SFA official membership with AMT

AMTAssociation For Manufacturing Technology

Shop Floor Automations is pleased to announce our official membership with AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology. We at SFA continue to provide new technology, services and resources to promote a strong manufacturing industry.

We love to see the MFG industry grow daily. That is why we provide many free services via our site.

We have a blog full of topical posts on manufacturing and related issues affecting our industry. We archive our newsletters. We even offer Webinars and Training Videos. We are also part of the San Diego Chapter of NTMA (the National Tooling and Machining Association).

SFA is focused on providing solutions that can be met by our knowledge, support and sales experience of the manufacturing industry.  We offer maintenance management software, job management and scheduling software, as well as DNC Communications, Data Collection / Machine Monitoring, and hardware solutions.

You can follow us on our social media channels (listed here) and call (877) 611-5825 for more information. For more on AMT, visit them online at http://www.amtonline.org/

Feb-Mar 2013 CNC West

CNC West Magazine

Be sure to pick up the Feb-Mar 2013 copy of CNC West Magazine and see our latest ad on adding wireless, ethernet or USB to any CNC.

More about our Hardware services:

Do you have a small shop? A large shop? Regardless of your number of machines, or types of controls, SFA has you covered with a complete hardware connectivity suite. Don’t shop around & waste time trying to find the lowest prices – using our 18 years of experience & full support (onsite & digital) will pay for itself with working solutions.

We make our own cables & regularly test hundreds of models of controls with our equipment to confirm what works with wired, wireless, USB, & floppy disk drives for CNCs to eliminate downtime. Call (877) 611-5825 for any of the services listed below, as well as software needs.

  • Ethernet Connect – Link via Ethernet to your CNCs, wired & wirelessly
  • Wireless Connect – Go Wireless to any CNC, use Wireless Access Points, & additional wireless solutions
  • Serial Connect – USB to Serial, RS232 Serial Cables, RS232 Adapters, Testers, Fanuc cables, & more
  • USB Connect – Add USB to any CNC, plus Mazak or Switchbox USB solutions
  • Floppy Connect –  Off-the-shelf Floppy Emulators will replace floppy disks with USB media
  • Tape Reader Connect – Behind the Tape Reader (BTR) users will want these solutions
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Predator PDM v10.0.191 is released

pdmPredator PDM Enterprise has enhanced the shop floor dialogs with New Machine Events and Tracker style Check-In and Check-Out dialogs. In addition, the following improvements have been made:

January 17th 2013 – Predator PDM v10.0.191 is released

  • Added -UNRELEASED to change manufacturing and quality status workflow
  • Improved online help
  • Improved -viewvaultitem command line to support wildcards
  • Improved -viewvaultitemdialog command line to support wildcards
  • Improved machine wizards
  • Improved the Oracle database login screen
  • Improved displaying the database name and host within the status bar
  • Improved check-out warning message
  • Improved display of LF only style CNC files within the shop floor windows
  • Fixed a bug with editing a list item
Customers on software maintenance can download v10.0.191 of Predator PDM from our downloads at any time. Customers running v9 or older of Predator PDM should contact Shop Floor Automations for upgrade details and pricing. Read more below.

Read more

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Manufacturing News – February 2013

Manufacturing News – February 2013

See our latest hardware ad in February issue of Manufacturing News (AKA MFG News) – one ad is Here (Midwest Manufacturing News)and the other is Here (Southwest Manufacturing News).
More about the hardware solutions we are advertising:

Do you have a small shop? A large shop? Regardless of your number of machines, or types of controls, SFA has you covered with a complete hardware connectivity suite. Don’t shop around & waste time trying to find the lowest prices – using our 18 years of experience & full support (onsite & digital) will pay for itself with working solutions.

We make our own cables & regularly test hundreds of models of controls with our equipment to confirm what works with wired, wireless, USB, & floppy disk drives for CNCs to eliminate downtime.

Ethernet Connect – Link via Ethernet to your CNCs, wired & wirelessly
Wireless Connect – Go Wireless to any CNC, use Wireless Access Points, & additional wireless solutions
Serial Connect – USB to Serial, RS232 Serial Cables, RS232 Adapters, Testers, Fanuc cables, & more
USB Connect – Add USB to any CNC, plus Mazak or Switchbox USB solutions
Floppy Connect –  Off-the-shelf Floppy Emulators will replace floppy disks with USB media
Tape Reader Connect – Behind the Tape Reader (BTR) users will want these solutions

Call (877) 611-5825 for more information and insight on how to improve OEE on your shop floor! We are also on social media – tweet us, like us, follow us, and check out our photos!

Scytec DataXchange IconScytec
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Scytec DataXchange Silver Released

DataXchangeScytec DataXchange Silver Released

Collect user defined Planned and Unplanned Downtimes with bar code scanners. More Details

More about machine monitoring through Scytec:

  • Choose from On-Premise or Cloud Based
  • As low as $45 monthly per machine for Cloud option
  • Real-time data collection from any age CNC controls & equipment
  • Unlimited reporting, charting licenses & users
  • View & report on data results from anywhere
  • Track multiple cycle time types

OEE and IIoT reports and charts from Scytec DataXchange help improve machine utilization and minimize downtime.  “Collecting data from the machines is one thing, but utilizing the data for actionable results is critical in order to convert manufacturing data into manufacturing intelligence,” Scytec proclaims to customers.

Timelines, equipment status summaries, OEE summaries, trends, downtime Pareto, scrap Pareto, histograms, plots, comparisons, and more can be charted. These charts can be displayed in the real-time dashboard of the program, which includes being able to saving group or personalized chart templates and ability to export this data to CSV or Excel.

“DataXchange is a Cloud and On-Premise manufacturing machine monitoring system,” Scytec says of their services. With over 15 years of experience in manufacturing, they were able to create this program from scratch. “Increasing utilization by roughly 30 minutes per machine will cover the cost of the software. How about the gains of knowing when machines are running at a lower feedrate, a program stop, or sitting in feed hold?  The software typically pays for itself within the first few days of each month.”

Call (877) 611-5825 for more information!