Blog | Digital fabrication with Autodesk Fusion 360
Implementation Autodesk Fusion 360
Together with two colleagues, I form the so-called CAM team, also known as the Team Digital Fabrication. We are responsible for implementing Fusion 360 software at many companies in the manufacturing industry. Fusion 360 is a great programme from Autodesk that large and small companies use to control their CNC machines. Say the step after digital modelling of parts for assembly in machines, production lines and packaging lines. In other words, the CAM fase after CAD. With Fusion 360, the milling and turning machines, can be programmed faster and make more complicated products. Exactly what companies want to stay competitive.
Translation to digital fabrication
Implementation of software, you will say, isn't that purely ICT? This is only partly true. Autodesk Fusion 360 is a very affordable programme and easy to install. But it is not a matter of plug-and-play. To make the translation from CAM to the machine, a so-called postprocessor is needed. A file in the software, a piece of custom software, that you can only write and apply with knowledge of machines and machining. And that is exactly the branch of sport in which we feel at home. As a CAM team, we know what the machines can and cannot do, how to program them and where the most profit can be made. CAD/CAM software is only effective with a dedicated post processor, crucial to really make the move to digital manufacturing.
Connecting CAD, CAM and Machine
Just buying Fusion 360, and then thinking it works, is unfortunately an illusion. We connect CAD, CAM and machine and that always takes some searching, fitting and measuring. Work in which our practical knowledge of machining is very welcome. Fusion 360 represents a very easy way of working. Engineering and machine programming come closer together. That is why we don't just provide software that works. We also train the people who will work with it. During workshops and training, we take programmers and engineers into the future and show them the possibilities. We prefer to do this on location, using concrete examples from practice that are applicable to them. Great to do, great to see how even during the training courses people become enthusiastic.
Autodesk Fusion 360
Of course, I am enthusiastic about Autodesk's Fusion 360. It is an important product for Cadac. But that is not the main driving force of our Fabrication Team. We get pleasure and satisfaction from our customers' results. We help them digitise and automate. We see that they can produce faster, more efficiently and take on more complicated jobs. Very quickly, they see the advantages, such as quick posting to other machines, the handy simulations and securing knowledge and skills. Their success is our success. Fusion 360 is very transparent and the files are easily transferable and understandable. Fine at a time when skilled workers are retiring and schools barely have resources to invest in training software. The transfer of knowledge is crucial. And this is precisely what we and our team are good at, bringing our customers along for the ride and making sure they can work more finely and efficiently.
Total supplier for Fusion 360
As Cadac's CAM team, we want to be the supplier for Fusion 360, but much more than that, we have the ambition to be the partner for the manufacturing industry in the Benelux. Not for nothing do we have our own workshop in Heerlen with CAD/CAM and machine tools to test software in practice. Meanwhile, we have convinced many companies and every single one of them is enthusiastic about the results. And at parties, I am getting better at explaining what we do. A challenge I can't find anywhere else.
More information
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