A 3D software package that can streamline the entire production process, from design to “construction”. These requirements have driven 2XL, a well-known panel distributor and processor based in Castel Mella, few kilometers away from Brescia, to rely on the experience of TopSolid, the French corporation specializing in software for industrial operations. Their requirements were solved through a collaboration that, according to Andrea Beltrami and Davide Bozza, respectively ceo and design engineer, has allowed the company to save time and money by optimizing time and resources in all process stages. And for TopSolid, as underlined by Andrea Piccinelli, product manager of the Italian subsidiary, this was huge satisfaction.
Davide Bozza, 2XL
“TopSolid provided us with innovative and very accurate software that empowers us to design and produce a piece of furniture, a kitchen set or a cabinet from scratch”, Davide Bozza said. “With this tool, our work has become much faster and more efficient, and we have achieved a significant reduction of “idle time”. While the design phase was more “cumbersome” in the past, because we had to draw the product, for instance with 2D CAD, now with the TopSolid softwaer we can view the product directly in 3D and send a sketch to the customer, who can check the “real” product rather than a flat drawing. This is a huge benefit we have seen since installing the new software: from the moment our customers can see a photorealistic project, it has become easier to understand their requirements.”
Time saving is the key…
“Exactly. As mentioned, on one hand – Davide Bozza continued – we save time during design, which has been largely simplified by a personal library that stores all the executed operations, the designed structures, namely all the foundations to create our products; on the other, we saved time also in the execution phase, as it streamlines job management. To give a physical measure, we can say we have slashed cycle time by 75 percent; it took four hours before, now one is enough.”
Andrea Piccinelli, TopSolid
“Being selected as a supplier by a leader like 2XL – added Andrea Piccinelli, product manager at TopSolid Italia – is not only exciting, but also a big challenge for us. We have not released any detail. As mentioned, we have performed a compatibility analysis, as 2XL is a well-organized company, in business for 50 years and equipped with an extensive fleet of machines, including both next-generation and more “classical” machines. For this reason, our analysis was focused on the possibility to adapt software to all of their machines. After checking, we moved on to testing, where our engineer performed physical tests on the machines to see how they behaved, how they reacted, how they milled, how they drilled. We carried out accurate analysis and tuned up all post-processors, adapting the software to the machines. At that point, once we got positive feedback from 2XL, we moved on with the installation.”
While woodworking machines were very “physical” in the past and their core element was the blade, for instance, now the real core is more and more often the software. What does it mean to make innovation in the software industry?
“Let me say that, for us – Andrea Piccinelli said – a software, to be “eligible” for adoption, must offer solid warranties for its development. Every year, we release a new version based on the requests of customers, who use our solutions stretching them to the limit to achieve the best possible results.
To do this, TopSolid carries out a screening process, collects feedback from all over the world, and based on this, delivers regular upgrades and a new annual version to meet the requirements coming from the market. Innovating means continuing to work on the product, trying to understand how to improve it, year after year, application after application.
The market keeps evolving, needs change and software must keep up, adding new features and improving the existing ones.
It is also very important to provide customers with a comprehensive database (new materials, parametric hardware), to speed up the step-in phase as much as possible. This is surely hard work in terms of time and effort, but it is highly appreciated and allows us to offer a full-featured product to meet all requirements.
Right now, we are distributing the new version 6-22 to our customers.”
Andrea Beltrami, 2XL
What are the goals in the near future for 2XL?
“Our goal is always the same: to be able to fully satisfy our customers, providing perfect products with a precise, fast and efficient service, both as panels and as processing”, said Andrea Beltrami, 2XL CEO. “We want to continue to grow and that is why, also thanks to the incentives for Industry 4.0, we have ordered new machines, two panel saws, an edge banding machine, a two-head drilling machine and an additional press to plate the laminate of 4,200. We want to maintain our 16 thousand square meter warehouse by increasing our leading products. In recent months we have worked with the great giants of the furniture. Today, in addition to having the Atelier brand, we are official Cleaf, Swiss Crono dealers and we are able to find and work any material, be it raw, ennobled and laminated. We must admit that working with the great giants of the sector is a great satisfaction and a reason that pushes us to look to the future with the desire to continue to increase our presence on the market…“.
In a commercial that was aired towards the end of the past millennium, power is nothing without control. In the Industry 4.0 age, we can rephrase it as “a machine is nothing without good software.”
by Francesco Inverso
