As promised last year, we are closing in on some exciting new technologies which will dramatically change plate cutting. It has been a long haul to get these products tested and ready for the international market.
For EdgeSmartTM we have spent the year discussing changes required with existing NC controls with the world's major manufacturers. Without these changes, the invention is less than fully automatic. You may see this technology embedded in NC controls in 2007 as well as separately available for existing controls.
For FastCAM® BevelTM, we have decided to market the technology under the trademarked logo Weld-Ready TM (Parts) to distinguish it from perhaps thirty years of angle cutting, marketed by others as Bevel cutting when they are really chamfering systems, barely usable for multi pass cutting.
FastCAM® BevelTM is ready for some manufacturers and in testing by others. These include Farley, Kinetics, ESAB, Messer and more. The aim here is to make the production of X, Y, K bevels as simple as straight cutting, embedding the desired weld preparation directly in the drawings at the drawing office level.
In addition, we have incorporated our new Weld-Ready TM Technology in our FastSHAPES® program for heavy plate development to include generation of the desired dihedral. While these were previously marked on the plate for semi manual edge preparation, we can now directly cut with a single oxy or plasma torch and even make three passes to get the grooves ready at the desired angles relative to the dihedral. (Grooves are added in FastCAM®).
We have also undertaken ground breaking work on the preparation of complex bevels for pipe cutters of up to 6 axes and multi pass production of weld ready parts on single torch plate cutting machines.
We recently welcomed several new staff members in our Chicago Office and have plans to expand in 2007. We want to provide the best service possible for our many clients around the world.
We hope our new technologies will help to make your production and assembly significantly faster and cheaper in 2007 and we take this opportunity to wish all our customers and partners a successful new year.
Dr. Matthew J. Fagan
President
FastCAM Inc.
FastCAM v5.9.1248