Cincinnati Incorporated Begins Partner Collaboration
Third-party suppliers will validate and test software, tooling and automation to work with their equipment.
Posted: July 2, 2015
The new Gold Partner Program at Cincinnati Incorporated (Harrison, OH) provides metal fabrication customers with expanded options for software solutions that have been validated and tested to work with their equipment. These Gold Partner solutions, when purchased with new Cincinnati products, can also integrate existing brands of CNC equipment, providing a wide-reaching upgrade of the shop floor and facilitating new, efficient, productive operations.
This groundbreaking, collaborative program is designed to foster cooperative partnerships between the company and its third-party suppliers. Starting with two software providers, SigmaTEK Systems, LLC (Cincinnati, OH) and Metamation, Inc. (Reno, NV), the company plans to extend the program to press brake tooling manufacturers as well as select vendors of automation solutions and other appropriate third-party suppliers.
“Through this program, shops will have more software choices for programming our new machines, as well as programming their existing CNC equipment from the same software platform,” explained Mark Watson, a senior product specialist at Cincinnati Incorporated. “Collaboration is the name of the game as we enter the new era of Direct Digital Manufacturing. Gone are the days of closely guarded, proprietary tech solutions, requiring fabricators to lock into one supplier of equipment and its proprietary software. Users now demand the latest tech solutions to drive all of their CNC equipment, not only their latest purchase. We’re kicking off the program with two world-class software companies and we anticipate many more rewarding partnerships as we expand the program further.”
SigmaTEK and Metamation are the first companies to enter into the Gold Partner program. With more than 16,000 installations, SigmaTek is one of the world’s leading CAD/CAM nesting software providers for all major cutting, punching, and profiling machine tools. The Metamation Gold Partnership involves not only profile cutting software, but also press brake bending software. Metamation offers several hundred post-processors from all types of manufacturers, with over 1,800 installations worldwide.
Gold Partner software suppliers are included in Cincinnati’s marketing collateral, including banner ads, dedicated areas on the website, access to the company showroom for product testing, development support and inclusion in product review meetings.
Suppliers become Gold Partners by meeting the program requirements and receiving formal approval from a company product manager. “We believe this partnership program will provide our mutual customers with the productivity tools necessary to confidently enter the new age of direct digital manufacturing,” added Watson.