Manufacturer of display & shop-fitting equipment, GTM Plastics Ltd. benefits from the partnership between Delcam, a CADCAM software development company and Flexicam, manufacturer of CNC routers and engravers.
GTM Plastics Ltd, (www.gtmplastics.co.uk) a small up-and-coming acrylic fabrications company based in Ashby de la Zouch in Leicestershire are reaping the rewards from purchasing their Flexicam S2 flatbed router together with Delcam’s CADCAM (computer-aided design & manufacturing) software package, ArtCAM Insignia.
ArtCAM Insignia is Delcam’s mid-range CADCAM software package and requires little to no engineering knowledge to use it. Whether companies purely wish to benefit from ArtCAM’s powerful and intuitive machining strategies or craft decorative pieces, Insignia includes vector-based design, true-shape nesting, extensive 2D machining and basic 3D machining functionality. 
ArtCAM allows users to begin their design in a number of ways, whether that is by drawing ideas on paper, designing the piece in a familiar CAD package and then importing it into ArtCAM, or starting directly within the software. Users can then create vectors from the imported artwork and use them as a basis for creating the fast and efficient toolpaths for machining 2D or 3D products using V-bit carving.
For Gary Townsend, owner of GTM Plastics the key benefit to purchasing ArtCAM Insignia was its true-shape nesting capability. This minimises material wastage by placing all the pieces to be cut as closely together as possible according to their true shape. He states that "Insignia’s nesting is described as basic but I would go as far as calling it advanced. Not only that, but with Insignia rather than having to purchase nesting as a separate plug-in it comes as part of the package.”
Before purchasing ArtCAM Insignia and their Flexicam router all GTM Plastics products had to be machined manually, which not only took them considerable time, but also limited the size and shape of their machined profiles. Now with the use of Insignia they can make a whole range of products they couldn’t before including china stands / crockery displays, acrylic mirrors, shelving, spectacle displays, and much more, all of which were previously far too intricate to manufacture.
Gary continues to say: "Insignia’s layout is extremely logical and straight forward to use, and after drawing a profile, it’s then incredibly easy to create the finished toolpaths using insignia’s built in toolpath options.” He also states "The bitmap to vector tool is superb for converting clip art and photo’s into vectors. The 2D and 3D tabbing and the final pass toolpath options are great for machining small components. Also the tape measure tool shouldn’t be taken for granted as we use this continuously throughout our designs, and not all design packages have this feature.”
Gary is extremely pleased with the way their Delcam software and Flexicam router work together. "The S2 is a fantastic machine. Not only is it extremely fast and gives a great surface finish but it works brilliantly with ArtCAM Insignia.” said Gary. He continued to say that, "At the moment we do a lot of 2D profiling but Insignia has a lot of potential that because we’ve been so busy haven’t had a chance to tap into yet… As our company grows I know that as and when the time comes our company can easily upgrade to Delcam’s more advanced product, ArtCAM Pro, so we won’t need to re-invest time and money into finding another alternative.”
In the next couple of weeks GTM Plastics will be launching their jewellery displays, their latest product range to hit the market, "yet another project that would not have been feasible without ArtCAM.”
Nick Bess, UK Sales Manager, Flexicam, "We are extremely happy that customers such as GTM Plastics can benefit from our partnership with Delcam and that it gives them the opportunity to expand their business. As well as being a cost effective software solution used across a multitude of applications, ArtCAM’s power and flexibility has allowed us to capitalise on our routers’ capabilities. This in turn has allowed GTM Plastics to purchase a turnkey package that far exceeded their expectations and budget.”
Dr. Edward Powell, ArtCAM Development Manager, "At Delcam we are continually developing ArtCAM to work as seamlessly as possible with Flexicam’s machines. As a result GTM Plastics, and indeed all of Flexicam’s customers, can concentrate on their business goals without worrying about the technology that assists them behind the scenes.”
To find out more about ArtCAM Insignia and its latest release, ArtCAM Insignia 2009 please go to: www.artcaminsignia.com.
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