Switching to apowerful CAM system doubled productivity at a Chilean mouldmaker and helped it to win new business from the largest important electrical appliance manufacturers.

Switching to Delcam's PowerMILL cam system has doubled productivity at Chilean mouldmaker Comberplast. The software also played a major part in convincing CTI, one of the most important electrical appliance manufacturers in the country, to buy its first moulds from the company. Located in Santiago de Chile and with more than 30 years in the market, Comberplast has become recognised throughout the Latin American plastics industry for the quality of its work.

The company has been involved with many applications, including packaging and telecommunications, as well as electrical appliances.

One of the keys to its success has been considerable investment in new technology and automation.

In the case of the Mould Department, Comberplast has installed new machine tools that let it provide its customers with moulds matching European or American standards, at competitive prices.

Delcam's PowerSHAPE hybrid modelling software and the PowerMILL CAM system were added after an intensive testing period with a number of CADCAM systems.

These trials demonstrated that the Delcam software best satisfied Comberplast's needs.

'With PowerMILL, we have been able to reduce machining times by 50%, which in other words means we have doubled our working capacity,' said Shop-floor Manager Marcos Guevara.

'It's like having new and more precise machine tools.' The improvements made possible by the Delcam software were crucial in convincing CTI to place work with Comberplast.

The first project was a rotor for a washing machine, a very complex part that is at the heart of the machine.

'Until we completed this job, CTI had never thought of buying this kind of mould from a local supplier,' claimed Guevara.

'They would only use European tool shops.

Now, CTI recognises that we are able to compete not only in quality, but also in customer service, delivery times and price.' 'Starting with a prototype of the product and an incomplete CAD model, we could help our customer finish the design in PowerSHAPE,' explained Guevara.

'Even though we were in the early stage of implementing 3D mould design, with PS-Moldmaker and the experience of Delcam's reseller MultiCAM Chile, we could efficiently complete this stage in about one third of the time it would have taken to do it in the traditional way.' The manufacturing process was equally successful.

'With the strategies available in PowerMILL, we could machine the inserts very easily,' he added.

'We produced very efficient toolpaths, even for several very difficult areas of the mould.

The overall result of using the Delcam software was a high quality mould, completed in half the time that the customer was expecting,' he concluded.