SILCA
The challenge
Eliminating the Welding Bottleneck Through Offline Robot Programming
As SILCA expanded from a small workshop into a full-service metal manufacturer, increasingly complex welded assemblies created a major production bottleneck. Manual robot programming was slow, kept robotic cells inactive during setup, and reduced overall productivity, especially for small production batches.
The story
Founded in 1993 in Nogara, Italy, SILCA has grown from a small metal workshop into a full-service manufacturing company offering laser cutting, tube cutting, bending, rolling, manual and robotic welding, machining, assembly, painting, and surface treatments. The company delivers fully finished products through a complete in-house production chain.
As production volumes and assembly complexity increased, welding became one of the main constraints in SILCA’s manufacturing process. The introduction of robotic welding improved capacity, but manual robot programming remained too slow and frequently interrupted production.
SILCA selected Almacam Weld because it enabled offline robot programming directly from 3D CAD models. Programs could be prepared while the robotic cell remained fully operational, dramatically reducing setup time and improving overall equipment utilization.
Almacam Weld created a continuous digital workflow from engineering to robotic welding. The software enabled collision checking, fixture validation, reverse engineering support, and simulation before production, ensuring safer and more predictable manufacturing.
Offline programming allowed programming and production to run in parallel, significantly increasing productivity and reducing delivery times. SILCA can now quickly validate feasibility, estimate costs, and efficiently process small production batches that were previously difficult to justify.
Results
Robot programming time
Robot cell utilization
Workflow efficiency
