Marine Fabricator September/October 2019 - 18

Virtually everything Dorsal makes is done with CAD/CAM
technology using the Proliner 8 Digitizer, Rhinoceros software and
a Carlson CNC cutting machine, including the exterior canvas
for this Sycara IV, a custom 148-foot yacht by the Burger Boat
Company. Photo: Dorsal LLC.

COPING WITH COSTS

osts can put automating out of reach, but
taking things slowly can help fabricators begin

making the digital transition. Gary Unitt, who works in
software and hardware solutions for Autometrix Inc.,
a provider of automated cutting solutions, suggests
fabricators take the following steps to get started:
* Review what you make and the processes you
go through from start to ﬁnished product."Think
about moving a certain product/products to the
automated side of your business ﬁrst, with a plan to
incorporate more as you go along."
* Consider the size of cutting table you need and
how fast it should be. Start by looking at the handcutting table and how often it's used full-length.
Will room allow for an automated cutting table in
addition to the existing one?
* Identify your software needs. Ask yourself: "Do I need
to digitize physical patterns? Do I have products
that could beneﬁt from parametric design or other
software for specialized design processes, like
awnings? What problems am I trying to solve?"

18 Marine Fabricator | Sept/Oct 2019

Klein purchased a Carlson cutter in 2007 with
the intention of reducing labor costs and becoming
more competitive against multinational corporations
manufacturing offshore. This was just the first of his
automation purchases.
"After that I knew I had to integrate it into the rest
of our product line," he recalls. "The challenge was
to get digital patterns to the cutting machine, and the
missing link was the digitizer, which I invested in a
year or so later."
In addition to the cutting machine and the CAD/
CAM technology using the Proliner 8 Digitizer, Klein
also uses Rhinoceros software, which allows him to do
virtual patterning in 3D. These tools have definitely
changed how his employees work and what they can do,
he says, recalling projects for yacht builders Burger and
Palmer Johnson.
"On one 150-foot boat, they wanted a pyramid-shaped
sunshade that was straight on the aft side and U-shaped
forward. I don't know how I would have patterned it in
paper on plastic, but in Rhino it was easy and it fit the
first time. Also, Palmer Johnson used the same dining
chairs on 10 of their boats, so it was imperative to get a
digital pattern for those 120 covers," says Klein, adding
that he plans on selling Dorsal at the end of this year and
starting a CAD/CAM consulting company.
Klein's discovery that he needed to invest in additional technology wasn't unusual, says Alan Stewart,
vice president of MPanel Software Solutions LLC, a
St. Louis, Mo., developer of specialized software for
modeling, patterning and engineering of fabric structures and marine covers.
"Sometimes fabricators will purchase one piece of
equipment like a plotter/cutter or a digital measuring
system believing it to be the most important part of the
process," he explains. "They then struggle to make the
equipment provide an efficiency benefit."
Stewart says while it's reasonable for companies
to purchase this tool to speed up the cutting of their
existing templates, "They must pay someone to convert
their physical patterns to digital files." Without CAD,
Stewart says, the machine's functionality is limited to
the tools the supplier provides. Its ability to handle
custom projects is reduced as well. Adding CAD and
digital measuring will help marine fabricators gain
"substantial efficiencies" and expand the work they do,
says Stewart.
"Once the paradigm shift to digital is made, it's a
much smaller step to add new products, like shade sails,

Marine Fabricator September/October 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Marine Fabricator September/October 2019