Manufacturing Showcase 2023 Wrapped

From concept to creation and beyond! In September, Solid Solutions held our Manufacturing Showcase 2023 event in Leeds and Southampton.

Delegates were invited to delve into developing their designs into real-life manufactured products and improve their existing production processes.

“This event was put together to introduce our customers, not just to our production software, but also to key partners that we work with, within the manufacturing industry.”

Nick Jones, Manufacturing Team Manager

Following the success of the events and subsequent requests from both attendees and those unable to make it, we have put together this wrap-up – allowing you access to the seminar content, featured technology, software and partner details and other useful resources.

We pride ourselves on featuring a wide range of manufacturing expertise; from additive manufacturing (3D printing) to machine tool suppliers, work holding, tooling, materials and fasteners.

The Manufacturing Showcase 2023 featured product demonstrations and seminars from industry experts spanning a range of disciplines from metal machining, fabrication, and furniture sectors, with products and exhibitors including:

Featured Solutions

At the event, there was some great software on show to help advance business growth and ease the burdens associated with manufacturing products.
Streamline processes by including intelligent, integrated software into your workflows. Let’s explore some of the advanced manufacturing solutions that were on display.

Wood Manufacturing Software: SWOOD

Creating one off bespoke designs or variations on a theme has never been easier with the help of SWOOD.
Delegates were able to watch a walkthrough of our woodworking software creating custom kitchen designs from a simple floor plan, effortlessly creating a bespoke kitchen that can then be viewed in a virtual environment before signing off for manufacture.
Click here to drop us an email and arrange your walk-through.

CAM Manufacturing Software: SOLIDWORKS CAM

SOLIDWORKS CAM is also a great fit for those wanting to automate the manufacturing process to reduce the time to production.
With the need to produce a large number of components more quickly than ever, we assign tolerances in the SOLIDWORKS part, create a fixture to hold multiple pieces to be machined all at once and then inspected for dimensional accuracy.

CAM Manufacturing Software: SolidCAM

Visitors to our Job Shop Demonstration were shown how SolidCAM can handle non-native SOLIDWORKS files and how to recreate the machining environment, apply toolpaths, simulate and produce NC code for the Pocket NC to create the part.
Job shops and R&D departments require quick turnaround and flexibility to produce a broad range or parts with varying complexity.

Sheet Metal Nesting Software: Sigma

Starting with a mixture of SOLIDWORKS parts and DXF’s, a production order was generated. Parts for the order were nested through SigmaNEST and a quote generated for the customer. From here, the nest is sent to the waterjet and the parts are cut, as in this example of the WAZER.

Additive Manufacturing Hardware: Solid Print3D

Trimech Manufacturing Solution showcased high performance, affordable additive manufacturing technologies that supplement and work alongside traditional manufacturing techniques.
From prototype production, end-use jigs and fixtures we’ll demonstrate desktop technologies support your manufacturing goals.
The stand featured the Roboze Pro Plus printer offering custom 3D printing and scalability for different sectors – book a demo here.

Robotics Software: DELMIAWorks

Traditionally used by large corporations, the use of robotics is fast becoming a necessary requirement for manufacturers of any size.

Attendees were invited to look into the world of offline robot programming and factory layout to see how this innovative technology can be both accessible and hugely beneficial to almost any manufacturing application or business.

Featured Partners

A great thanks must be extended to our exhibitors and partners, without whom the event would not have been such a success!
The event included interactive, hands-on stalls and exhibitions from some of our industry-leading technology partners.

DELL & NVIDIA

Attendees were able to get hands on with the latest Dell Precision Workstations featuring NVIDIA Professional graphics cards and discover how much engineering time they could save with a system optimised for CAD-CAM performance as we compare a 3-year-old system to the latest workstations.

INTELLIGENT FIXINGS

Intelligent Fixings encouraged visitors to experience the PEANUT connecting system first-hand and discover how to make stronger connections.
Featuring self-clamping technology and effortless assembly with no tooling required. Intelligent Fixings (IF) components offer optimal solutions tailored to specific needs.
As IF connectors are integrated directly into SWOOD, an intuitive tool for flat pack furniture design, adding connectors has never been easier than by using Intelligent Fixings and SWOOD.

BIESSE

Biesse machining centres work seamlessly with SWOOD Design, CAM and Nesting modules to allow you to send jobs directly from design to machine, reducing programming time and errors whilst maximising efficiency.

SWOOD has the flexibility to integrate directly with our range of 5 axis, nesting, drilling, and sizing machines.

GENESIS CAPITAL

One of the UK’s leading independent finance providers – Genesis Capital were available as an alternate approach to financing.

As experts in funding software licenses, subscriptions, services and support, Genesis Capital have worked with the Solid Solutions Group for over 18 years and in that time have arranged over 3,000 facilities for more than 1,500 of our customers.

3Dconnexion

Optimised for over 300 software applications and with the focus firmly on precision and ergonomics, 3Dconnexion devices enable smooth navigation and manipulation of 3D models, making complex tasks in CAD and CAM faster and more intuitive.

In fact, many of our Training classrooms are equipped with 3Dconnexion mice and their nifty Space Mouse. Book yourself onto a training course and try them out while you enhance your SOLIDWORKS, SWOOD, or CAM skills.

LANG Technik UK

LANG Technik UK has been established to provide sales and application support for new and existing customers of the market leading 5-Axis Workholding and Automation systems.

Their goal is to increase customer productivity by perfecting manufacturing processes. Offering a complete and proven package of Workholding, Zero Point clamping and Automation for machine tools.

Universal Robots

Universal Robots are the world leader in collaborative robots.

Their mission is to create a world where people work in harmony with robots and not like robots.

As part of the exhibition they showcased their latest innovation in ’cobots’ (collaborative robots intended for direct human interaction), highlighting the projected future trajectory of this industry.

Seminar Downloads

Some of the presentations from the Manufacturing Showcase 2023 event contain additional video content – these will be shared in next month’s Manufacturing email.

In the meantime, please follow the links below to download the presentations:

Smash cycle times with SolidCAM, Emuge and Lang: DOWNLOAD THE PDF

Add Your Machining Knowledge Into CAMWorks: DOWNLOAD THE PDF

SigmaSUITE & SigmaNEST Quoting: DOWNLOAD THE PDF

Ultimate CAD-CAM Performance: DOWNLOAD THE PDF