GO2cam Operator: CAM software for CNC operators and setters

What is GO2cam Operator used for in a machine shop?

As a shop grows, invests in new machines and hires setters, the engineering department gets more and more requests. Three problems keep coming back:

• setters walk back and forth to the engineering department for a simple correction;
• settings entered at the machine control panel are not saved anywhere;
• the machinists' know-how never reaches the next programs.

GO2cam Operator addresses all three. The operator makes the correction, within the frame the programmer has set, and the CAM file keeps a record of what was actually machined.

How does GO2cam Operator work?

1. The programmer prepares the machining process in GO2cam and chooses which parameters are open to change.
2. The operator opens the file in GO2cam Operator, reads the workshop documents and simulates the machining.
3. The operator adjusts the authorised parameters, such as cutting conditions.
4. The operator generates the NC file and starts production.
5. The GO2cam file goes back to the programmer with the saved changes, ready to reuse in later jobs.

Two principles: delegation and traceability

Controlled delegation

The programmer gives the operator latitude over the parameters of their choice. Depending on how complex the part is, that autonomy is narrow or wide, and the operator sees on screen what can be changed.

Communication and traceability

The GO2cam file that travels between the shop floor and the engineering department contains every saved change. The machinists' expertise becomes data, which the programmer uses to improve standard production parameters.

What are the benefits for the shop?

• Fewer trips between the machine and the engineering department.
• Production keeps running, including on night shifts, when the programmer is away.
• Shop-floor feedback is kept: settings made at the machine are no longer lost.
• Know-how is secured, saved in digital form and available at any time.
• Better communication between programmers and setters, while the engineering department stays in control.

Customer story: APR, the shop behind GO2cam Operator

GO2cam Operator grew out of a shop-floor request. APR (Applications Plastiques du Rhône), a company based east of Lyon, France, makes plastic parts for construction, aerospace, food processing and energy. Its setters were making too many trips to the engineering department, and nothing they set at the machine was being saved.
GO2cam International then designed a simplified version of its CAM software that lets setters change machining parameters from the shop floor, with traceability. According to Lionel Fromweiler, APR's engineering manager, about 90% of what used to be typed on the machine-tool control panel is now entered in GO2cam Operator.