Manage Stamping Die at Your Fingertips

Last month, we have organised a few workshops for the sheet metal industry, sharing our knowledge in tooling design.

Tooling is one of the key manufacturing processes. By managing the tooling process well, one will be able to improve the product time-to-market and reduce the scrap rate as well as production cost. In the 3-hour session, we talked about the part analysis and unfolding process, with a focus on the integration of blank development with tooling design.

By attending this workshop, the participants have had the opportunity to experience the fast and accurate blank shape generation through a hands-on session. They were encouraged to bring along the CAD files they were working on, so that they would have a better understanding on how to unfold the formed part in just a minute, and bring the blank size of their part back.

To register your interest in a similar event, you may reach us at marketing@cadcam.com.my or visit our website for more information on the upcoming workshops and events.

SEAM 2016 - Symposium and Exhibition on Additive Manufacturing 2016

Organised by the Advanced Materials Research Centre (AMREC), SIRIM Berhad, the Symposium and Exhibition on Additive Manufacturing (SEAM) 2016 will be held at The Light Hotel in Penang from 26^th July (Tuesday) to 27^th July 2016 (Wednesday).

SEAM 2016 is a symposium followed by a full-day workshop on the second day, focusing on the latest technology of powder metallurgy, additive manufacturing. There will be authoritative experts, industry leaders, and participants from the academia, sharing their knowledge on additive manufacturing industry development, technology management and the operation during production process. Also, the symposium will discuss about areas such as processing and design, materials for additive manufacturing, additive manufacturing technologies, applications and industries, bioprinting and tissue engineering.

During this event, we are proud to present a topic on “The Auxiliary of Additive Manufacturing”, in which we will touch on how 3D scanning technologies and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) can complement additive manufacturing. These elements are crucial in a complete product development which could bring out the best in additive manufacturing technology.

For more information, please contact us at marketing@cadcam.com.my, or visit SEAM 2016 official website.

What Makes A Great Engineer?

Do you have any engineers in mind that you always look up to? Who is your all-time favourite? Thomas Edison? Nikola Tesla? Henry Ford? Have you got what it takes to be a great engineer? 

To be successful in the field of engineering, here are some of the common traits and similarities great engineers shared and the skills and personalities that are required of you. 

Cheers, to all the great engineers out there, and the soon-to-be engineers.

Techne@PSDC - 3D Scanning Technology and Applications

In an earlier session of Techne@PSDC, a series of technical talks and lectures organised by PSDC, we are pleased to be invited to share our knowledge on 3D scanning technology with the participants. The event was very well responded with some 40 participants joining us to explore the technology and its applications in the industry.

In the two-and-a-half-hour session, we shared about different types of 3D scanners and how 3D scanning technology can help throughout front line operations and pre-production processes. We also further discussed with the audience on how the technology allows one to have better control in product design, production engineering, quality check on ordered components, and product inspection. Of all its major applications – some of which has revolutionised the product development process – product inspection and reverse engineering are among the most common use of 3D scanning technology.

We had a demo session at the end of our presentation showing the audience how the system, a combination of scanner and software, is employed to capture and reuse the 3D information. The whole process, including remodelling a design of the size and range of complexity of a computer mouse, was completed within twenty minutes.

With the intelligent feature recognition of the system, it allows the user to have good control over the quality of a model created through the remodelling process. The crowd was also very impressed with the ease of use of the system.

It was indeed a very fruitful day for us, sharing with an engaging audience the valuable practical information and insights of this technology.

Click HERE to experience the event through photos.

Smart Manufacturing – Getting It Right

On May 24, 2016 (Tuesday), 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) will be organising the FMM ICT Conference 2016 on “Enhancing Manufacturing Competitiveness Globally with Cloud Computing” at the Royale Chulan Damansara Hotel. Aiming to create greater awareness among Malaysian manufacturers on the latest manufacturing and ICT Technology, as well as assist Malaysian manufacturers, especially SMIs, to learn to leverage on ICT to improve their business performance.

In this conference, we will be presenting a session on “Smart Manufacturing – Getting It Right” - an overview of how Internet of Things (IoT) is transforming manufacturing. Through Next-Gen Manufacturing System and Cyber Physical System, we will talk about interconnected system that is capable of controlling physical entities, and also system that can make automated and smart decisions, or remote visualization, monitoring, control and alerts.

On top of that, we will be exhibiting our solutions offerings – total solutions which cover Product Design and Development, 3D Printing, Reverse Engineering, Product Inspection, and e-Manufacturing. Being the leading and most established CAD, CAM, and CAE solutions provider in Malaysia, IME has been serving the industries and educational institutions for over 36 years. Come visit us to learn about digital twin – a cyber physical model that enables you to control your equipment digitally or remotely no matter where it is.

Registration will be closed on May 17, 2016 (Tuesday). Seats are limited to 200 registrations and on a first-come, first-served basis. REGISTER NOW.

For more information, please contact us at marketing@cadcam.com.my, or visit FMM website.

Techne@PSDC - 3D Scanning Technology and Applications

You’re Cordially Invited to Techné@PSDC!

Starting this month, Penang Skills Development Centre (PSDC) is organising a series of technical talks and lectures at Techné@PSDC, aiming to inspire innovation through knowledge sharing by experts in the Engineering field.

In this series of events organized by PSDC, we are pleased to be sharing our knowledge of 3D scanning technology and its application on May 18, 2016 (Wednesday), from 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. - SAVE THE DATE 

We have been working with PSDC through various initiatives for more than 10 years. In year 2014, we have brought our partnership to a new level by setting up Rapid Model Development Lab in their centre - a one-stop product design and development centre.

Registration will be closed on May 11, 2016 (Wednesday). Seats are strictly limited to the first 30 registrations,

GRAB YOUR SEAT now!

MoU Signed with Dassault Systèmes and ITC to Empower Next Generation of Engineers in Cambodia

Phnom Penh, CAMBODIA — April 25, 2016 — A strategic partnership was formed between Dassault Systèmes, Institute of Technology Cambodia (ITC) and IME Trading Sdn Bhd (IME) today to transform engineering learning experiences and skill development for students in Cambodia. The objective of this partnership is to build a sustainable pipeline of engineering talents with high quality innovative education system.

With this partnership, ITC will set up a center of excellence focusing on providing courses on digital design, electrical design, construction industry and education practices based on Dassault Systèmes SOLIDWORKS curriculum programmes. IME will support the initiative by providing training for the lecturers as well as relevant hands-on experience for an all-rounded engineering education. The training will also include exposure to project management opportunities to increase students’ industry relevance and ultimately, help to increase employability.

“We believe education forms the bedrock of any economy and we are delighted to partner with ITC for Cambodia. This partnership is a reflection of our commitment to engineering education in Cambodia by providing access to tools and activities that are recognized by industries around the world,” said Benjamin Tan, Director of Professional Channel, AP South, Dassault Systèmes.

Left to right: Mr Teoh Jia Yuan (Director of IME Trading), Dr Om Romny (Director General of ITC), Mr Benjamin Tan (Director of Professional Channel, AP South, Dassault Systèmes)

Through this partnership, teachers and students at ITC will be offered a specialized suite of tools for engineering design, documentation, simulation and sustainable design in one easy-to-learn software package. In addition, students will have access to 3D CAD, simulation, product data management, technical communication and electrical design tools for hands-on product design training.

“There is always this gap between education and industry, where education fails to meet the demand of fast changing industrial demands. By partnering Dassault Systèmes, we hope to narrow the gap between classroom and actual workplace by integrating digital technologies such as virtual environment learning on real industrial projects. Through such programmes, students will be able to differentiate themselves with the right skillsets and the relevant industry experience,” said Dr Om Romny, Director General of ITC.

“We are delighted to be part of this ambitious partnership. With 36 years in the industry and the long-term academia partnership with Dassault Systemes, we are confident in leading the teachers and students through the intellectual rigor that is required to fully harness the potential in the classroom and compete in the marketplace,” said Julia Wee, CEO of IME.

How Flow Simulation Can Help in Plant, Process, Construction & HVAC Project?

The growing global appetite for energy requires us to focus more on energy efficiency. Energy saving and climate control have become the hot topics now.

For Plant, Process and Construction Industry, their everyday challenges are chasing project deadlines while designing HVAC system such as ventilation, heat distribution, and airflow patterns that meet the project requirements.

So, how can Flow Simulation or what we technically call Computational Flow Dynamics (CFD) help? CFD allows you to model a wide range of physical phenomena to predict airflow and temperature distribution inside and around the building. In addition, it helps in simulating contaminant dispersion so that one can find ways to minimize the dispersion and improve human comfort level.

Design is an iterative process as engineers continuously modify the design until it meets acceptance criteria defined by safety, cost, performance, convenience, and shape. To optimize the process, CFD enables the automation of these iterations and helps engineers to find the best design earlier.

With the help of CFD, you will be able to vary a set of selected variable parameters, such as model dimensions, boundary condition parameters, and initial mesh settings, so as to analyze the flow parameters that you want to study.

The study will then compare the results of different scenarios in an intuitive format so you can find the best alternative.

To know more, do not miss out our upcoming hands-on training. Join us to further discuss and explore with other engineers from the same industry in a 4-hour-session that could change the way you design.

>> REGISTER HERE

How to Improve Technical Communication Effectiveness?

Technical communications challenges are not limited to engineering or technical documentation alone, but also impact other departments across the enterprise in many different ways. Some of the very common concerns shared by different departments are, for example:

“We shouldn’t be spending so much time on non-engineering tasks.” – Engineering Department

“It’s hard to understand these drawings and work instructions.” – Manufacturing Department

“Our suppliers have difficulties in interpreting our design and quoting us the price.” – Procurement

“We have to always rely on engineers to provide us with good graphics for us to proceed with designing the collaterals.” – Marketing

How can these issues be addressed? Are there any solutions that we can use to improve the communication effectiveness?

The answer lies in integration. Having an integrated system in place that enables designs to move seamlessly back and forth between design and manufacturing facilitates a collaborative environment for your engineers. Through the integration of technical communications with product design (CAD) software – be it in technical content publishing, video generation, quality control & inspection or photorealistic 3D rendering – it eliminates the need for data translation and allows design changes even in the later stage of the product development cycle, yet still be able to ensure the timeliness of product delivery.

For this, SOLIDWORKS provides a full range of technical communications and product visualization tools such as: 

SOLIDWORKS Technical Communications Solutions

• SOLIDWORKS MBD (Model Based Definition)

Instead of using traditional 2D drawings, this integrated drawing-less manufacturing solution guides the manufacturing process directly in 3D. It defines, organizes, and publishes 3D PMI (Product Manufacturing Information) such as dimensions, tolerances, surface finish, notes, and other annotations in industry standard file formats. It helps designers or engineers to communicate their design intent better to others especially on the design details. As a result, it manages to streamline production, cut cycle time, reduce manufacturing errors and support industry standards such as Military-Standard-31000A, ASME Y14.41, ISO 16792, and DIN ISO 16792.

• SOLIDWORKS Composer

It provides you with the tools to prepare technical communication deliverables in parallel with product development — so your documentation keeps up with your design changes and is ready with your product. It also allows you to reuse 3D design data to rapidly create highly detailed 2D or 3D graphics or even 3D animations for your assembly instructions, product manuals, training material and marketing collateral for interactive trainings or marketing presentations. 

• SOLIDWORKS Inspection

It helps you to streamline the creation of inspection documents by leveraging your existing 2D legacy data, regardless of file type – SOLIDWORKS files, PDFs, or TIFFs. QA engineers will then be able to automate their usually manual and tedious process, and quickly create ballooned inspection drawings and inspection sheets for the First Article Inspection (FAI). It helps drastically reduce the time needed to generate inspection reports yet avoid errors and inconsistencies traditionally associated with manual data input.

SOLIDWORKS Product Visualization Solutions

• SOLIDWORKS Visualize

This new product (formerly known as Bunkspeed) provides a suite of standalone software tools that combine industry-leading rendering capabilities with design-oriented features and workflows that enable easy and fast creation of visual content. 

You may import files of various formats from SOLIDWORKS or other 3D CAD system to create compelling scenes and ultimately the most realistic content possible. It can produce static images, animations and web ready content with stunning graphics effect in shortest time, helping organizations to communicate within company and external parties especially nontechnical users.


To understand more about the capabilities of these solutions, don’t miss the chance to explore with us and other engineers who share the same concerns on how these tools may help in improving the technical communication effectiveness in your company.

REGISTER HERE and join us in the exclusive hands-on workshop "Go Beyond 2D Drawing for Effective Communication” on 19th April 2016 (Tuesday)!

Thank You for an Amazing 2015!

Albeit a year full of changes and challenges, 2015 had been amazing for us. Major highlight last year was our 35^th anniversary celebration where we had a year-long of celebration and ended with a Gala.

Being recognised this year by SME100 as one of the Fast Moving companies is also the icing on the cake! This award further justifies the team's effort in striving to provide the best solution to the industry in leveraging technology to achieve greater business growth.

We have all this to thank to our customers and supporters, thank you for being part of our 2015 – let’s go through some of our favourite moments:

IME’s 35th Anniversary

IME is 35 years old! As an appreciation to our customers and partners, the ASEAN Economic Forum and Networking Gala themed “Partnering for Success” was organised early this year.

All IMEzens are one big family, and we work as one team with one goal. The whole team including the sales, marketing, accounts, hr, admin, and technical came together in organising the programmes for this event to ensure that we bring the best experience and memories for the night.

We are pleased to have organised the ASEAN Economic Forum and appreciate the support we received from the panelists: Datuk Phang Ah Tong, deputy CEO of Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA), Mr. Jayant Menon, Lead Economist of Asian Development Bank (ADB), Dr. Yeah Kim Leng, Business School Dean of Malaysian University of Science and Technology (M.U.S.T) and VP of Malaysian Economic Association (MEA), and Mr. Ong Chee Tat from SME Association of Malaysia.

Catch snippets of the event including key takeaways, photos and video HERE.

SME100 Awards 2015 - IME Technology Sdn Bhd

Being awarded as one of the Top 100 Fast Moving Companies under SME100 Awards 2015 is definitely the icing on the cake for 2015. It serves as a great recognition for the hard work all of us had put in over the past years. 

SME100 Awards identify and recognise Asia’s fast moving small and medium enterprises with a focus on growth and resilience. Winning the award definitely encouraged all of us to strive to achieve greater heights next year.

SOLIDWORKS Innovation Day

“Keep a good head and always carry a light bulb.” - Bob Dylan

We were amazed by the number of lightbulb moments we had during IME’s SOLIDWORKS Innovation Day 2016 (SWID 2016)! We certainly hope that the participants are still having lightbulb moments, and remember the inspiration and ideas they had during the event.

SWID last year was the first and largest SOLIDWORKS user community meetup across 7 locations in Malaysia - Penang, Selangor, Johor, Perak, Melaka, Kuantan and Sarawak. Throughout this month-long event, we received excellent feedback from most of the participants, that they truly enjoyed and loved what we’ve prepared and brought to them. 

We are also extremely excited that IME was awarded as Asia Pacific South Most Creative Innovation Day and Best Teamwork Award by Dassault Systèmes. Huge thanks goes to our awesome team and supporters for making this happen!

Check out what happened HERE!

FV Malaysia

Being a company that has always been involved with academia institutions in bringing different learning experience to the engineers-to-be, we are proud of the students who participated in the FV race. 

Even just being a spectator at the race, we were hardly able to contain our excitement, let alone the students who were in the competition itself. We were not sure if it was the excitement and energy level of the students or the weather that boiled our blood and got our adrenaline running at full speed.

All participants had done an amazing job in creating their race car from scratch. From draft, design, virtual simulations to manufacturing and finally on the race track! We are glad to have been able to support UTeM in organising this event to create a platform for real life learning in automotive design, giving students great opportunities to learn and experience what couldn’t have been taught in a classroom.

Throughout the race, we were so impressed especially when we saw the teamwork among each group – how they worked together, created something from nothing and working hard towards their dreams. Keep it up, our future engineers.

Click HERE to experience the event through photos.

3D Experience Technology Day in East-Malaysia

 

An IME branch has been setup in Kuching and last year we finally held the first event there. 
 
The purpose of 3D Experience Technology Day is to gather all key parties in the development and growth of the East Malaysia industry, to share and learn together the trending technologies and the importance of adopting these technologies in order to remain competitive in the market.

Our heartiest appreciation goes to the Ministry of Industrial Development, our supporting partners CENTEXS, Swinburne University, IET, and each and every one of the participants - for the overwhelming response and warm welcome we’ve received.

Details and key takeaways of the event can be found HERE.

                                                                           ----------------

In short, 2015 was not easy but we made it, hard work and commitment always prevails. We are very excited for what’s coming up next, and hope you'll be a part of it too!

Oh yeah, don’t forget to check out our Website and Facebook Page for the latest updates. Feel free to drop us an email at marketing@cadcam.com.my for any enquiries or suggestions, we would love to hear from you. Cheers!



Vivian Kaw
Marketing Executive 

Key Challenges in Machinery Design - How does a design perform in real life

To design a mechanism with better overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), we need to identify a suitable system for the machine to perform to its optimum under a set of constraints; this could be challenging. 

What's more, in modern machine operation, many motion actions such as the automated sorting process or the pick-and-place of parcels are triggered by sensors – the timing of each motion varies. When the exact time sequence for element changes are unknown, it is hard to have a better grasp on the equipment performance, e.g., its cycle time, prior to actual testing of the machine. 

In general, one of the biggest challenges the machine designers have is to understand and test how a design will interact in real life before it goes into production. There are usually many rounds of trial-and-error required in ensuring the equipment performance requirements are achieved – the machine is moving the way we wanted it to. 

How can we shorten the (sometimes endless) trial-and-error process? 

We need to visualize the relative motion between components as well as the movement of the machine. With simulation tools, we could simulate the machine's motion under constraints, and variables such as force, torque and power. As a result, we are able to correctly size the motors and the structure of machine. We will also understand how exactly the mechanism will move in the real world under different loadings once all parts are fully assembled with the correct constraints.

To know more, do not miss out our upcoming workshop. 

REGISTER HERE AND JOIN US this Friday (11th March 2016) to further discuss and explore with other engineers from the same industry in a 4-hour-session (9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.) that could change the way you design.

SOLIDWORKS 2017 - What's New?

Its time for SOLIDWORKS World 2016!

Each year, a list of new enhancements in the next release of SOLIDWORKS will be introduced for us to look forward to. This year's SOLIDWORKS World was no different. So, what's new in SOLIDWORKS 2017?

Here comes a quick recap of these new enhancements:

*Gentle reminder: This is only a TECHNOLOGY PREVIEW. Features / functionality are always changing until fully vetted and not guaranteed to be in the next release.

BI-DIRECTIONAL CIRCULAR PATTERN

Circular pattern in both directions

MULTI-DISTANCE CHAMFER

Multiple sizes in one feature

VARIABLE CHAMFER

New functionality in a single feature

COMBINE CHAMFER-FILLET FEATURE

Both operations now in a single command

TRANSPARENT SECTION VIEWS

Transparent parts now included in section views

THREAD FEATURE LEAD-IN / LEAD-OUT

Adding manufacturing options to the Thread Feature introduced in SOLIDWORKS 2016

TREEHOUSE DRAWING IMPORT

Treehouse automatically imports associated Drawings

TREEHOUSE STRUCTURE PRINT

Printing the Treehouse Structure now supported

SHADED SKETCH CONTOURS

Sketch Contours now shaded for clarity and easier manipulation

ADVANCED HOLE WIZARD

New Functionality to create multi-step holes

SMARTER MATE PLACEMENT

Components move closer to their intended location

MISALIGNED MATES

Concentric faces that won’t align can be overridden without over-defining the assembly

SUB-ASSEMBLY SAVED AS A PART NOW MAINTAINS ALL REFERENCES

Face ID’s are maintained so mates don’t fail on replace

SOLIDWORKS PDM LATEST VERSION OVERWRITE

Small changes no longer require a new version

LOCK BOM TABLES FROM TEMPLATE

Table items locked in the template remained locked when placed in the drawing

NOTES CAN REFERENCE BOM CELLS

Directly reference BOM Cell items

MULTI-SHEET PROPERTY EDITS

Make sheet property edits apply to selected sheets

EMPHASIZE SECTION OUTLINE

Section view outlines can now be outlined for clarity

JAGGED OUTLINE FOR DETAIL VIEWS

Detail views can now be shown with jagged lines

MIRROR VIEWS

Mirror the drawing without creating the 3D Part

BASIC DIMENSIONS OF SIZE

New functionality in DimXpert

3D DIMENSIONS TO EDGES

DimXpert now supports surface and edge selection

RE-ORDER 3D VIEWS

3D Views in SOLIDWORKS MBD can now be reordered

COMPARE 3D ANNOTATION TOOL

Compare different versions of PMI data in SOLIDWORKS MBD

HIDE ALL REFERENCE ITEM TYPES

New functionality to hide all types with a single command

OFFSET CURVE ON SURFACE

Offset a 3D Curve on a surface

WRAP SKETCHES ONTO ANY SURFACE OR ONTO MULTIPLE SURFACES

Wrap sketch now supports any surface and multiple surfaces

MAGNETIC MATES

Components automatically snap together with predefined references

MAGNETIC MATE ASSET PUBLISHER

Fast setup for magnetic mates

EDRAWINGS OPENS MANY MORE FORMATS

eDrawings now supports opening many new file types with measure and markup

OPEN AND USE MANY CAD FORMATS

Reference other CAD data without importing the geometry

MAINTAIN FEATURES AND MATES WHEN CHANGES MADE TO IMPORTED CAD DATA

Imported CAD data now maintains feature and mate references when changes are made

In case you have questions, we can be reached at HERE.

Thanks for reading.