PC-based machine software

The same mechanics, the same servo, the same PLC — but an application that places parts better, asks the operator fewer questions and catches errors before production separates one machine from its competitor.

What is the PC layer?

An industrial machine usually has two brains. The PLC handles valves, motors and sensors in real time and runs the safety chain. The second is a computer, often an industrial PC mounted in the cabinet, which takes on work the PLC cannot: reading a CAD file, processing thousands of geometry elements, placing hundreds of parts on a slab with minimum waste, analysing a camera image, writing to a database.

We write that application — and because the same team builds the PLC and motion layers underneath, the data exchange between them is designed from the start rather than bolted on.

What we develop

CAD/CAM interfaces and DXF/DWG processing

We read the customer's DXF or DWG file and turn it into machine motion. Real drawings contain broken lines, overlapping elements, wrong layers and tiny arcs; our applications clean the geometry, find closed contours, separate inner and outer contours, offset for tool radius and determine the cutting order.

Nesting: placement optimisation

Placing parts on a slab, sheet or hide with minimum waste is a problem that converts directly into money. Our algorithms rotate parts, fit them into each other's gaps and skip defective regions of the material. In natural stone, vein direction and cracked zones are taken into account as well.

Machine vision and measurement

Finding the real boundaries of a slab, checking whether a part is correctly placed, looking for defects or catching a reference mark. The critical part is calibration: unless focus and lighting are kept fixed, measurement quietly becomes unreliable.

Recipes, production records and reporting

Storing product recipes, making sure the operator selects the right one, recording which job was produced when and with which parameters. Data is kept in a local database and pushed to ERP or MES systems when required.

PC-to-PLC communication

Serial, Ethernet TCP/IP, vendor protocols or OPC. Broken connections, half-sent packets and power failures in the middle of a job are considered from the start: unfinished work is not lost and the machine never stops in an undefined position.

When is a PC application needed?

• The part program comes from a drawing file (DXF, DWG, DSTV, proprietary formats)
• Material placement matters and waste is expensive
• Measurement, imaging or quality data is processed
• Hundreds of recipes, parts or customer records are managed
• Production reporting, traceability or ERP integration is required
• The operator screen must be richer than an HMI can offer

If none of these apply, a good PLC and HMI solution is enough — and an unnecessary computer only adds cost and a failure point. We say so during the first conversation.