Mastercam Reseller Profile – Q&A with Zenex Computing Oy
From Helsinki, Finland, Zenex Computing Oy has been providing top-tier software support to Finland and Estonia since 1986. From start to finish, they support thousands of customers using the best software for machine tool control and programming.
Localized support from Mastercam Resellers is a valuable benefit to manufacturers around the globe. Not only does Zenex navigate the minutiae of importing software, but they also translate the interfaces and manuals for clients and provide training to their local CAD/CAM market. Zenex has even helped its customers find new employees.
In the following Q&A, Eki Tossavainen, CTO at Zenex, shares how the company has earned the title of Most Popular CAD/CAM Software Company in Finland.
Q. What Mastercam services do you offer customers?
A. Anything they need! We provide training, programming, and both hardware- and software-related technical support. We have created a very popular Finnish Mastercam web-training platform, Treeni, meaning “training”. The curriculum is built every year to match the current Mastercam version and specifications of the Ministry of Education. We have had more than a thousand new registrants in a year. Most machining schools and their students use it, so when a customer then is looking for more workers, we can send out a message to those students that are near to our customer. [https://mastercam.fi/?page_id=4276]
Q. What is the latest or most exciting customer application you have?
A. Some customers recently bought a new type of 5-axis machine that can also do turning, and this turning can also happen in different orientations. It’s a sort of vertical lathe/5-axis VMC. It was a bit of a struggle to get working post processors, which came from CIMCO, and to get Mastercam to control such complex machines. The key here is communication. You need to pull information from the customer and from the machine manufacturer, and then collaborate with experts at CNC Software and with post developers. These types of machines allow customers to produce large parts with one fixture, like turbines to move mediums in processing plants.
Q. What is your favorite feature in Mastercam?
A. That would be the Multiaxis Morph Toolpath. There are more than a hundred different option combinations, so you can have it run just the way you want. I think it’s the one feature I use the most when there are a lot of requirements for the tool motion and for the surface quality.
Q. What are you looking forward to?
A. Our base product sale and support is pretty much on an optimal level in our region, so we are looking at growth from Mastercam Add-Ons providers, like Verisurf and Robotmaster. We have also started to move towards hardware like Hexagon Arms, and very recently we picked up PocketNC representation for Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. [https://www.mastercam.com/solutions/]
Q. What are some challenges/opportunities you find that are unique to your region?
A. There are ups and downs in the systems that we have here in the Nordic countries. For our customers to be able to compete in a global market, they need to compensate the pricing difference with higher quality, complex parts, fast and reliable shipping, and so on. This means that we need to support their complex machines, be available, and help the customers fast. For example, a company like Ponsse, which makes forestry harvesters, is using complex sheet metal draw methods, the same used in passenger car production, to stay competitive and to produce more premium harvesters. Many of our customers provide parts and tooling for them.
Q. What are some unique issues that you can solve as a local support hub for Mastercam?
A. One unique issue is translation and, to be specific, the characters “Ä” and “Ö”. For example, “tool” is called työkalu, so when someone posts a program, we need to take care of those special letters and transform them to “A” and “O”. These letter issues pop up every now and then, but recent versions of Mastercam handle them well.
Q. Do you sell any other products besides Mastercam?
A. Yes, we also have success selling Verisurf, Robotmaster, CIMCO, KeyCreator, and Mathcad.
Watch the video: Zenex machined their home island! You can view the incredible story behind the creation of their gorgeous conference table in either Finnish or English.
For more information about Zenex Computing Oy, visit https://zenex.fi/ or https://mastercam.fi/.
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