Pro van kits engineering
VAN DESIGN: 3D CAD AND CNC MACHINING 
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DESIGN: 3D CAD aND CNC MACHINING CHANGE EVERYTHING

Most of the things we do at Pro Van Kits could not be accomplished without 3D CAD and CNC machining; they would be too time consuming and too costly. If you are making hundreds or thousands of parts you can pay for dedicated tooling. Tesla has casting machines that costs millions of dollars each. But when you are only making only hundreds of parts per year you need flexible manufacturing. With flexible manufacturing, the part you need can be designed on a CAD system and then translated into CNC machine tool instructions. As an example, our cabinet frames are cost prohibitive to make by hand based on complicated cuts and milling sequences. On a 3D CNC system they only take minutes to cut within accuracies to within a.001 inches. When we need to make a entire cabinet for eaxmple, we need only load a 4' x 8' plywood sheet into a machine, hit run, and then just wait minutes. In a span of a day that permits us to generate all the custom components for an entire van build.

We have over 25 years experience in CAD design and employee the similar 3D CAD system used by the world's largest companies such as Ford, Boeing, Tesla, and General Electric. Our sophisticated Laguna CNC machines are employed worldwide in large scale manufacturing operations. Almost no van builders have the experience to implement automated manufacturing stratagies. We use the free sketchup program most builders use for simple layout plans but it does niot have the capacity to handle a complete 3D CAD design or generate CNC machine tool paths.

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All CAD designs are based on the concept of assemblies made from components. We design the individual components and then manipulate them into an assembly. As an assembly we can check how the components fit togther and then make any cahnges we need to insure that there is a perfect fit and the assembly process will be trouble free. This deign process literally saves hundreds of hours because we can match every part to the profile of a van and insure everything fits where it is meant to be. There is no need to make labor intensive hand-made templates and theh cut material by hand to match templates.

Although it is time consuming, we create 3D models of almost every part we use in a van build, sometimes down to the individual fastner. Over time we havebuilt a library of 3D CAD files for about averything common in van builds such as water tanks, fans, plumbing fixtures, water pumps, etc. The other advantage is once we add a part to a build, it is automatically added to the "build of material" or BOM of a project. We know what parts we need to order versus what we have in inventory. We can also accurately price a project because we have a list of everything we need.

In a typical cabinet design almost every is "square" with a width, height, and length. But the complex profile of all vans requires parts with complicated shapes and cuts. As an example, the drawing for cabinet side shown to left has complex shapes consisting of both stright line but complex arcs . By designing cabinets with these comoplex shapes we can match them to a van's envelope to deliver maximum storage space and van living area. A cabinet for a Promaster, for example, if created from vertical lines at widest point of the van losses over 30% of its storage capacity.

8 AprilPRO VAN KITS CNC VIDEO

Here is how we make our parts for our custom vans.

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CNC BASICS AT PRO VAN KITS

Pro van kits are made possible by the use of sophisticated CNC machines driven by 3D CAD models. Our 4 x 8 foot CNC machines can precisely mill a plywood sheet with accuracy of .016 inches in just a few minutes. The machine moves one or more router bits (machine can automatically can change the router tool) permitting fabrication of mutiple parts from a single sheet of plywood. They operate on 3 axes: an X (length), Y (width), and Z (height). Trying to accomplish the same complex router head patterns by hand would take days.

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Our flooring kits save dozens of hours in an insulated floor install. Use the insulated panels as a template for subfloor and flooring mayterial.

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Our solid wood butcher 1.5" thick block counter tops are customized to your design and with the aid of CAD and CNC technology are milled to reduce weight by up to 300%.

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Our trim kits are produced from precise 3D CAD data and produced on rapid CNC machines for exact fits.

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