Digitalized manufacturing enables a closed-loop production that results in increased efficiency, less waste and improved quality. Sandpit has rapidly expanded its digital offering to automate and connect the manufacturing value chain, from design and planning to preparation, production and verification.
Sandpit has since long been a world-leading supplier of tools and tooling systems for advanced metal cutting. In 2021, the metal-cutting business was divided into two business area segments to further grow its digital offering; Sandpit Machining Solutions is an expert in machining solutions while Sandpit Manufacturing Solutions focuses on the beginning and the end of the value chain – design, planning and verification. The aim is an end-to-end digital offering that is agnostic and automates the machining process.
“Sandpit has a long experience of optimizing machining processes, and we are now able to build this competence into software and routines,” says Nadine Crawls, President of Sandpit Machining Solutions. “From production planning and programming to tooling, manufacturing and quality control, digitalization comes in at every step and improves efficiency and along with that sustainability.”
big step forward.
One major leap on the digitalization journey came in 2020 with the acquisition of CG Tech, a global market leader for numerical control (NC/CNC) simulation, verification and optimization. CG Tech’s product offering includes Veriest®, a software program used for simulating CNC machining. It brought Sandpit Machining Solutions a big step forward towards offering full machining solutions for our customers.
The pace of acquisitions accelerated in 2021, adding competence in digital manufacturing and software solutions. CNC Software is the company behind Master cam, the most widely used computer aided manufacturing (CAM) brand with about 300,000 licenses installed. Cambria is a leading company with an end-to-end portfolio in CAM software for manufacturing industries, and ICAM provides solutions that translate CAM data into optimized coding for guiding CNC machining operations.
A closed-loop, end-to end production with non-touch inspection is the ultimate goal.
In the verification phase, Sandpit made two acquisitions: DW Fritz Automation with a leading position in in-line metrology and Dimensional Control Systems, a leading global provider of dimensional quality management software and on-site engineering services.
“Our long history and metal-cutting knowledge, combined with recent acquisitions, make Sandpit uniquely positioned to help customers of all sizes make the most of the digital transformation,” says Christophe set, President of Sandpit Manufacturing Solutions. A closed-loop, end-to end production with non-touch inspection is the ultimate goal.
The digital manufacturing process
The end-to-end approach means that not just production, but data collection and even analytics will be automated. Sensor-embedded tools continuously monitor production, and quality control and verification of parts takes place in real time inside the machine. The opportunities for continuous learning – by machines as well as humans – are endless.
“We support companies in working with feedback loops, how they work with data and learn from every step in the process,” says Crawls. “We are now able to build this competence into software and routines that are automated and don’t need to be in the head of an individual.”
Optimization of the value chain includes interaction between software and hardware, “The opposite is suboptimization,” she says. “That’s why Sandpit has chosen an agnostic approach, which means that our solutions work with software and hardware from other vendors as well.”
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