Bystronic Inc.
Hauppauge, N.Y.
bystronic.com

Rioux Vision produces 100 workstations per week immediately after installing a Bystronic laser-cutting system, press brake and software.

Rioux Vision's self-fixturing parts are no longer the welding cell's greatest challenge because the synchronized laser and press brake produce accurate parts.

Rioux Vision, Elgin, S.C., opened in 1997 to provide wireless, portable PC workstations to the healthcare industry. Initially, the company outsourced production. But turnaround times were long, part tolerance varied, and making design modifications was expensive and challenging. Founder and CEO Shawn Rioux and his team felt they had to enhance their competitive advantage, so they brought production in-house through the purchase of equipment from Bystronic Inc.

Once the Bystar 3015, 4.0-kW laser-cutting system with rotary axis, Beyeler PR 40-ton press brake and Bysoft software with the Bybendpart module were installed, and sufficient raw material and personnel were in place, Rioux began manufacturing 100 units per week.

Rioux's workstations use self-fixturing parts — parts specially designed and bent so they do not require elaborate alignment or holding. If edges do not join tightly, the robotic welder misses the center of the weld seam or must weld heavily in order to fuse the gap. The company feels clean welds are important, which makes part accuracy or tolerances critical. Rioux is able to produce distortion-free parts with the aid of its Bystronic press brake, laser-cutting system and software.

Creating distortion-free parts on the press brake requires knowing the position of laser-processed cut-outs relative to the bend lines. For this reason, Ray Reckelhoff, Rioux's vice president of engineering, committed to synchronizing the laser and press brake operations. He knew that building high accuracy into a part and having quick turnarounds required the laser and the press brake work together. "This can only be accomplished," he says, "through an integrated software package." With Bysoft software with Bybendpart, the laser and press brake can interface, producing three improvements.

First, parts generated by the press brake are " exceptionally consistent and accurate. Seams are tight, so welding and grinding are minimized," says Reckelhoff.

Second, because the software enables the single importing of CAD or .dxf files, programming time is reduced. Rioux uses 200 to 300 part drawings but has a small engineering staff that makes frequent design modifications, so having the software was essential for streamlining the process chain. With Bysoft's offline programming capability, operators do not have to program machine-side, saving production time by eliminating stoppages.

Third, the software helps with on-the-fly or last-minute design modifications. In the past, Reckelhoff had two options —send drawings to a tooling company, which selected the tooling, or select the tooling from a catalog — which were time-consuming and costly. "Now, I just load the tool into Bysoft with Bybendpart and run the part through the program," he says. The right tooling appears on the screen.

Now, when design changes come in at 9 a.m., the programming, cutting and bending for the new part are completed in less than an hour, and the product is completed by 2 p.m. the same day.