Dramatic design time reduction

PROCEMEC was founded in 1985 when Mexico City was devastated by the largest earthquake in the cities history. With an opportunity of a new start, three good friends named Jorge Juarez, Manuel Garcia and Melchor Hernandez decided to start their own business. Initially purchasing 2 Komatsu power presses and renting 5 more, the company started stamping electrical terminals, electrical supports and small electrical parts.

With over 15 years experience between the owners in the design and construction of progressive dies and press tools, Procemec’s reputation quickly grew beyond their traditional market and after expansion in 1988 they designed and manufactured their first progressive tool for a refrigerator compressor cover for the appliance industry.  After the success of the initial suite of tools, Procemec found more opportunities outside of the traditional electronic industry and now design and manufacture tools for the automotive, appliance, oil and food industries.

In 2005, Procemec reviewed the traditional CAD/CAM software for design and manufacture but were looking for software more focused to the stamping industry. “Progression tools are often extremely challenging to design and are becoming increasingly sophisticated” claims Manual Garcia. “The complexity and variety of our customer files meant we had to have a solution that could read data formats from any source such as CATIA, UGS, Pro E, STEP and SAT and provide the flexibility to react to customer demands.”

“We evaluated VISI Modelling and VISI Progress and were quickly impressed with the clean interface and powerful hybrid solids & surface modelling. Because VISI is fully integrated with all other design and manufacturing modules,” notes Garcia, “we can easily move from a 3D part to a solid die in one environment. That means everyone is working on the same, most up to date electronic data including engineering changes.”

VISI-Progress has an important role at Procemec - The system offers different possibilities for the definition of the neutral fibre and the step by step development of the blank. The software has shown itself to be a great aid for the designer when defining the strip design. The shearing and bending stress, the material waste automatically created by the system provides important information for the designer. Once the strip design is complete, the shearing and bending stages can be simulated to prove the function of the tool.

The tool is constructed with the help of 3D standard library components. 2D views and sections are automatically generated from the 3D tool design, while Assembly Manager is used to generate the bill of materials for ordering.

Procemec now operate separate design, production and engineering / construction departments. The design department has 5 designers with over 39 years experience in progressive die and press toll design. The engineering department has 15 employees operating Dyna Mechtronics DM4322 vertical machining centers with a 1075mm (X), 300mm (Y) and 1075mm (Z) machining envelope and Sodic A320D Wire EDM machines with a 350mm (X), 250mm (Y) and 200mm (Z) cutting envelope producing up to 70 tools per year ranging from 10 to 200 tonnes.

The Production department has 34 employees running 9 power presses producing in excess of 3 million parts per year. In order to fulfill growing orders, Procemec often review and ship over 20,000 parts in a single day.

Manual Garcia, Stock holder and Co Founder concludes, ”VISI has become an invaluable part of our operations; I am convinced one of our best decisions was to invest in VISI Products. Since its introduction, we have reduced our design time by 40%, improved our quality and opened up new markets.”

Currently, with the help of VISI Series Mexico, Procemec are evaluating VISI Machining 3D and Wire EDM with the aim of moving the off-line machining to the shop floor.

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