Profile cutting productivity boost

During the development of the new profiles module, Lantek combined innovation with its experience and skill in the sector. This was gained from more than 20 years developing design and programming systems for sheet metal cutting, punching and bending machines and applying it to the profile cutting industry. Lantek consulted extensively with its customers (over 9000 companies worldwide) in the development of Flex3D Profiles, implementing suggested technology and techniques to make the system one of the most complete tools available in the market for profiles machining. There are many technical innovations included in the Flex3D Profiles module. The user can easily design any type of standard profile (I, U, L, T, H, square and round tubes), simulate in 3D the head movement of the machine, the profiles, and the machining operations of every tool. This ensures the best profile optimisation and minimizes the possibility of errors. The system then generates NC files to send directly to the machine (CNC code, DSTV or DSTV+), adapted to suit the control of any profile or tube cutter. Lantek Flex 3D Profiles is integrated with the Lantek Expert III Production Control System. From the manufacturing operations module in Lantek Expert III, the user can run specific jobs, import DSTV files, produce quotations, and manage the status of steel sheets, profiles and tubes, in real time. Data from third party CAD systems used for designing structures can be also be imported into Lantek Flex 3D Profiles. Supported formats, such as DSTV, SAT and CAM files, can include machining operations, which can be modified, deleted and added to, so that the user can have complete control of the cutting process. The new software includes tools for optimising the profile path and for CNC file generation. These include automatic, semi-automatic or manual lead in/out generation; multiple nesting methods; remnant management; and options for manually altering the cutting sequence vectors that the system automatically calculates for cutting head machines. Powerful simulation clearly displays the profiles to be cut. Additionally, it shows all the machining operations and tools, as well as the cutting head trajectory. It also automatically detects potential collisions and allows the user to modify the path to overcome the problem. Wherever possible, Lantek Flex3D Profiles automatically avoids collisions. Should one occur, it is highlighted during the simulation phase. A single environment for design and post-processing enables NC code, tailored to each specific machine, to be automatically generated from the contours programmed on each profile.