Lantek increases the agility and the flexibility of 3D profiles designing and cutting

Lantek has announced the release of its new family of solutions Lantek Flex3d, for 3D sheet parts design, unfold and tubes and profiles cutting.

Lantek Flex3d has 8 specific modules in order to bend and unfold, work with tubes or profiles, execute designing activities, fully integrated with the programs SolidWorks ®, Solid Edge ®, Autodesk Inventor ®, Catia ® , ProEngineer®, and also programming of automation 5 axis machines. Flex3d has been optimised to offer an efficient tool with a modern design, able to meet the needs of the company from the structure fabrication sector.

Lantek has used all the experience and know-how in design systems and programming machines for sheet metal cutting, punching and bending machines by applying it for the tubes cutting sector regardless of the different type of machine: sawing, drilling, punching, tapping, oxycut and plasma cutting.

This range of solutions has been optimised from a technical point of view as well as a functional one. This has allowed increased productivity of profile cutting machines and creating 3D designs in an easy and intuitive way. It provides the ability to check the real result of the profile cut in the machine.

Lantek Flex3d SteelWork: Easy and flexible design in 3D
There are new remarkable improvements in the solutions of Lantek Flex3d family. However, this new module, Lantek Flex3d SteelWork, is one of the modules with most improvements. This application, specific for standard profiles designing and cutting (I, U, L, T, H, round or square tube…) offers to user a real vision of the result in a dynamic, intuitive and easy way. So, the user can optimise the job.

Lantek Flex3d SteelWork offers a parametric system, allowing the user to change the values of any of the operations made previously. It also includes the possibility of changing the initial parameters of each profile. Moreover, Lantek Flex3d SteelWork is prepared for the machine’s movement, the profiles or tubes movement and the machining operations of every tool. It is also prepared for program creation for the numerical control and to download directly to the machine (CNC, DSTV, DSTV+ or CAM) and adapt the cutting information to every machine characteristic.

Lantek Flex3d SteelWork is an independent product. It does not require any additional software and it is fully integrated with CAD/CAM Lantek Expert and ERP Lantek Integra. It simplifies the management of sales process, warehouses/inventory, batches and serial number to a complete tracking management.

Another remarkable improvement comes from the option to import the data generated by the main systems of structures design; to import DSTV, SAT, CAM and XML files and to import geometry and cutting operations. And always offering the ability to modify in a simple and easy way. Lantek Flex3d SteelWork can easily import the various properties of each file such as the physical properties, the material type and the quantity and simplify the cutting preparation.

As regards designing options and basic operations of drilling and sawing, Lantek Flex3d SteelWork incorporates innovations to create cutting operations from free geometries drawn with the 2D module or obtained from a DXF importation. It also delimits, calculates the profiles or any operations measures and allows the user to apply multiple operations.

Furthemore, the profiles cutting processes have been improved in order to optimise the profile and the CNC generation for the machine. Now it is possible to optimise in an automatic way from the warehouses or by calculating the needs of supply. Different options of nesting, remnants, manual, semi-automatic and automatic lead-in/lead-out management, manual modification of cutting vectors or the detection and control of collisions with the possibility of being modified manually have been also improved. It is also easy to use and find the information.

Totally interactive simulation
With reference to profiles cutting simulation, Lantek Flex3d SteelWork not only makes the representation of the profile and simulate all the operations and tools easier, but it provides a representation of cutting path. It provides the ability to identify the collisions and stop automatically the simulation process to correct the path. Moreover, the user can also make zoom, movements, rotations and different axis positioning on the profile while viewing the simulation.