Design and manufacture of machines to create and simultaneously fill laminated tubes
Licences:
12 TopSolid’Pro
3 TopSolid’Cam
Mechatronika SA, part of the STS Holding Group Ltd. since the year 2000, is located in Gabrovo in Central Bulgaria. Set up in 1961 the company’s main activity up until the year 2000 was the manufacture of:
Metal melting sets
PVC foil welding sets
Ultrasonic cleaning equipment
Since then the company has turned its activities towards the design and manufacture of machines which make and simultaneously fill laminated tubes. The design and manufacture of such machines is a highly specialized field – 2 other companies worldwide engage in a similar activity. While these companies supply to the large cosmetic manufacturers, small to medium sized cosmetic manufacturers represent Mechatronika’s clientele. 90% of all machines produced by Mechatronika are exported to such countries as India, China, Pakistan…
Integrated CAD/CAM at Mechatronika
In 2004 the company acquired the TopSolid CAD/CAM integrated solution. Having considered the solutions on offer by the leading editors Mehatronika opted for TopSolid for 2 main reasons:
A fully integrated CAD/CAM solution meant that one software solution could be used from design right through to manufacture
A very competitive price for the many functionalities on offer in TopSolid
Mehatronika uses TopSolid for the design and manufacture of all tools, parts and machines. A complete integration between design and manufacturing has been an important enhancement since the introduction of TopSolid. Any changes made to the CAD file are automatically updated in the CAM file. According to M. Miroslav Hinkov, Director of Mehatronika “We are very happy with the software and the service provided by the Bulgarian TopSolid reseller, KSIMETRO. A comprehensive training program in addition to the ongoing support provided by KSIMETRO has meant that we maximise the far-reaching functionalities on offer in TopSolid. The parts, assemblies and machines we produce are much more complex than before, this would not have been possible without TopSolid.”
The results
TopSolid has offered important benefits since its installation in 2004:
Design and production times have been reduced by more than 50%
Manual programming of CNC machines is now fully eliminated thanks to TopSolid. This in turns eliminates the need to employ a highly skilled, expensive workforce to program machines as the software manages all programming complexities
A speedy learning period. Originally Mehatronika had anticipated an 8 month training and familiarization period with the new software. Thanks to TopSolid’s intuitive interface which is easy to understand and work with operators were fully operational in less than 3 months.
TopSolid offers an ideal solution for the design of machines which include many components and assemblies. In-situ design, used for designing assemblies with thousands of parts, is ideal for creating drafts or for processing sub-assemblies and enables a number of parts to be created in the same file. The advanced dynamic functions available in TopSolid enable mechanisms with constraints to be dynamically simulated. Various forces can be added to the mechanism and the movement can be simulated.
Mehatronika plans to further expand its operations in the future. The purchase of 3 further CNC machines is in the pipeline. The company also plans to invest in TopSolid’PunchCut to pilot its laser cutting machines and hopes to invest in TopSolid’PDM, the fully integrated data management software solution which ensures the associativity, integrity and traceability of specific data during the entire design and production process.
