Archive for the ‘CNC Tooling’ Category

Producer of low volume reaction injection moulded parts and polyurethane castings uses five vertical machining centres to cut master pattern equipment from polyurethane tooling board

The Midas Pattern Company specialises in the production of low volume, high quality reaction injection moulded (RIM) parts and polyurethane castings (PuR). The company intends to dramatically shorten the time and cost for a designer to move from a CAD model to a fully functioning prototype/finished usable component.

The production material has to validate design and produce a saleable product.

Midas uses five Haas CNC vertical machining centres (VMC) – typically to cut the master pattern equipment from polyurethane tooling board.

Midas said that one of the main reasons for choosing Haas CNC machine tools was reliability and user-friendliness.

Based in Bedfordshire, UK, the Midas Pattern Company was established in 1989 as a precision foundry toolmaking company.

The company has developed into a substantial business integrating CADCAM and CNC toolmaking techniques with traditional pattern and mould making skills.

Managing director of Midas, Alan Rance, said: ‘We aim to dramatically shorten the time and cost for a designer to move from a CAD model to a fully functioning example of a new product – not just a prototype, but a finished part, made from production material that not only validates design but is truly saleable in the market place’.

Midas uses a novel composite tooling system, MRIM, which offers a production moulding technique that can produce quantities from 1 to 5000-off.

Midas said it is ideally suited for making large parts or components with multiple assemblies and complex features.

Rance said: ‘We make parts in the production intent polymers that enable our customers to produce low volume examples of new and prototype products without incurring the very high cost of metal tooling or the compromises in functionality and mechanical properties you expect with traditional RP techniques’.

Based on RIM and PuR, the company’s FASTrim service offers a competitive alternative to SLLS/Silicon and VAC casting.

FASTrim can provide finished parts in as little as 10-15 working days, using cast PuR and soft tooling CNC machined directly from 3D CAD data.

Typical customers include medical technology companies building low-volume, high value instrumentation – machines that can cost hundreds of thousands of Pounds each but are usually built in low numbers.

* About RIM – Rachel Collier, Midas’ technical sales manager, said that reaction injection moulding, utilising MRIM tooling is ideal for the instrumentation industry.

She said: ‘Customers may only want to produce between, say, 10 and 20 finished products a year.

For example, if a customer designs and builds a new mass spectrometry machine costing many thousands of Pounds, it wouldn’t make sense to lay down metal tooling suitable for thousands of parts when you only need a few’.

Many of today’s medical equipment manufacturing companies are relatively small – often founded by individuals departing larger organisations – and perhaps only aiming at niche markets.

As recently as 20 years ago, such companies probably wouldn’t have existed without the patronage of a corporate benefactor – a large, well-financed parent organisation, for example – or some other significant investor.

Developing a new product was hugely and prohibitively expensive.

These days, even small firms can use the services of companies like Midas Pattern to get their products to market at a fraction of the traditional cost and to compete head-on with the big, well-funded players.

‘We’re not a typical plastics company so we’re not obsessed with high-volumes,’ said Collier.

‘We’ve taken all of the techniques and the principles we’ve learnt in the very specialised foundry pattern-making sector and applied them to making high quality plastic parts in small numbers’.

The Midas process starts by building tooling models within CAD (Computer Aided Design).

From these CAD models complex CAM (Computer Aided Machining) software is used to generate cutter paths.

The code for these paths can then be downloaded to one of the company’s five Haas CNC VMCs.

The VMCs include a 12,000 rev/min spindle VF-4SS, a VF-6 with a 4th axis Haas rotary table.

There is a a large 2m x 1m VF9.

The machines typically cut master pattern equipment from polyurethane tooling board.

‘Once we have the master pattern equipment we then use it to produce a composite metallised resin injection mould tool – MRIM,’ said Collier.

‘That’s about as much as I can tell you.

The detail of the process is a closely guarded secret’.

She added that the skill – the ‘Midas touch’, one could say – is being able to make a good quality tool from the master pattern.

Each of the company’s CAD engineers is also a machine setter, programmer and operator, so when it came to choosing a CNC machine tool, said Haas to manufacturingtalk.com, top of the list of essential criteria were reliability and user-friendliness.

Thanks in part to the precision of the master pattern equipment, Midas MRIM Tooling is guaranteed to produce up to 5000 parts, which is usually far more than a customer needs but does allow them to be used for intermediate production volumes.

A typical mould is around a 1m3 in size, which in the world of mainstream injection moulding would be considered extremely large.

Collier made the point: ‘If you made a hard tool for a part of that size it would cost around 10 times more than one of our composite moulds.

We can also achieve the complexity but without having expensive mechanical movements’.

* Pattern making – pattern making is a labour intensive process, so Midas still relies on its own knowledge workers – skilled pattern and toolmakers – as well as its state-of-the-art machines.

To keep them all busy, the company supplements its core business with a range of other activities.

The Bedford factory, spread across two adjacent sites, is essentially a tool making facility, which produces foundry patterns, jigs and fixtures, rotational mould tools, inspection fixtures and exhibition models.

It also houses a number of Low Pressure RIM moulding machines producing low-runs of finished parts.

‘What all Midas products have in common,’ concluded Collier, ‘Is that they all start with CNC machining, which means that every time Midas delivers a tool or a finished part odds are it started life on a Haas CNC machine tool’.

* About Haas Automation – Haas said that CNC machine tool companies have led the ‘democratisation’ (or freeing up – Ed) of manufacturing production, perhaps none more so than Haas Automation itself, which claimed to be the original low-cost, high-specification machine tool builder.

Founded just twenty years ago in California, USA, but already with more than 85,000 of its products in operation around the world, Haas said it has certainly played an important part in getting affordable, reliable tools in the hands of the ‘industrious and the ingenious’, helping companies like Midas Pattern Company to ‘turn bright ideas into gold’.

Last week, the focus of this column was on developments in machining centres, as well as drilling, milling and turning machines. In this second contribution of emerging machine-tool industry trends I home in on some of the opinions expressed by those experts who compiled the ‘closing report’ for VDW (the Association of the German Machine Tool Manufacturers) for at the EMO Hannover 2007 concerning grinders, as well as metal-forming machines and sheet-metal machining centres.

GRINDERS
In years past, machine tool manufacturers focussed on optimising the actual machining process, namely on reducing peak times. For this reason, there are not expected to be great leaps forward expected, unless, that is, significant progress is made by component manufacturers.

Therefore, in order to minimise this dependency and achieve a competitive edge, a few machine-tool manufacturers have developed methods for specifically reducing nonproductive time.

In fact, one grinder manufacturer has implemented the objectives mentioned in a new CNC grinding centre by integrating a grinding disk changer and a pick-up loading unit into the working area, thus achieving a high degree of automation, which, in turn, raised both productivity and repeat accuracy.

A particularly efficient solution for reducing nonproductive time unveiled at EMO Hannover 2007 was the incorporation of nozzle elements for injection pumps, used by motor-vehicle manufacturers, into a new grinding machine. The machine has been so constructed that the required cooling jet does not just fulfil its actual function, but is also used for transporting the work pieces. In this way, the time taken for changing work pieces has been reduced by over 50%, to 0,9 s. Since the grinding process for these nozzle elements only takes a few seconds, the whole machining process duration was considerably reduced.

METAL-FORMING AND SHEET-METAL MACHINING
For metal forming machines and sheet-metal machining centres, too, the trend towards shortening nonproductive time is a major theme, with technical challenges arising in this area being solved by EMO Hannover 2007 exhibitors in very different ways.

A further and very important topic for manufacturers and users of metal-forming machines and sheet-metal machining centres is the reduction of manufacturing costs.

In order to meet both requirements, manufacturers showed the results of their optimisation attempts and of their machines that had been improved in terms of construction details.

In sheet-metal machining, the requirement for laser-welding equipment is increasing, since the demand for accuracy, particularly for tailored blanks and profile sections, is increasing. In previous years, great progress had been made in this area, and these tasks had in the meantime been converted into standard procedures in the machining units.

In order now to reduce costs, it appears that laser machining and machining centres will now become more compact and flexible. Over and above this, they will be offered with integrated automation. For example, a directly-linked loading and unloading unit, making the hitherto employed pallet-changer superfluous. This should reduce the footprint, which in turn will be able to be used to best advantage for tasks to be carried out.

The operating speed for the latest laser-machining devices is limited by the mass of the work piece to be moved. Here, the so-called flying optic (laser head) is the optimisation device, which is moved using highly dynamic motion sequences at speeds of up to 200 m/min and acceleration of up to 20 m/s. In order to achieve this mass reduction by lighter and more stable structures, various types of lightweight construction are employed in these machines.

Cold massive forming was likewise exhibited at the trade fair and focussed on shorter processing times. Through innovation, high-tensile materials can be rolled, using optimised thread rolling machines, economically and with maximum precision, even for short runs.

Along with thread making, gear cogs, worm gears and other profile sections are also cold-rolled. For instance, a machine concept was presented, which is able to complete gear cogs within 46 s.

To meet increasing demand for tooling regrinds from aerospace companies, a UK specialist tooling manufacturer has added on another CNC tool and cutter grinder for its consistency

Specialist tooling manufacturer and supplier, Industrial Tooling Corporation (ITC), has added another Helitronic 5-axis tool grinder. It complements seven other Walter CNC tool grinders and a Walter Heli Toolcheck tool measuring machine and represents a strategic investment by the company to meet increasing demand for tooling regrinds from aerospace OEMs such as Airbus and Rolls-Royce.

ITC has bought the Helitronic to extend its capacity for high-precision drill and reamer regrinds.

The machine, a Walter Helitronic Power, supplied by Korber Schleifring UK of Honiley near Kenilworth, is part of ITC’s ’substantial’ investment process during 2008.

Sales director at ITC, Roy Talbot, commenting on ITC’s continual programme, said: ‘is evidence of our commitment to the desire to always stay ahead of the competition through guaranteed high-quality output and responsive service.’ He added that the ITC-Walter machine association had extended over the past eight years and is based on good delivery and service back-up as much as it is on cost-effective machines that are fit for purpose.

ITC designs, manufacture and regrinds of a wide range of HSS and carbide tooling for customers in the aerospace, motor sport (Formula One) and die and mouldmaking sectors in the UK and overseas.

The company is also UK stockist of Hanita (Israel) and Metal Removal (USA) products.

As well as the speed and accuracy of the five-axis CNC Walter Helitronic tool grinders, the added consistency that the Walter Heli Toolcheck tool measuring machine has brought to quality control is proving the ideal complement to enable ITC to extend its successful supply relationship with customers like Airbus and Rolls-Royce, said Koerber Schleifring to manufacturingtalk.com.

A variety of power generation form tools, drills and reamers, for example, are supplied to these companies, and manufacturing certification and traceability are essential.

‘We know that the Helitronic Power effectively restores tooling back to original geometry, and the Toolcheck allows us to illustrate that,’ commented ITC technical director, Peter Graves.

He said how Walter’s ‘ancillary’ technologies play a particularly beneficial role at the company.

He gave the example of a previously-installed Helitronic Power tool grinder with a Production Loader accommodates and randomly processes 280 tools of up 32mm diameter and 220mm long.

ITC also uses five other auto loading systems on Walter machines and therefore extends the company’s commitment to ‘lights-out’, unmanned production.

This system complements the seven day shift operators who manage ITC’s total machine park of 17 tool grinders.

* Software saves time – the Walter Cyber grinding tool grinding software offers savings in cutting tool design and production by allowing non-standard new tools to be designed and ‘manufactured’ off-line.

Cyber Grinding eliminates time-consuming and costly prototypes, test batch work and interruptions to production, said ITC.

‘Customers increasingly want cost-effective, high-quality tooling delivered promptly and backed up by a high level of problem-solving technical engineering expertise in extremely short delivery times,’ concludesd Talbot.

‘We make sure we are in a position to respond, hence our continual investment in Walter technology.’

 Kurt Introduces the 5C Angle Boss for Mounting in Kurt 6 Inch Vises

Minneapolis, Minnesota: Kurt announces the introduction of the 5C Angle Boss (Model No. K5CVMAB) for mounting in any Kurt 6 inch vise.

This manually clamped 5C fixture allows machining any custom angle desired or 24 precision indexes (+/-2 arc-min) using the mount’s special index pin.

Setup is fast and easy. Once the machining position is determined, simply clamp the 5C fixture using the massive 1-1/4 inch thick ground steel jaws. The vise will now hold the 5C fixture for most machining operations. Parts can be clamped and unclamped using the 5C clamp screw. Collets may also be changed from the top of the fixture without disturbing the original setup.

The 5C Model No. K5CVMAB Angle Boss accepts a 3-1/4 inch 3 jaw chuck (sold separately). This is a high quality, dead length 5C holder designed to save many hours of expensive setup time, giving Kurt vise users yet another option for improving machining center productivity.

In addition to standard vises and accessories, Kurt provides integrated custom engineered workholding systems and custom gaging systems for automated manufacturing. Both workholding and gaging are designed around a customer’s requirements with systems available for many industries including automotive, medical and aerospace applications.

Interested in more information? Call Kurt in USA and Canada, 1-877-226-7823. Outside USA and Canada, call 1-763-574-8309. Or see at: www.kurtworkholding.com. Email: workholding@kurt.com

Or write to Kurt Manufacturing Company, Industrial Products Division, 1325 Quincy Street NE, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55413. In USA, Fax 1-877-226-7828. Outside USA, Fax 1-612-623-3902.

3-axis Gantry Desktop CNC
Posted by Blog Happenings: [404 Check: was link to http:/ / cnccncmachine. com/ compact -cnc -machines -come -ready -to -use. html, anchor: Compact CNC Machine] arrives ready to use. These are desk top 3-axis gantry-type
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CNC Plasma Cutting
Posted by Wilbur Corncob: Torchmate offers various CNC cutting systems and a 23 page catalog online. They sell the Torchmate II CNC shape cutting machine in kit form for under $6,000. It allow s you to create shapes on your screen and cut them automatically. It has a rapid traverse speed of 300 Inch Per Minute and a cutting speed of 80 IPM. CNC plasma cutter operations
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CNC Software for the Cabinet and Door Industry Interview
Posted by ‘Interviewer’: Name of your website Software for the Cabinet and Door Industry Your name Frank D. Jimenez Your Location (city, etc) Medford, Oregon U.S.A. Please give us a short summary of your website CNC Software that provides cutlists, material summaries, labels, floor plan views, wall elevations, 3D Renderings, 3D dimensioned shop drawings,
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Tools, articles and jobs
Posted by Blog Happenings: Fastest CNC punch press offers simple automation As well as laying claim to be one of the world’s fastest punching machines, CNC punch press system features "twin-cart". [404 Check: was link to http:/ / www. cnc -machine -tool -probe. com/ index. php/ machien -tool/ machine -tool -line -e88/ , anchor: Machine Tool Line: E88] Probing
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Wood and Metal Works
Posted by Website Introductions: At CNC, all your wood and metal working needs is available. Minifactory CNC woodworking milling machines Vacuum press Automatic Vacuum press With 2 work tables CNC laser-engraving machines CNC laser-engraving machines Metalworking CNC plasma cutting machines PVC film for vacuum press Woodworking and metalworking CNC
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CNC Drill Press
Posted by Wilbur Corncob: We have seen various types of lathes with go with numerical control but that are not the only machines which utilize CNC add-on. There are numerous other machines such as the drill machine which use CNC including drilling machines. Well you might think what sort of arrangement would be it because as we a drilling machine is simply used to make a
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Choosing the right drafting table at Office1000 – Part 2 of drafting series
Posted by Office1000: In an earlier post we went over some of the drafting products we carry at Office1000.com. In this post, we will discuss some of the different types of drafting tables available on our website. In the next post, we will do an informative bit about drafting stools. On our website, we offer several types of drafting tables . Please be aware when
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HAAS CNC Machines History
Posted by Wilbur Corncob: There are several companies in the world which manufacture CNC machines and in this blog we will learn something about one such company. The name of the company is HAAS machines. It has a wide range of vertical as well as horizontal CNC machining centres under its belt and caters to the needs of a wide target of consumers who have such
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CNC Router and Programming
Posted by Bill: Cnc Router : "A few years ago my fiance, Len Rulason and myself built a CNC Router so we could learn a bit about CNC programming and to make parts for our full scale and model aviation hobbies." Check out the blog for some great photos of a home built hobby cnc system and
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Beyond the CNC Control
Posted by Wilbur Corncob: CNC is not only about hardware as the name might suggest i.e. computerized numerical control. As is evident from the explanation of the acronym itself, whenever computerized control is involved in the process it also requires some sort of software to run the unintelligent hardware to perform some activity which is mostly a manufacturing related
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Metris Releases 7-Axis Articulated Arm
Leuven:- Metris (MTRS, Euronext Brussels) announces the launch of the 7 axis MCA (manual coordinate measuring arm) for accurate and full freedom laser scanning. With this new 7 axis articulated arm, Metris offers a complete inspection and reverse engineering solution that can be used just as easily in the metrology…

Builder of medium to heavy duty CNC milling/boring machines, Unisign, reported more than double the number of enquiries from EMO 2007, when compared with th 2006 show

Builder of medium to heavy duty CNC milling/boring machines, Unisign in The Netherlands, reported The EMO 2007 had exceeded all of its expectations and that not only was the quality of enquiries better than earlier years but more than double the amount of new enquiries was received on its EMO stand.

Unisign told manufacturingtalk.com that visitors wanted new technologies.

Of special interest to visitors was the Unipent UNIPENT 4000 5-axis portal machining centre.

The new Uniport 4000 CNC portal machining centre drew much interest because of its multi-tasking features.

Unisign has again shown that with the Unipent 4000 and Uniport 4000 it has two machines ithat will take a top position in their market segments.

Unisign also exhibited its Uniport 6000 portal machining centre in gantry configuration and its smaller Univers 4000.

The very successful Unicom 6000 was too large to exhibit but drew a large amount of enquiries.

Unisign said it is very confident about a successful future and is establishing an ever growing prominent position in the market of vertical CNC machining centres.

• Unisign: contact details and other news

UK – At EMO 2007, the Japanese machine tool manufacturer, Okuma, introduced a new way of turning tapered bores and outside diameters using its horizontal machining centers, which are available in the UK through NCMT.

Called turn-cutting, the patented technique is in contrast to the established process of revolving a component on the rotary table of a 4- or 5-axis machining center and feeding in a static turning tool mounted in the spindle to machine the OD. The bore would be impossible to turn to any reasonable accuracy, as a long right-angle head would be needed.

Instead, the turn-cut function in the Okuma OSP-P200M control allows a single-point turning tool in the spindle of one of the manufacturer’s horizontal machining centers to turn a static component, even on a 3-axis machine. It is achieved by taking advantage of linear feed rates up to 60 m/min to circular-interpolate the X and Y axes rapidly while feeding forward in Z.

The clever part, which forms the core of the patent, is the ability of the control to continuously orientate the tool in the spindle by rotating it at precisely the same speed as, and in synchrony with, the circular X/Y path. The tool therefore cuts at the correct rake angle at every point throughout the 360-degrees to ensure efficient and precise metal removal.

Cylindrical bores and ODs are easily achieved by keeping the X/Y travels constant, while tapers and other profiles can be turned by varying the amplitude of circular interpolation.

The benefit of turning on a machining center is that components can be finished in a single clamping, avoiding a subsequent set-up on a lathe and the consequent handling costs, increased floor-to-floor time and tolerance build-up. If parts are heavy and / or have eccentric bores or ODs, rotating them for conventional turning becomes difficult, requires expensive lathes and can lead to further inaccuracies.

At EMO, the machining center demonstrating the turn-cutting technique was an Okuma MA-600HB, which can machine workpieces weighing up to 1.2 tonnes within a nominal one metre cube. Turn-cutting accuracy is to within microns and it is this degree of precision that is crucial; some machine manufacturers might be able to approximate the procedure, but only for open-tolerance work.

As with all the latest Okuma machine tools, the MA-600HB features the manufacturer’s Thermo Friendly Concept. Symmetrical design and electronic compensation from sensors around the machine structure and spindle hold dimensional drift to below 10 microns, even if the ambient temperature changes by up to 8 degrees Centigrade. Repeatability is ± 1.5 microns.

While turn-cutting is applicable to any component, the company singles out large, multi-port valves as particularly suitable for being machined in this way. Not only can the bores and flange ODs be conveniently turned, but it is also possible to single-point cut an accurate scroll pattern on the flange faces for improved sealability.

SOURCE: Okuma