Birmingham, UK -- April 27, 2004 -- Delcam is one of the world's leading suppliers of advanced CADCAM software product development solutions for the manufacturing industry and will be host to two days of seminars on five-axis machining and high-speed machining. This is part of its campaign to move these techniques from their current specialist applications into the mainstream of manufacturing practice.

The seminars, which are to be held at Delcam’s Birmingham headquarters, *(Delcam plc, Small Heath Business Park, Birmingham, B10 0HJ, UK, Tel: +44 121 766 5544) on 19th and 20th May, are aimed at encouraging companies both large and small to increase their productivity and their competitiveness with the latest machining technology.

Delcam has grown steadily since conception in 1977, and after initial development work at Cambridge University, UK. It is now the largest developer of product design and manufacturing software in the UK, with subsidiaries in North America, Europe and Asia. Delcam’s software is used by more than 9,000 organisations in over 80 countries.

On both days, presentations and demonstrations will be give by Delcam and by leading machine tool suppliers Bridgeport, Cincinnati Milacron, DMG, Haas and Mazak, and also by cutting tool specialist Mitsubishi Carbide, control systems developer Siemens and robot manufacturer KUKA. The seminars will also feature the launch of PowerMILL 5.5, the latest version of Delcam’s renowned CAM system.

While larger companies have used five-axis and high-speed machining for many years, until recently smaller subcontractors and toolmakers have been reluctant to invest in the newer methods. They have been discouraged both by the cost of the higher specification machine tools and by the increased complexity of the CAM programming techniques that must be used. The time has now come, however, when even smaller companies cannot afford to ignore the opportunities that these new technologies offer to shorten delivery times, boost productivity and increase profitability.

The price of both high-speed and five-axis machines has been falling steadily and this trend is forecast to continue. In addition, capabilities that were once only available on larger machines are now provided on the smaller ranges of equipment. At the same time, programming systems for these more sophisticated machining options are now far easier to use. The time taken to learn software like PowerMILL has been reduced significantly, meaning that new staff can become effective users much more quickly and with much lower training costs.

Free products demo CD's are available from Delcam's Power Solution, upon request.

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