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THE NEED
A large multinational conglomerate, which manufactures electrical distribution systems, is responsible for design and production of bus bars. These are thick, narrow strips of conductive material which carry phases of current within the cabinet. Over 30 engineers are involved at least part-time in this activity.

On average, one engineer requires 90 minutes to produce a rough dimensioned drawing of a bus bar.  Additionally, a problem with errors in the parts and the expense in both time and material is significant.

When the project was completed, each engineer was able to produce, per day (on average)

  • 90 fully detailed CAD drawings
  • 90 NC punch, notch & marking programs
  • 90 NC bending (brake) programs.

Drawings conformed to standards, which facilitated the companys achieving ISO9000 certification.
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AutoCAD custom menus were created to facilitate customer-specific engineering and manufacturing functions

A simple wireframe profile is generated through the use of task-specific menu options and routines
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Dimensioned part profile CAD drawing is then drawn automatically by the Bus Bar system

Flat pattern CAD drawing automatically generated as well

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HOW WE DID IT
We analyzed a large set of the clients drawings and created a compact set of drawing functions (in effect, a bus bar design language) which efficiently handled all possible variations in design.  We then completely automated the task of drawing detailing and dimensioning the part (including title block details, notes, etc.), and wrote machine-ready NC code for the two required fabricating processes. All done in their CAD system  - AutoCAD

Digital Resources  1-800-969-4223