. One is designing
and marketing systems that enable molders to make injection mold
tools very quickly. The other side of the business is using its
own equipment to make tools to generate customers' parts quickly.
"Obviously," adds Shepheard, "we wouldn't be able to make the parts
if we didn't have the tools. We are in a unique position in that
we have all the equipment. When customers send us a 3D file, we
are usually able to make those parts within a couple days by first
making the tool and then making the parts."
However, in the first year of work, Shepheard and
his colleagues found that their customers' designs were presenting
them with production difficulties. "They didn't mean to," notes
Shepheard. "Unknowingly, they sent us part files that couldn't be
manufactured, and we didn't know it because we didn't design the
parts. Back then, we went through our normal process. We'd make
a tool and learn too late that the tool wouldn't satisfactorily
make the part. That's when we investigated Moldflow software. We
couldn't afford to stay on the same costly path we were going down
at the time."
Now Shepheard's team uses Moldflow software on every
single file that they receive. "Using Moldflow is an integral part
of our procedures," says Shepheard. Swiftech operations can perform
up to 20 Moldflow analyses per day. "Using Moldflow is part of our
proactive strategy to make sure that the part can actually be made.
We don't even charge for running the simulations."
When a file comes through that shows design flaws,
Swiftech returns the file for customer redesign or for assistance
from Shepheard and his team. Customers quickly learn that their
designs are not manufacturable early in the design process versus
later on when the tools have been machined and unable to produce
parts. "It doesn't happen often," notes Shepheard, "but at least
once or twice per week, we receive a file that we can't work with."
He says another reason for using Moldflow on every
single job is for credibility. "Manufacturers have been making steel
tools for years and years," says Shepheard. "There are no questions
about integrity or quality, because people are used to tools being
made out of steel. However, with a new process like ours, when we
turned jobs around and told customers that we couldn't make their
parts, the customer started to question our expertise. So, we invested
in Moldflow to be able to show credible evidence that many issues
are not our problems, but rather the customer's. Moldflow brings
us confidence, credibility, and peace of mind."
Software
benefits
Shepheard says that using Moldflow allows his team
to locate design errors very quickly. "We didn't want to waste valuable
time manufacturing something that couldn't generate parts," adds
Shepheard. "The software automatically gives us the best injection
point and gate location. That was an absolute godsend to us because
now, for every single job, we know for sure that all gates are located
in the optimized positions. Those two factors are the most important
in our workflow.
"It works well for our customers, too. They know
that we apply best practices to help them achieve their goal — obtaining
parts. In the rare instances in which we fail, at least the failure
arises before steel has been cut — before the cost of the mistake
can cost customers five to ten times more than the actual job and
take 10 times longer. Moldflow allows us to interact with the design
much earlier, and if there is a problem for whatever reason, now
is the time to do something about it."
Shepheard says that Moldflow has changed the way
Swiftech does business. If the software didn't exist, Swiftech would
not exist or would be a significantly different organization. "The
software has had that big of an effect on the way we do business,"
notes Shepheard.
Since investing in the software and hardware to
run it, Shepheard says the company has recouped its ROI many times
over. "We've made about 400 tools now as a result of using Moldflow
over the last two years. We have made many more tools than could
hope to be achieved by a conventional toolmaker of comparable size
and Moldflow has played a major part in our success," adds Shepheard.
Swiftech operators can simultaneously run approximately
12 customer file simulations. Files are downloaded as STL, IGES,
or native CAD formats. The process uses STL files in two ways —
one for Moldflow simulations and one for making patterns for generating
tools. Shepheard says, "When a customer sends a part file, we run
the Moldflow analysis on it. If it's okay, we build the part using
stereolithography equipment to make a pattern.
We then fabricate the tool around the pattern."
When it came time for Swiftech to investigate plastic simulation
software, Shepheard did some research on the Internet. "Moldflow
has an excellent reputation in this arena," notes Shepheard. "We
were overwhelmed by the level of confidence that we heard from colleagues
who were using the technology. Soon after, we saw a demonstration
of the products and became a customer." That was two years ago.
Learning curve
Shepheard says that to really become proficient
using the software takes about four weeks. "For many other software
packages, training and proficiency take upward of 12 to 16 weeks,"
adds Shepheard. "Moldflow Part Adviser and Moldflow Mold Adviser
are so simple to understand. While the packages are sophisticated
software, they are at the same time easy to learn and easy to use."
Several Swiftech engineers attended training at Moldflow's UK-based
offices.
"Since we do run so many Moldflow analyses per day,
we have been able to build up a level of knowledge and understanding
about the software. We like that it works with precision and reliability,"
adds Shepheard.
When Swiftech first installed the software, Shepheard
and his team tested the product by "feeding it" a design that had
given them problems in the past with regard to gate locations. "The
Moldflow analysis showed that we shouldn't have gated the part the
way we did. We were so pleased that the software investigated precisely
what didn't work. That gave us good feelings about how it would
treat files for us correctly in the future. That was a good initial
test. We knew we had struggled in the past with troubled designs
and experienced the headaches they cause internally. Moldflow has
helped eliminate all those long, arduous hours for us."
For more information about Swift Technologies Limited, visit www.swiftech.co.uk.
For more information about Moldflow Plastics Advisers (MPA) software,
visit www.moldflow.com
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