Focus Bysoft 7
A one-stop shop
­f or ­faster workflows
Modern sheet metal processing places extremely high demands
on software. Resax Laser GmbH from Switzerland has already
been working with Bystronic’s BySoft 7 software for one and a
half years. Production Manager Reto Reusser says: “This soft­
ware makes our system complete.”
Text: Matthias Abplanalp, Photos: Michael Meier
“It is terrible,” Rolf Uebersax says. The dead­
lines given by customers for their parts to be cut
and bent are becoming ever shorter. Resax Laser
GmbH is based in Thun, in the Bernese Oberland
region of Switzerland, and Rolf Uebersax is one of
the company’s two Managing Directors. The com­
petition that Resax faces, he says, is extreme: “Here
there are so many laser cutters located in a small
area – I doubt that there are many comparable
­regions in the whole of Switzerland,” he says, add­
ing that anyone who wants to stay in business here
has to be good. And fast.
“We are extremely fast,” says Reto Reusser, Pro­
duction Manager at Resax. He explains that
Bystronic’s Plant Manager enables a clear alloca­
tion of tasks, and thereby supports quick order
processing. Up in the office, Reto Reusser and Rolf
Uebersax program 3D parts, inputting the cutting
commands to the Plant Manager. Below, in the
workshop, machine operators nest the parts onto
metal sheets; the rest is taken care of by a Byspeed
and a Bystar. And what is so particularly fast about
this process?
“We used to create cutting plans roughly every
two days. Now we can react much faster,” Rolf
Uebersax explains. If, for example, a particularly
urgent order arrives, the programmer immediately
inputs the cutting command to the Plant Manager.
Seconds later, the machine operator sees it, notes
that the order is urgent, and squeezes it onto a
metal sheet that has some free space left on it. It
takes hardly any time for the finished parts to be
delivered to the customer. Expressed in computer
game terms, cutting plans are created in real time,
instead of being turn based. And in Rolf Uebersax’s
language: “We could barely manage without the
Plant Manager anymore.”
Just a few mouse clicks
The Plant Manager is one of four modules com­
prising the BySoft 7 software package. The others
are Sheet Processing, Bending and Tube Process­
ing. The Resax company has all of them. What is
more, as a test customer, the company was even
involved in the software development process:
“We have been working with Bystronic for a long
They can’t imagine being without it:
­ anaging Director Rolf Uebersax (left)
M
and Production Manager Reto Reusser
have quickly become used to the
­advantages of the BySoft 7 package.
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BystronicWorld 2/2013
Focus Bysoft 7
In the office, the designer inputs a part to be cut – in this case, a dial face – to the Plant Manager (left).
Workshop Manager Marc Müller creates the cutting plan …
“BySoft 7 lives
and learns like
an organism,
because
­everything is
designed in the
same way.”
Reto Reusser,
Production Manager
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time now, and have always been willing to break
new ground and to try things out,” Rolf Uebersax
says. And this was no less true with BySoft 7. It was
January last year, when Resax received the soft­
ware for testing. They worked with it productively
from day one. Bysoft 6 only served as a backup, in
case of emergencies. Rolf Uebersax admits that
this was not always easy, but he praises Bystronic
for actually listening to its test customers. “Bystronic
took any criticisms we had seriously,” he says. “And
so, naturally, our wishes had some influence on
how the software developed.”
When asked about what has improved in BySoft 7
compared to the previous version, Production
Manager Reto Reusser’s instant reply is, “Solid­
works.” This 3D CAD program has a global follow­
ing of users, and is an integral part of the new
Bystronic software. “It is a giant step into the future,”
he says. Nowadays many of his customers send
him 3D-model files in STEP format. The integra­
tion of Solidworks into BySoft 7 means that he can
now use these to create cut parts, as one clean and
simple workflow: He opens the STEP file, processes
the 3D model, and, immediately, BySoft 7 auto­
matically adds the bending reductions and laser
geometry parameters; creating a bending program
as part of the same step. “With just a few mouse
clicks, we are precisely where we want to be; going
from a 3D model to the completed cut part,” the
Production Manager explains, adding, “This is our
day-to-day business.”
A lot of control
To help such day-to-day business progress smoothly,
Bystronic has integrated numerous safeguards and
warning messages into BySoft 7. For example, col­
ors are used to illustrate the locations of bending
zones; thereby, preventing the programmer from
BystronicWorld 2/2013
Focus Bysoft 7
… and uploads it to the Byspeed. In no time, the dial faces lie on the cutting grate – ready to be stacked and shipped.
programming a part that would collide with the
bending tools during processing. Should the pro­
grammer choose a larger tool, the program auto­
matically adjusts the bending zones: “A tool that
works excellently in practice,” Reto Reusser ob­
serves. In the event that a programmer creates a
part that cannot be manufactured, the software
displays an optical warning message – or as Reto
Reusser puts it: “If there is a tick in every box, I can
export the part and am sure that it will work.”
Nevertheless, the Production Manager does not
want to rely entirely on the automatic features of
BySoft 7. He leaves bending sequences, for exam­
ple, to the pressbrake operators: “That requires
hands-on skills,” he explains. As a programmer, he
lacks the knowledge to accurately assess whether
a bending sequence generated by BySoft 7 is suit­
ed to the pressbrake operator. The same applies
for nesting parts: “The operators simply have more
BystronicWorld 2/2013
experience in nesting. They know, for example,
what margins they need for which materials,” he
explains, adding that one operator might want a
slightly larger spacing between parts, while anoth­
er operator might prefer a slightly narrower one:
“After all, everyone is a little different.”
“The program lives and learns”
BySoft 7 has changed Resax Laser GmbH. Not
­only because machine operators now nest metal
sheets themselves – thereby working at the screen
much more than they did before – but also
­because processes have a shared Bystronic DNA.
“The machine control unit and BySoft 7 have the
same way of thinking,” Reto Reusser says. “Every­
thing is compatible.” He points out that the control
unit and the software even stay synchronized with
one another: If, for example, a machine operator
were to adjust the cutting parameters on the con­
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Going from a 3D model to the completed cut part – including a bending program – with just a few mouse clicks: The integration of Solidworks into BySoft 7 is a giant
leap into the future, according to the managers at Resax (top). Also at the height of efficiency is the Xpert, which Resax has connected to a bending robot (below).
Focus Bysoft 7
trol unit, the modification would also be automa­
tically adopted by BySoft 7. “The software lives
and learns like an organism, because everything is
­designed in the same way,” he summarizes.
Improved calculated cutting times are just one of
the benefits from this synchronization between
the control unit and the software. It means the
Production Manager, up in the office, can always
be certain that his cutting time calculations are
based on the parameters that are actually in use in
the workshop: a vital factor in any order, “Two
hours cutting time or three hours can make the
difference between receiving an order or not,”
­R eto Reusser says. In addition to benefitting cut­
ting times, BySoft 7 also reports on material con­
sumption – and it does this automatically, because
Resax has linked the Plant Manager to the compa­
ny’s ERP system. Reto Reusser believes that this is
extremely convenient, as it means that the Plant
Manager can support him in carrying out the
­entire postcalculation.
Modern sheet metal processing places enormous
demands on software. In the past, it was sufficient
to copy a cut part design onto the machine, using
a USB stick, and then cut it; however, the manag­
ers at Resax Laser GmbH say that those days have
gone. Today, there is BySoft 7, and as Production
Manager Reto Reusser puts it, “This program
makes our system complete.”
BystronicWorld 2/2013
“We have been working with
­Bystronic for a long time now, and
have always been willing to break
new ground and to try things out.”
Rolf Uebersax, Managing Director, Resax Laser GmbH
Resax Laser GmbH
Resax owes a lot of its success to Bystronic. From its foundation in 1994, until
2003, Resax Laser GmbH used a Byflex to cut its sheet metal. Since then, a
Byspeed and a Bystar have taken its place. For bending, Resax has – among
other machines – a Hämmerle and an Xpert at its disposal. The latter is
equipped with the new ByVision Bending machine control unit and is connect­
ed to a robot, “our high-tech department,” as the company’s Co-Managing
Director Rolf Uebersax calls it. Resax employs 20 people and is a typical job
shop, without its own products. Most of its customers are local, only a few are
from other regions of Switzerland.
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