PTC (Nasdaq: PMTC), the Product Development Company®, today announced it has acquired NC Graphics Ltd., headquartered in Cambridge, England.  The acquisition of NC Graphics is in direct response to customer demand for specialized CAM capabilities required for molds, dies, and prototypes.  With its Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) technology, NC Graphics delivers best-of-breed software for optimizing tool making and high-speed precision machining processes.  NC Graphics has more than 1,500 customers in multiple discrete manufacturing vertical markets such as aerospace, automotive, medical equipment and motorsports.  With this acquisition, PTC strengthens the link between product design and manufacturing, offering its customers faster production of molds and dies.  As a result, parts will be available sooner and at a higher quality level than other non-integrated solutions.

Mold and die shops serve customers using a wide variety of CAD systems to model their products.  The ability to create molds and dies quickly and accurately is important to the manufacturing process and overall product development cycle and vital for their business.  Additionally, the quality of an end product depends directly on the quality of the tooling.  With this acquisition, PTC now offers an open solution to any toolmaker or company requiring high-speed precision machining CAM software, regardless of the source CAD data. These companies will be able to optimize their mold and die making processes to deliver more complex products faster and with less cost.

NC Graphics has revolutionized the process of producing NC machining toolpaths for molds, dies, and other high-speed precision applications from 3D CAD models. Mold and die makers need this capability to help them optimize their processes to deliver more complex products with less manufacturing lead time and at lower cost.  The companies that rely on these outsourced mold and die makers are able to decrease overall product development time, better enabling their response to market demands.  

“The global economy is intensely competitive, and the design and manufacturing of mold and die tools is typically on the critical path of a new product introduction cycle,” said James Heppelmann, executive vice president software products and chief product officer, PTC.  “This acquisition allows customers to work more effectively with their outsourced toolmaker partners by connecting customer CAD data with the toolmaker’s CAM system.”

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