US custom motorbike design and fabrication manufacturer Cruzin’ Machine says that using VX CAD/CAM is helping his company to turn round designs faster than any other.
Owner, Tim Kruse says, “VX CAD/CAM is my secret weapon. When a customer walks in with a photo or a sketch, VX allows me to do what a lot of CAD programs can’t do.”
He calls it getting bike art form theme images, and his goal is unique parts and accessories, with themes ranging from pirates’ cutlasses to dragons.
Kruse says that if a customer wants, for example, an air cleaner cover that looks like a dragon, he can produce the custom part in less than a day. Even better, Kruse manages to keep the cost of his creations “very reasonable”, considering that they are one-offs.
Kruse imports the required image directly into VX, creating the base outline of the artwork. While he is doing that, he is also thinking about how to use it. For example, if a piece of Cruzin’ Machine art is going to be used as an air cleaner cover on a motorbike, Kruse has to allow for the screw or bolt holes.
“I can import a template of the air cleaner and scale the overlying image with VX, so it fits,” Kruse explains. Then he “works his magic”, adjusting the image, adding lines and contours so that function and form balance, becoming elements in the overall design.
Kruse says he uses VX integrated machining to create his parts, so that by carving different levels of contours, he creates a relief image in the metal that has a great deal more depth than a simple metal silhouette.
“Once the image is frozen, and the customer has approved it, I use VX to create NC code, which drives the machines to create the part exactly as the customer wanted it.” After machining, the part is polished and can then be finished with a wide variety of surface treatments, such as chrome, copper, or gold plating, etching or powder coating.
“Prior to VX, these projects took weeks to complete. Now I do them in hours. My goal is to make the next project even more awesome than the last, and VX lets me do that.”
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