Customer Testimonials

Jerry Gustafson
NC Programmer
Valley Machine Shop Inc

Valley Machine Shop Inc., located in Kent, Washington, manufactures small to large aerospace details and assemblies and specializes in CNC Milling and Turning. Valley uses mainly Mastercam, employs 60 people and operates twenty 3-5 Axis Mill & Lathe CNC machines.

“Prior to using ICAM, getting a post-processor running behind Mastercam for a new machine was a very slow and frustrating process.  Many times we started with a very generic post and had to resolve its  issues in the production environment.  On the contrary, ICAM started collecting information about our machines the first time we called them.  They knew the correct questions to ask and the result was a nearly working post when the machine hit the floor.  

Working out any post issues was quick since we worked directly with ICAM’s post engineers, who responded quickly with changes, or explanations.  ICAM’s engineers are very knowledgeable and helpful and the sales representative that managed our account contacted us regularly to make sure we were satisfied with the post.  I look forward to work with ICAM on new projects the future.”

Gwinn, Bill- Lead NC Programmer
Triumph Aerostructures -
Vought Integrated Programs Division

Triumph Aerostructures - Vought Aircraft Division’s ICAM Software
ICAM software, a link between Engineering  & CNC machine code.

"Triumph Aerostructures – Vought Aircraft Division, a subsidiary of Triumph Group, Inc., is a leading global manufacturer of aerostructures for commercial, military and business jet aircraft. The company has full fabrication capabilities and available products include fuselages, wings, empennages, nacelles and helicopter cabins. The company’s customer base consists of the world’s leading aerospace OEMs. Triumph Aerostructures – Vought Aircraft Division employs about 6,000 people in six U.S. locations.

One of the company sites, located in Nashville, TN, produces individual parts and sub assemblies for Airbus, Gulfstream, Cessna, and Lockheed Martin.  With approximately 900 employees spread over two million square feet of work space, the Nashville site has 10 large CNC gantry mills, nine large assembly riveters, and a variety of smaller CNC equipment.  In the machining area, there are more than 35 CNC spindles making chips. “The Nashville facility focuses on parts that are ‘long and large.’ Most everything we do is longer than 30feet,” said Lead CNC Programmer Bill Gwinn. Those ‘long and large’ parts start out as massive engineering models, many of which reside in legacy CATIA-V4 CAD/CAM data files.

Using ICAM’s Post-Processing software, Triumph has been able to convert CAD/CAM engineering data files into Computer Numerical Control (CNC) code, quickly and virtually error free.  As of 2007, many parts are being developed, or imported through a newer CATIA-V5 system. Using a two step process, CNC programmers can extract the graphic engineering data (from either system) into APTSOURCE (APT) files, which are then fed into the ICAM Post-Processing software.  ICAM converts the APT information into customizable code for each CNC machine.

Current ICAM  Posts
Since 2007, three new Post-Processors have been developed for three different CNC machines.  The first two are for Handtmann 5-axis mills; one with a single head configuration, and the second having a twin-head gantry setup.  The most recent Post was developed for an older Cincinnati 5-axis Gantry mill that was ‘retrofit’ with a new Siemens 840D Control, the same control used on both Handtmann mills.

After processing the APT files through ICAM, the final output (CNC code) instructs the CNC machines to mill Aluminum billets into precision aircraft components.  Typically, these large complex parts have machine times measured in days, rather than hours & minutes; and that’s with three shifts of machining.  Parts this big require large programs; in many cases, multiple large programs.  According to Gwinn, that’s where ICAM has paid for itself.  The processing time for these programs takes about half the time as the old Post-Processor.

While ICAM has proved itself as a valuable tool, Gwinn says that his time training at   ICAM was “invaluable.”  The two training sessions spent helped us go beyond just using ICAM.  Triumph also has an ICAM developer’s license, and used it to build the first two Posts.  This also allows users the flexibility to modify any post as needed.

In the case of the Cincinnati post, Triumph was faced with a unique situation where time was a key factor in building the new post for this upgrade.  Fortunately ICAM was able to work with Gwinn and help develop and finalize the post in just a few weeks.  “Our goal was to use the existing APT files, over 70 of them, and run them through a new ICAM Post to achieve the same tool path” said Gwinn.  Since the Control upgrade would use a different tool path method; Tool-Tip vs. the previous Knuckle-Driven method, all programs required reprocessing.  “ICAM did an excellent job collaborating with us to develop the Post, in order to give us an error free CNC tool path; especially with little to no changes in the original APT files.”

Future plans for the Nashville site include using ICAM Post-Processors on all new work and any machine-control upgrades."

Kevin Williams
NC Programmer
Precise Machining & Manufacturing

"Precise Machining and Manufacturing specializes in manufacturing complex aerospace structures and assemblies. Our programming department utilizes Catia, NX, and Esprit to create complex 3-5 axis programs for a large variety of machine tools. CAM-POST software from ICAM easily enables us to generate the specific output for each machine tool we have.

ICAM's trainer gave us a post building training session that was tailor made for our needs. There were no questions he couldn’t answer, or complex posting problems he could not easily solve. Since then the ICAM support team has given us very timely support whenever we have needed it.

We couldn’t be happier with our posting capabilities now. Thank you for everything ICAM."

Dirk Veen
Functional Application Manager CAM
Meyn Food Processing Technology

"Meyn Food Processing Technology B.V. develops, manufactures sells and supports machinery for Poultry processing and is one of the global leaders in its specific market. The company is headquartered in The Netherlands, has Sales Offices in 13 countries worldwide and manufactures its products in four locations in Europe and the USA.

Meyn manufactures most of its components in-house, for which it has an NC infrastructure in its Oostzaan location that consists of eight different multi-axis CNC machines with outsourced post-processor development.

The main 3D CAD system is CATIA V5 from Dassault Systèmes which is managed by Enovia Smarteam V5. CATIA is used for concept design, detail design and CAM programming of the newly developed machines. CATIA 3D CAD is used worldwide, while CAM programming is only done in the main location in Oostzaan, The Netherlands.

During 2010 it was decided that Meyn no longer wanted to be dependent on external post-processor developers and wanted to do these developments in-house, based on state-of the art post-processor development software. For this, CAM-POST from ICAM was selected after presentations from, discussions with and a proof of concept by two different software vendors.

The implementation of CAM-POST started mid-2010 and currently (May 2011) has resulted in the re-definition or new development of all required CATIA post-processors but one: the Zayer 5-axis machine is still under development.

We can say that we are really satisfied with both the CAM-POST's capabilities for rapidly developing complex post-processors, as well as the level of support from ICAM. "

Peter Bergendahl
Senior Board Engineer
Burton Snowboards

"As far as I can remember, we have always used ICAM for our processing needs and the program has always been flawless. All I can say is that we have had perfect customer service with great communication, understanding of our needs, and incredibly fast turnaround on our latest update to our Post Processor. ICAM and its products have continually helped keep our company leading the industry."

Raymond Mark
Director of Manufacturing
.decimal, Inc.

".decimal relies heavily on technology to deliver custom, patient specific medical devices to our clients around the globe. As cancer care advances, the parts we are asked to make are becoming more complex. "

"To accurately and quickly process these requirements, the company has added Mazak 7-Axis multitasking CNCs to the facility. In parallel, the need for the other industry segments we support such as defence and aerospace, to reduce there transitional costs and schedule compression has us exploring the limits of these machines' capabilities."

"We needed a post-processor that would work with our CAM system to seamlessly integrate these machines into our internet based manufacturing business model. ICAM has been able to fill that need with not only a great tool but also prompt and thorough customer service."

Brian Brown
Systems Engineer
Volvo Construction Equipment

"After the ownership change at our facility, management provided a new and committed vision towards the future. When I was brought on board, I was told we want a “state of the art” manufacturing system. After three months of research within the Volvo group, I arrived at the conclusion that a corporate solution did not exist."
 
"After my prior experiences with ICAM, knowing ICAM’s flexibility, ICAM’s experience level of quality, commitment and experience, we realized no other post- processor would be as flexible and agile as we require. We have three CAM packages utilized at our facility in Shippensburg. We wanted one solution for three packages. Here at Shippensburg, we currently have active licenses for Wildfire IV Pro-Manufacturing, Mastercam X3, and Siemens NX6. We know that CATIA is in our foreseeable future."

"We selected ICAM as our partner for the future growth of our facility because of its commitment to quality, customer service (both in customer support and product development), flexibility to interface with our multiple CAM packages and ICAM’s ability to deliver customized multi-axis post-processors in a short period of time."

"In the past year, ICAM’s commitment to customer service and quality has been exemplary - from dealing with support on our custom post- processor development to requesting a license server that could be utilized on a virtual machine. I know if I phone support my issues will be solved by the end of the day."

"The management at ICAM should be proud of their employees for their responsiveness, courteousness and professionalism at every level of their staff."

"It is my pleasure to recommend ICAM to other professionals and programmers whenever the possibly arises and I look forward to continuing our partnership into the future."

Frank Moats
Sr. NC Programmer
GKN Aerospace-Chem-tronics Div.

"ICAM was suggested by SIEMENS when our Wotan machines with 840D controls were purchased. We chose to stay with the generic post we had been using, because we didn't think that other post-processing solutions had anything more to offer. By delaying the purchase of ICAM's post we hindered our use of the machines for the first 4 years we have owned them. We had limited use of CYCLES and tool length offsets among other features. The turning point was a visit to GKN St. Louis where the ICAM product is used extensively. Most impressive is ICAM's DST 5-axis HS machines."

"Now ICAM's CAM-POST product allows us to program without including a preset tool length; we can use CYCLE statements in any head orientation. While the CYCLE implementation sounds minimal it is in effect huge, with the old method we had to create point to point drill cycles. Tapping at a compound angle wasn't even considered, now it is easy. During swarf milling operations we were again hampered by preset tooling, backing the machine up to make a small adjustment was nearly impossible. Replacing a tool was an adventure, we use heat shrink holders, these are difficult to accurately preset. Frequently we had to repost for new tool lengths."

"ICAM allows us to use the controllers' TRAORI function which in turn allows us to do away with preset tooling. Small adjustments are easily done by adding to the wear offset in the controller. "

Paul Gerardy
Systems Engineer
Ingersoll Cutting Tools

"Like many companies these days, we changed ownership a few years ago.  As part of the transition we lost our mainframe based CAM system and about 15 in-house developed, FORTRAN based post-processors.  On top of that we had to make the transition in three months!  We selected ICAM based on its proven track record and flexibility to handle the post-processing work for our new Pro/NC CAM system."

"With the tremendous customization capabilities of ICAM, along with excellent customer support, we were able to rapidly develop a number of post-processors under extreme time pressure.  There were a wide variety of machine and controller combinations to support and ICAM certainly provided the flexibility that we needed for a smooth transition."

Martyn Grist
Manufacturing Process Lead, 787 Program
Boeing Winnipeg

“ICAM is our selected technology partner, because of the magnitude of their experiences with advanced multi-axis post-processors, expert knowledge of CATIA V5, current relationships with 787 Program suppliers and their in-depth understanding of our unique programming objectives.”

Dave Frank
NC Programming Lead
FMI

“I found that the CAM-POST product was able to do everything I wanted to do and even more. The application staff is extremely helpful, knowledgeable, supportive and professional. In times of crisis, the sales and development team quickly responded to our needs.”

“FMI’s move to ICAM’s technology and support resources ensures our manufacturing infrastructure is operating at peak performance. This allows FMI to consistently meet the operational and competitive effectiveness that our valued Aerospace customers demand.”

Indy Weerasinghe
Abcor Pty

Ken Ryntz
Daimler Chrysler

Robert Huang
Fair Friend Group

Bruce Haroldson
Fluoroware

Jim Barrett,
General Motors

Allen McGregor
Husky Injection Molding

"ICAM provided Kohler with an extremely talented Engineer, without whom, we would have continued to make edits after posting. ICAM's CAM-POST is so flexible that together we were able to create highly adaptive posts for our CNC machines. Today we post and forget about it."

Jean-Charles Castellini
Société Anonyme Belge de Constructions Aéronatiques (S.A.B.C.A.)