FAW Becomes Delcam's Largest Customer in China
China First Auto Works Group Corporation (FAW) has become the DELCAM's largest customer in China.
Delcam’s PowerMILL is now used for 95% of the CAM programming at China First Auto Works
FAW is the largest producer in China’s automotive industry. The annual output exceeded one million units in 2004, including cars, buses, and small and large lorries. FAW is one of the ten top corporations in China with 129,000 employees. The Group incorporates joint venture companies, such as FAW Volkswagen and Tianjin FAW – Toyota Automotive Co.
As might be expected given its size and status, FAW was one of the first Chinese companies to adopt CADCAM technology. It has subsequently tried most of the leading systems. However, the combination of the powerful functionality in PowerMILL and consistent support from the local reseller, Changchun Delcam, have lead to the Delcam software being chosen to replace most of the other systems. More than 95% of CAM programming within the Group is now undertaken with PowerMILL.
One of the more recent parts of the Group to add Delcam systems is FAW Die Manufacturing Co., Ltd., the largest specialist producer of press tools in China. The company decided that, with the rapid expansion of its business, it needed to move to different software in order to improve its competitiveness and raise its production efficiency. An investigation was undertaken of all the leading software, with a full-scale benchmark completed to demonstrate each of the systems’ functionality and efficiency.
Changchun Delcam based its demonstration on the creation of a duplicate tool for the side panel of the Volkswagen Jetta car. Particular emphasis was given to Delcam’s newer high-speed and high-efficiency manufacturing strategies. These enabled the tool to be produced in a much shorter time and also gave the best quality of surface machining.
Commenting on the decision to add the Delcam software, Vice General Manager Mr. Piao Wenxiang said, “Our company needs not only the best CAM software, but also excellent technical service.” “Compared with the results from our previous systems, since using Delcam software, our programming efficiency has improved by over 50%, our machining productivity has increased by over 30%, and the average life time of our cutting tools has grown by over 30%,” added Director Mr. Sui Zhihua. Not surprisingly, since making its first purchase, the company has completely replaced its earlier machining software with PowerMILL.
