Global engineering group Sandvik has signed an agreement to acquire US-based CNC Software Inc., a leading provider of CAD/CAM software solutions for manufacturing industries and the company behind the Mastercam software suite. Gcode Engineering Solutions (Mastercam Australia) will continue to service the Mastercam brand in Australia.
By acquiring CNC Software, Sandvik gains Mastercam, the most widely used Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) brand in the industry with an installed base of around 270,000 licenses/users, as well as a strong market reseller network and well-established partnerships with leading machine makers and tooling companies. The Mastercam brand and its reseller channel will remain intact.
Gcode has been supporting the Australian region as Mastercam’s reseller for nearly six years. Greg Williams, Director of Gcode, stressed that for Mastercam users in Australia the customer experience will remain completely unchanged, with the same level of customer service and support that they have come to expect.
“Mastercam Software Australia is committed to support and training of all users,” said Williams. “I am very passionate about manufacturing in Australia and pride myself in partnering with progressive manufacturing companies to achieve better outcomes. It’s an exciting time for manufacturing, and we look forward to moving the industry forward together!”
For Stefan Widing, President and CEO of Sandvik, the acquisition is in line with the company’s strategic focus to grow in the digital manufacturing space.
“An acquisition of CNC Software and the Mastercam portfolio, in combination with our existing offerings and extensive manufacturing capabilities, will make Sandvik a leader in the overall CAM market measured in installed base,” said Wilding. “CAM plays a vital role in the digital manufacturing process, enabling new and innovative solutions in automated design for manufacturing.”
CNC Software has a strong market position in CAM, particularly for manufacturing SMEs, which supports Sandvik’s ambitions to develop solutions to automate the manufacturing value chain for SMEs – and deliver competitive point solutions for large OEMs. Combining the strengths of Mastercam with Sandvik’s offering and know-how within machining is expected to be an important enabler in automating the customers’ end-to-end manufacturing processes.
“Mastercam will be the cornerstone in Sandvik’s CAM portfolio, further improving machining productivity by combining our machining know-how with their CAM expertise to improve quality and reduce waste for our customers,” says Mathias Johansson, President of the Design & Planning Automation Division in Sandvik Manufacturing Solutions. “Specifically, we will leverage data capture and use to secure efficient tool selection and tool path optimisation for our customers.”
CNC Software is an independent, family-owned company founded in 1983, headquartered in Connecticut, USA, with 220 employees. Meghan West, CEO of CNC Software, commented: “We at CNC Software are extremely excited to be joining the Sandvik family. The two companies share many of the same values and objectives, but above all we share a passion for manufacturing. Together we will harness our joint resources to accelerate the development of Mastercam, while continuing to maintain our unique standards of local support through our experienced global reseller channel.”