Cimatron North America – Innovative Solutions for Manufacturing
“Cimatron helps us get more jobs because of how quickly and accurately we can get things milled.”
The Challenge
- Competing with overseas manufacturers and larger tool shops
Providing customers with accurate, high-quality products at competitive prices
The Solutions
Cam Tool & Engineering relies on CimatronE for all mold design, NC, and electrode production needs.
The Results
Working with the Cimatron solution from quoting to delivery provides Cam Tool the ability to improve accuracy, reduce delivery times, and cut costs.
Craig Mog is a third generation tool maker; both his grandfather and father were tool shop owners. After almost a decade of working at the tool shop his father co-owned, Craig Mog first encountered CNC, and he instantly knew this was the direction he wanted to pursue. “The more I learned, the more I realized that these technologies were the future of the tooling industry,” says Mog.
In 2000, Mog started his own shop with a mission to adopt new tooling processes and technologies. His father joined shortly after, and today the two are owners of Cam Tool & Engineering, serving die-casters and plastic injection molders in a variety of industries.
The company’s philosophy combines a value-based business model with technological innovation. With fast-growing competition from overseas manufacturing, Mog knew the keys to success would be quality and speed of delivery. “Our customers know they can trust us to meet delivery times and provide high-quality products at competitive prices,” explains Mog and adds: “a good portion of our new business comes from customer referrals.”
To meet these requirements, Mog looked to partner with technology providers that would give the company a competitive edge. “We have developed close relationships with our equipment vendor Makino, and we rely on Cimatron for all our software needs.”
Working with Cimatron started paying off quickly, says Mog. “We were having difficulty milling a project using our old software, so we turned to Cimatron for help. Having the accurate NC allows us to make tools that require minimum to no polishing and fitting, which drastically reduces job times. We started getting more jobs because of how quickly and accurately we could get things done.”
Mog further describes how “realizing the new capabilities we have with Cimatron has enabled us to make our process more efficient. We had one job which prior to using Cimatron required 90% burning. The second time we got the job we were already on Cimatron, and we didn’t use any electrodes—everything was cut. The ability to cut a job instead of burning it is a tremendous time and cost saving.”
According to Mog, similar process improvements have been realized on the design side: “A project that took us 177 hours prior to using Cimatron, took us about 25 hours with Cimatron Mold Design. These savings translate to faster delivery times that give us an advantage over overseas manufacturers.”
Mog sees a big benefit in the ability to streamline the entire process, which he refers to as “Screen to Machine”: “Cimatron allows us to read our customers’ files and do the design, NC, and electrodes all within the same software, so there is nothing lost in translation,” explains Mog. “This makes the entire process extremely efficient and cost effective.”
While Mog’s initial plan was to stick to die-cast tools and plastic injection molds, working with Cimatron has helped CAM Tool & Engineering expand into new areas. “Our capabilities have been greatly enhanced since we started using Cimatron,” explains Mog. “We are now able to offer additional products such as foam molds, overmolds, and airfoil wax tooling.”
Looking back at the five years since starting the company, Mog reflects: “When we started the company five years ago, we had to start from scratch. We now have the knowledge, the accuracy, and the efficiency to succeed in this increasingly competitive industry. We owe much of our success to the people we have worked with and learned from, and Cimatron has been a big part of it.”