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Until recently the company used a stepper motor control system, CAD/CAM system and operator interface designed by themselves.
The performance of this configuration was falling behind the requirements of the educational institutions. Additionally their
system was somewhat difficult to support worldwide as it used outdated EPROM based technology.
The company looked for a company with both the expertise and willingness to design a custom,
high performance and easily maintained complete machine controller system, they found NEE on the Internet.
In order to initially demonstrate the superiority of our controllers NEE Controls Ltd connected a standard
NEE AMC-E stepper motor machine controller to one of the companies machines.
We were able to demonstrate an immediate 300% performance improvement.
The companies new control system had to be compatible with their existing CAD software and operator interface. NEE
Controls worked closely with the companies engineers designing and developing the complete control system as specified.
This also resulted in significant production cost savings for the company as machine build time was reduced and system
wiring considerably simplified.
NEE Controls suggested to the company that their miling machine should use 'microstepping' stepper drives. Adding these further
improved machine performance and reliability, improved the machined part quality, and made the machine motion far smoother and quieter.
During development tests our control system proved too fast for the data fed to it by the companies CAD/CAM photo engraving software, slowing machine
execution. NEE assisted the companies engineers in improving the performance of their software so that the full benefits of the new system
performance could be realized.
Maximum milling machine speed has not been significantly increased. The additional productivity is achieved by operating the machine at the optimum
milling speed wherever possible, unnecessary slow downs have been removed. The previous control system reduced the milling speeds due to
limitations in the controller and the control algorithms.
The companies new machine range is 400% more productive even when using conservative machine
controller setup parameters. Additionally the machine controller has more features, and is far easier and less expensive to support
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