Having been formed ten years ago by Kien Chung and Alex Hill, KA Tooling, with its specialism in aluminium and steel injection mould tools, has had to invest in new CNC machines to meet the growing demand from customers.
KA Tooling directors Alex Hill (left) and Kien Chung (right)
As such it has recently moved into a new 6,500 square foot facility in Coalville, Leicestershire.
To aid in the high quality and timely manufacture of its tools, KA Tooling utilises a number of modules from VISI, a PC based CAD/CAM solution from Vero Software.
Creating a sit-on lawn mower grill mould tool in VISI
These modules include four seats of VISI Modelling and VISI Machining, a VISI Viewer package, and a seat each of VISI Mould, Electrode, Flow-Lite and Compass Technology.
“We maximise technology to reduce costs and improve turnaround, especially in the aluminium market, and VISI enables us to achieve this with top quality moulds,” says co-director Hill.
Saving time
Using the various VISI modules has helped cut the company’s average tool design time by half – from two days to less than a day – and means it can now undertake around 90 per cent of designs in-house whereas before installing VISI Mould it was only creating around a quarter of the designs itself.
Working on the mower’s steering wheel in VISI
Co-director Kien Chung, also says that VISI Machining 3D is now an essential part of the manufacturing process.
Dedicated high speed milling techniques and built-in smoothing algorithms create highly efficient NC code, reducing cycle times and improving productivity.
A rendering of the mould tool for the mower’s grill
“We have a greater variety of 3D machining strategies now. Using these in conjunction with the powerful rest area machining options reduces both fresh air machining and programming time,” says Chung.
According to Hill, integration between the VISI modules has also aided efficiency at the company. “We know there can’t be any data input error as there’s just the one system handling all aspects of analysis, design and machining,” he concludes.
KA Tooling reaps benefits from investment in VISI CAD/CAM software
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