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Success Story

Broadband Tooling continued growth with PowerMILL

Broadband Tooling continued growth with PowerMILL

Customer challenge

The Company Broadband Tooling, established in the outer Sydney suburb of Prestons in 2003, was started with the aim of supporting local packaging companies with tooling, and toolmaking services. Having this established itself as a niche supplier to a local industry, and as a testament to the quality of workmanship, customers were continually asking for a broader range of services. With the benefit of a small and enthusiastic team of multi-skilled individuals, Broadband Tooling was able to meet this challenge with a training and improvement program.

Project goals

The Challenge Broadband Tooling began as a toolmaker focused on servicing the needs of a single client, and over the years expanded to offer a variety of tooling services, including moulds, casting equipment, and jigs and fixtures, as well as prototypes and machined components. Similarly, the company has expanded its customer base, mainly in the medical industry. Over the last five years Broadband, has placed an emphasis on broadening its’ customer base, often by taking on projects that other suppliers considered impossible. “It is our team that is able to come up with innovative solutions, and is then able to deploy those solutions via our software and machines,” said Joshua Clark. “We like to take on challenging jobs, as it keeps the team engaged, and it’s really great to see their sense of pride when a customer comes in and is amazed by what they’ve been able to achieve". That is where Autodesk PowerSHAPE and Autodesk PowerMILL comes in.

Solution

Having built their technology stack largely around the range of manufacturing solutions from Autodesk, the training of staff was of critical importance. The benefits of the simplified interfaces became obvious with the shortened learning curve, allowing programmers and operators to get results very quickly. “We were able to get new users trained quickly” explained Joshua. “Our experienced operators also gained a lot as they were able to learn the latest techniques and methods, as it is not uncommon for experienced operators to stick to proven, and sometimes outdated, methods.” Bringing Autodesk PowerSHAPE and Autodesk PowerMILL into its operations at the earliest stages of the companies growth, with a key decider being the early adoption of shop floor programming – where the design work and CAM work could effectively be separated. “In those days most CADCAM system were all-in-one, so to be able to run with maximum flexibility you had to purchase multiple licenses, and one component

Business outcome

Autodesk PowerMILL’s range of finishing techniques have given the team at Broadband the ability to machine to finished sizes, whilst achieving perfect surface finishes. This has the beneficial effect of minimizing hand work, and giving a much clearer overview to the production schedule. “One of the historical challenges we found with hand finishing was the ability to accurately estimate the time it would take to completely finish a part.” explained Joshua. “The speed, and quality, of bench work would vary widely amongst different staff so by being able to take finished molds directly off the machine we’re able to provide our clients with much more accurate delivery schedules.” It was noted that even though sub-contractors are independent companies, the importance of delivering on time was critical as a small delay in delivery could have massive impacts in other areas of the customers business.

Conclusion

The future of Broadband Tooling is extremely positive, with the addition of a 5 axis machining centre, as well as inspection capability. The team continues to grow as new staff are attracted to the variety of work offered, and the advanced capabilities of the technology on offer within the company.

Project summary

    Duration & delivery

  • 20
  • 2021-05-30

    Autodesk solutions

  • PowerMill
  • PowerShape

    Services provided

  • Technical Support

    Customer industry

  • Design & Manufacturing
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PowerMILL supporting growth at Nepean

Nepean Engineering & Innovation is one of Australia’s leading privately owned engineering, mining services and industrial manufacturing organizations. It offers unique capabilities to deliver high value, innovative, and sustainable solutions in support of the world’s leading mining, construction, and transport companies. First opening in 1974, it has been over 47 years of continuous innovation, hard work, and a willingness to tackle difficult projects that has earned Nepean Engineering & Innovation an enviable reputation. With continuous investment in equipment, facilities, people and R&D activities the capabilities of Nepean have continued to grow, employing over 1100 1500 people across five continents. The challenge of continually compressed delivery schedules, advancements in machine tool technology, and an ever-shrinking talent pool led Nepean Engineering & Innovation to look at it’s CAM programming department for improvements.

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