Metronor Selects CADKEY Mechanical Design and Manufacturing Software to Bundle with their Portable CMM Systems

Leading Supplier of Portable CMM Technology for Aerospace and Automotive Industries Signs OEM Agreement with CADKEY Corporation

Marlborough, MA - April 10, 2003 - CADKEY Corporation, a leading developer of Windows-based mechanical design and drafting software used by mechanical design and manufacturing professionals worldwide for nearly two decades, announced today that Metronor Group, headquartered in Asker, Norway, has signed an agreement to bundle CADKEY Mechanical Design and Manufacturing Engineering software products with their Metronor line of electro-optical portable coordinate measurement machine (CMM) systems. 

CADKEY Workshop's freeform modeling tools are used with the Metronor Solo system to enable customers to seamlessly integrate data acquisition, manipulation and rendering in reverse engineering applications, without the entangling constraints of feature-based parametrics. The portable Metronor Solo uses a digital camera designed with custom optics and filters and is constructed in a sturdy, solid-state housing with no moving parts for maximum reliability. Customers measure using a free-standing, ergonomically-designed carbon fiber light pen with embedded light sources. 

Because the Solo CMM system has no fixed arm and no fixed range of travel, large-scale aerospace, automotive, energy and marine applications are easily tackled with a larger pen. 

"We are excited to see our software become part of total solutions to meet specific needs in industry," states John Wright McCullough, Director of Sales and Marketing at CADKEY Corporation. "Our very wide range of functions, well-integrated product line, and logical and easy-to-learn user interfaces make CADKEY software products a very flexible basis to build on. We look forward to working with Metronor to meet market demands for integrated solutions." 

Oyvind Rotvold, President and CEO of Metronor states, "We increasingly find that customers are looking for total solutions - a seamless integration of hardware, software and methods to efficiently address specific production challenges. Our metrology systems are extremely versatile, and by combining these with CADKEY's flexible, freeform 3D modeling software we can provide customers with turnkey, custom solutions as a single supplier taking the overall responsibility for our customers' projects. Our clients have already demonstrated how Metronor Solo combined with CADKEY Workshop has been a very flexible yet simple-to-use solution for their applications. We are very excited about how easy it has been to create a total solution with CADKEY," Rotvold concludes. 

A typical reverse engineering application for the Solo system is in the manufacture of boat decks, where a large area must be precisely measured for proper fitting. Creating actual-size production templates of the deck used to take several days or weeks for a single boat type, making the measurement process alone a major cost factor. Employing Metronor's Solo portable electro-optical coordinate measurement system right at the boat yard, users can now measure the boat in a matter of minutes and send the collected data to the proprietary, custom-built Metronor computer system, then loft the curves and calculate the deck areas using CADKEY Workshop. 

Solo uses patented Metronor electro-optical technology to trace the most intricate of deck shapes and easily measures past obstructions or fixed objects for superb accuracy. The standard hand-held, ergonomically designed light pen is only 500mm (approx 20 inches) in length for smaller applications, and optional larger models are available for use in large-scale measuring. Once the electronic measurement data is collected, it can be instantly transferred to a manufacturing facility via the internet. A template can be manufactured on a CNC machine and brought back to a local customer site for fit verification the same day or within a day or two after the measurement job started, cutting the previous week or so lead time down to a mere fraction. Further, CADKEY Workshop can compute the volume of wood needed from the electronic template file, so a pricing estimate can be quickly calculated and sent to the customer, reducing the sales cycle. The template is used as a pattern to accurately cut costly teakwood or other exotic woods, reducing potentially expensive errors and rework.

D. A. Watts & Sons Ltd. Of the U.K., manufacturers of the widely used Wattsons Teak Decking for the marine industry, was the launch customer for the Solo / CADKEY Workshop solution. Wattsons created a boat deck template for their customer in record time with significant cost savings. 

Jim Boulton, Sales Director of D.A. Watts, explains, "We used to make patterns on-site, sending a team of two craftsmen that might spend anywhere from a few hours to a few days on the job, depending on the deck size and complexity. With this new solution, the boat deck edge is scanned with the Metronor Solo system and the curves are created in CADKEY Workshop. We then send the data over the Internet into milling software right on our CNC machine. So, shortly after the deck measurements have been taken at the customer site, the template is ready at our manufacturing plant." Mr. Boulton further adds, "This comprehensive, portable solution, which easily travels to our customer locations, has significantly increased our competitive advantage. The Solo system decreases the costs of producing intricate or custom one-offs and allows us to offer our products internationally at competitive prices. Our response and delivery time is much faster, quality is higher due to a more precise fit, and the all-important customer cost is lower."

About Metronor Group 

Metronor Group is a leading developer and provider of portable metrology solutions. Products include the Solo and Duo and DUET series of portable measurement systems. Since it was founded in 1988, Metronor has maintained a strong standing inside the automotive and aerospace industries, with installations inside leading manufacturers, including Audi, BMW, Boeing, Fiat, Ford, General Electric, General Motors, Honda, Lockheed, Mitsubishi, Peugeot, Renault, SAAB, Toyota, Volvo and Volkswagen, to name but a few. During the last few years, Metronor has steadily expanded into new market segments - particularly with the Solo series of inexpensive portable metrology systems. Metronor is headquartered in Norway with offices in Europe and North America, as well as distributors worldwide. With an emphasis on customer support and building partnerships with customers, Metronor is pleased to have a high percentage of repeat customers. 

www.metronor.com

About CADKEY Corporation 

CADKEY Corporation, a CAD/CAM company headquartered in the Boston area, develops and markets the CADKEY Product line used by design and manufacturing professionals worldwide. Dedicated to serving mechanical and manufacturing engineers, CADKEY Corporation's software development efforts focus on innovative freeform geometry-based modeling products. With over 295,000 copies shipped worldwide, CADKEY Corporation's time-proven products are among the most widely used in the global marketplace in more than 40 countries. 

www.cadkey.com

 

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