Members 
United Kingdom
Sheet Metal Solutions
Sheet Metal Solutions
The new version, which is fruit of requirements detected and conveyed to us by our own clients, includes over one hundred improvements and updates, some of them especially innovative such as collision prevention in the cutting process or a new algorithm to destroy scrap efficiently while cutting tubes.
The situation brought about by COVID-19 has highlighted, among companies, the importance of being able to use software remotely. With this in mind, and echoing this demand, the 2020 software version from Lantek includes a major breakthrough in the support, installation and configuration of machines without necessarily requiring travel and allows different configurations so that the technical teams, for programming production or drawing up budgets, can work remotely.
THE NEW SOLUTIONS FROM LANTEK
Lantek Expert: safety in cutting and automation
The update of the program suite for cutting and punching sheet metal, Lantek Expert, allows our clients to maximize the productivity and efficiency of their machines. Specifically, with this new version of its accredited CAD-CAM 2D software, Lantek Expert, Lantek provides a total of 34 new features.
One of the most notable innovations from Lantek Expert is that it allows an algorithm that prevents collisions during the machining process of cutting machines to be run, through the automatic addition of fasteners or micro-cuts to those holes or parts that, after being cut, may cause a collision between themselves and the cutting head.
The 2020 version also improves the usability of all the functions related with the fasteners, focusing on two aspects: improvement in the precision of the final width of these elements and accurate simulation, in real time, when assigning them manually. For contours that we don’t want to fasten to the sheet metal, Lantek offers the possibility of scrapping them using a new zig-zag technique ensuring that the nuggets fall efficiently.
The nesting process is another of the aspects that Lantek has focused on for its new version, in an aim to improve production efficiency. The quantity of scrap produced by nesting is reduced, allowing a significant increase in profit for each part manufactured.
The final new element incorporated in Lantek Expert are features to help in production management in the workshop, through the automatic marking (in cutting machines) of the scrap produced by the software, making it easier to identify. It is possible to mark both the internal identifiers as well as the measurements or the weight of the scraps.
Lantek Flex3d optimizes the cutting of tubes to avoid collisions
The tube cutting market is growing exponentially thanks to the fact that new machinery manufacturers are increasingly opting for this type of cutting machines and the current machinery is evolving with new devices and systems that improve efficiency and automate the cutting of tubes in series.
The new version of Lantek Flex3d incorporates a new algorithm that allows the scrap produced when cutting holes, which is the cause of numerous collisions with the machine head as well as possible damage when it falls onto the supports, to be destroyed. Equally, a new head management algorithm allows contours that have previously been cut to be dodged (again, to avoid collisions) as well as minimizing machine times by avoiding unnecessary journeys up and down for the head.
This double solution avoids over 80% of current machine downtime caused by undesired collisions.
Additionally, to cover the new devices that automate the loading and unloading of parts, the Lantek Flex3d V40 systems incorporate an automated management of supports and unloading trays allowing the machine to work fully autonomously.
This new management of supports, as well as avoiding collisions with the supports, allows for the optimization of parts of the material that would previously have been considered scrap, obtaining improvements in the optimization of bars of over 5%.
Lantek Integra & MES
As for Lantek Integra, the new 2020 version incorporates significant interface improvements in order to meet the current design standards in applications. This new aspect offers better usage and an improved visual experience that includes changes in graphics and navigation mechanisms, leading to better efficiency in users’ daily tasks. Also, the advanced statistics panel of the commercial function has been enabled (Lantek Customer Analytics).
In terms of Lantek MES, the improvements are aimed at continuing to provide production managers with control mechanisms for the implementation of workshop operations. Subsequently, Lantek MES Manager includes a new extension, Lantek MES Monitoring, the objective of which is to view, in the form of graphs and in real time, the sequence of operations at each work center. It offers different Gantt display options, as well as different mechanisms that enable operations to be searched for and skipped through according to different criteria. The version also enables the advanced manufacturing statistics panel (Lantek Manufacturing Analytics).
