Manufacturing Engineering: Delcam recently acquired the FeatureCAM software package developed by Engineering Geometry Systems (Salt Lake City). How will this acquisition impact Delcam and the CAM marketplace?

Hugh Humphreys: We're both niche players. We have always tended to focus on the mold-and-die industry so we tend to handle very complex shapes, and the programmer is required to use the software interactively. FeatureCAM's approach is quite different; they provide a lot more automation, and their shapes tend to be a bit simpler, more used by job shops. So by having both software packages, we can meet the needs of any customer that comes to us for CAM solutions. In addition, of course, FeatureCAM also has turning, mill-turn, and a wire EDM solution. These are products that currently Delcam doesn't offer, so it gives us a breadth of products that we haven't been able to offer in the past. After this acquisition, we're now the fourth largest, after CATIA, UG, and PTC, in sales of software to the machining and services industry, and that makes us a much stronger player. In fact, of the companies focused only on the machining area, we are significantly larger than any of our competitors.

ME: The companies' CAM products are described as having very little to no overlap. How will the technical strengths of Delcam PowerMILL and the features-based FeatureCAM being complementary help further Delcam's overall product development?

Humphreys: One of the things we wanted to say quite clearly is that we have no intention of producing an integrated product. Both products have user interfaces that very much suit the current users, and there seems to be no advantage in having a common user interface, which would be less easy to use by our customers, so we intend to keep both of them distinct. While the external appearance will remain the same, we will of course be sharing some of the underlying technology and this will benefit both products.

ME: Will both CAM packages be sold to the same type of companies?

Humphreys: I think applications tend to be divided between companies doing production machining and those manufacturing more complex items, especially tooling. There will be some of the larger companies that would benefit from both packages, but our customers tend to focus on either one area or another.

ME: How has the trend towards more solids-based machining helped improve manufacturers' productivity?

Humphreys: That's an interesting question. Solids-based machining I think is fairly synonymous with feature-based machining. For solids software, like Solidworks, FeatureCAM will be a better fit for the type of objects produced by these software, whereas PowerMILL is for more complex aesthetic shapes, which are generally molded or formed in some way. I don't think there is a trend for solids-based machining of molds, but FeatureCAM addresses the high productivity for solids-based machining.

ME: Five-axis machining for the aerospace and die/mold markets has been one of Delcam's strengths. How are those markets doing today, and what other areas will Delcam look toward for expansion?

Humphreys: I think we're finding that much of the mold and die work has moved to China and the Far East, so obviously we'll be tackling that with software in those markets. As far as America and Europe is concerned, the aerospace market is becoming increasingly important for Delcam, and companies like Boeing are using more composite materials, which requires more complex molding tools, and that suits us very well. The other area where we work with aerospace is on engine design, especially blades, and the manufacturing processes for blades are getting more complex. This is another area where Delcam is doing very well at the moment.

ME: What are the prospects for Delcam in the booming Far East markets, particularly in China where automotive manufacturers seem to be setting up new shops daily?

Humphreys: Clearly, the China automotive market is very important. We've established our headquarters office in Beijing, we have five other offices in China, and we employ altogether over 40 people, so we certainly see this as a significant market. We've been working in China one way or another for about 15 years; we started to invest in China about eight years ago, then four years ago, we stepped up our investment as we began to realize how important the China market was going to be.

ME: Software piracy often is cited as a problem through the Far East. How can manufacturing software developers help alleviate that situation, and is that as much of a problem as it has been in the past?

Humphreys: It clearly is a problem. We have a problem in Russia, we have a problem in China, and in the other Far East territories. We tend to live with it. We find that the more significant customers or more significant companies do want to have legal software on their premises, and so they are buying the software. I think the problem also is slightly less for machining and manufacturing software, because the customer is investing a large amount on his milling machine, and he doesn't see then the cost of the software to operate efficiently as being so significant. I think piracy on CAD is much more prevalent, for design software like AutoCAD or SolidWorks, whereas when it's tied up to an investment on machine tools, then they're more likely to pay the money.

ME: With today's emphasis on quality, how can manufacturers improve parts with in-process inspection software?

Humphreys: One of the very strong growth areas for Delcam that we see is on-machine verification. We have released a modified version of our inspection software to allow companies to inspect their work before they take it off the machine tool. It doesn't replace inspection on an independent machine, but it can maybe eliminate the need to put the job back because you check it before you take it off the machine.

ME: Your company also offers software for fixturing, which improves productivity.

Humphreys: The other area is where we've developed and released the software called PS-Fixture and, say you have a large job, you can put it on the machine, probe the job, and then align the machining information to suit the position of the job. On a large job, it can take a long time to position the job correctly on the machine, so this can be a significant cost saving, especially in the aerospace industry where they tend to have large parts.

CAM Market Rebounds

After four years in the doldrums, the worldwide market for CAM software and services bounced back with a healthy 7.2% growth in 2004, according to a recent study by market researcher CIMdata (Ann Arbor, MI).

With CAM software and sales of $1.187 billion versus $1.107 billion in 2003, the market for CAM and related services reversed a four-year trend of either declining or flat sales. The CAM market declined 1.6% in 2000, 7.5% in 2001, and 0.4% in 2002 before posting a slim 0.5% increase during 2003. CAM market purchases hit a peak of $1.22 billlion in 1999.

CIMdata is projecting strong sales for 2005 with a forecast for sales to reach $1.275 billion for a 7.5% increase, which would set a new high for the market. CIMdata will release the full details in its upcoming annual NC Software market assessment report.

"The worldwide CAM software market is highly dependent upon the state of the global economy, the viability of the manufacturing sector, the extent of technology spending, and the amount and type of machine tool purchases," according to Alan Christman, CIMdata vice president. "In 2004, all four indicators were positive, as the market bounced back after difficult conditions in prior years. For example, in the US, machine tool consumption in 2004 was up by over 30%, as compared to 2003. For a mature market like CAM, a growth of 7% or more in end user payments for software is very acceptable."