Encoform in Gummersbach, Germany, offers a range of technical solutions to its customers, from design to the finalized injection mold, which enable them to remain competitive on the global market even with small series. That's why a fast, flexible and functional CAD/CAM system was needed. The company has chosen TopSolid from Missler Software and the overall result has been positive.

In terms of organisation medium sized companies are quite different from global players. When big companies are trying to meet global challenges with low-cost employees, many small end, medium sized companies have understood the trend and changed their strategy.
A good example is the company Encoform, Gummersbach, which helps its customers to be present on the market quickly with good designs and attractive prices.

Peter Kammer, a tool and mold maker and graduated engineer, founded Encoform in 1998 and started by offering design services for the electronics industry (attachments and hard drive cases). According to Mr. Kammer "This industry has the difficulty that high quality hard and software solutions are often delivered in standard cases. In the meantime the Asian markets are able to provide solutions with nice and adapted cases“.
Thus Peter Kammer was asked to enlarge his services and to deliver competitive design and ergonomical products. Furthermore the Encoform customers wanted to have complete solutions from design to finalised tools and dies, completed by NC programming files.

"At this point we had to change our internal organisation“, says Peter Kammer. In 2004 Encoform founded its internal shop floor for the construction of tools and dies. This included the purchase of machines for milling and electroerosion operations. The company grew to include 4 employees.
Encoform is today specialised in the production of technical plastic parts produced in small series of 500 or 1000 (and up to a maximum of 2000 parts.) The company provides solutions for a wide range of different industries. That’s why flexibility, speed, technical know-how and an integrated chain are necessary. When Mr. Kammer speaks of speed, he means hours and days, not weeks and months!

Peter Kammer started with the system Autocad Mechanical Desktop. But this system was too limited in forming operations and Encoform decided to buy a second CAD system VX-Vision from Varimetrix. Now forming operations were much better, but in terms of CAM and tool production the system’s performance was not adequate.

With more and more complex customer demands, an integrated CAD/CAM system integrating design, tool making, NC programming, simulation and manufacturing became necessary. This need was further reinforced by the fact that at Encoform employees perform all jobs; therefore it is not possible to work with three different systems. Furthermore the new system should have easy and uncomplicated parting line functionalities. Last but not least the price quality ratio influenced the choice of Encoform.  

Peter Kammer compared most of the existing CAD/CAM systems on the marked and finally opted for TopSolid from Missler Software. Today Encoform has four licences: TopSolid’Design, TopSolid’Mold, TopSolid’Cam and TopSolid’Electrode.

In February 2004 Encoform invested in a DMG 35 3-axis milling machine and an
electroerosion machine. These machines together with TopSolid enable Encoform to offer integrated CAD/CAM procedures.
An example is the design, tool making and manufacturing of “cradles“ for mobile computers for the company Unitech. All in all 14 tools were needed for the complete cradle.
Already in the design step of the product Encoform differentiates from many competitors in offering ergonomic design and exterior design of the shapes with TopSolid.

For the moment Peter Kammer is not aware of any limits of the system: “With TopSolid there is always a solution.“ In the design state there is of course a lot of exchange with the customer and a lot of modifications which are easy to manage thanks to numerical CAD. Once the product is designed the tool making process begins. Peter Kammer is completely conviced by TopSolid’Mold. The system deals with much routine work, choice of mold bases, positioning of drillings, pins, etc. Encoform uses exclusively the TopSolid component catalogues for mold bases, screws and springs. This brings speed in case of modifications. No more need to upload new components from CD’s or other supports.
All in all Peter Kammer works four to five times faster with TopSolid’Mold compared to other systems. For some tools he reduced design time from 7 days to 1.5 days!

The next step is the programming and simulation of the NC programs. When Encoform got the order of the computer cradle they just started the manufacturing of molds. Peter Kammer learned by himself how to work with TopSolid’Cam and CNC milling. For him this is a concrete proof of the quality of TopSolid.
Very important also are the simulation possibilities offered by TopSolid. They help to produce perfect programs and avoid collisions when manufacturing the tools.
Encoform finalised the computer cradle, with all the 14 tools, in time and the final product is not only functional but also has a good design – It is competitive in terms of prices,  Encoform’s customer can even sell this product in Asia!

Encoform a real success story! A good business concept and the optimal use of a CAD/CAM system: fast, flexible and integrated.

Karl Obermann