WHITE HOUSE, Tennessee – February 13, 2006 – Striker Systems, industry leader in sheet metal fabrication and metal forming software solutions, is pleased to announce the introduction of Pattern Recognition with the latest release of its FAB Professional sheet metal nesting and CAD/CAM software.
            A common limitation of turret punch press programming systems is that they do not always tool parts exactly as preferred by the programmer or as required for the manufacturing process.  Unique tooling requirements can be a hindrance to automation, requiring programmer intervention to achieve the desired tooling results.  Striker Systems’ new Pattern Recognition addresses this issue by allowing the CNC programmer to interactively apply the desired tool hits to any geometric pattern.  This geometric pattern, with associated tool hits, is then saved in a user library.  If the geometric pattern appears again during any future processing, it is recognized and the memorized tool hits are automatically placed.
            “Offline programming for Turret Punch Presses must apply tooling based on a series of predefined rules”, states Michael Boggs, Striker Systems Sales Manager.  “When programming requirements extend beyond these rules, the result can be incorrect or incomplete application of tools.  Pattern Recognition allows FAB Professional to ‘learn’ the preferred method of tooling a geometric shape that may be encountered repeatedly in the manufacturing process.  In essence, FAB Professional processes more intelligently the more it is used.”
Patterns may be created from sections of a part perimeter or from shapes internal to a part.  They may be defined as static or adaptive.  Static patterns are dimensionally fixed and do not change, where adaptive patterns can contain one or more variable dimensions.  For example, a uniquely shaped notch on the edge of a part may become longer or shorter based on manufacturing requirements.  An adaptive pattern can still recognize the notch and apply appropriate tool hits.  This can save significant programming time and improve programming integrity.
            For additional information on the Pattern Recognition feature of FAB Professional or any of the Striker Systems sheet metal fabrication or metal forming software solutions, please contact Striker Systems at 1-800-950-7862 or visit the Striker Systems web site at http://www.striker-systems.com.