Archive for the ‘Machining’ Category

LOS ANGELES, CA , Jan 25, 2008 – Westec 2008 features the unveiling of two major developments in CNC Software’s Mastercam CAD/CAM software. Attendees will get the first look at Mastercam’s new Feature Based Machining (FBM) as well as the Mastercam for SolidWorks add-in. Both will showcased in booth # 3258 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, CA on March 31 – April 3.

Feature-Based Machining (FBM)

Mastercam’s new Feature-Based Machining automates the machining process. This offers shops dramatic speed improvements and allows for great reductions in programming time. Mastercam’s FBM will automatically evaluate the part and program pockets, contours, bosses, and drilling routines with minimal user input. New users to Mastercam will be machining 2D solid parts sooner thanks to FBM’s ease of use and short learning curve.

Mastercam for SolidWorks

Mastercam for SolidWorks is fully integrated CAM that runs seamlessly in SolidWorks. SolidWorks users can now program their parts directly within SolidWorks using Mastercam’s industry-leading toolpaths and machining strategies.

Mastercam’s latest release, X2MR2 will also be demonstrated in the booth. Stop by to learn about the Mastercam X2 features including: -

• The new Peel Milling toolpath moves the tool in and “peels” away material, layer by layer.
• The Operations Manager pane can now float to a different area of the graphics window or to a separate screen when you are working with dual monitors.
• The Create Boundary function greatly expands Mastercam’s toolpath boundary creation, restricting the toolpaths to highly specific areas.
• Many powerful multi-axis enhancements are included in the advanced multi-axis toolpaths.
• Common edge optimization in nesting is now supported.

About Mastercam

Developed by CNC Software, Inc., Mastercam is Windows-based CAD/CAM software for 2- through 5-axis milling and turning; 2- and 4-axis wire EDM; 2D and 3D design, surface, and solid modeling; artistic relief cutting, and 2D and 3D routing. CNC Software is a privately owned corporation founded in 1984. The U.S.-based company provides Mastercam CAD/CAM solutions to more than 124,936 installations in 75 countries in industries including mold-making, prototyping, automotive, medical, aerospace, and consumer products. Mastercam runs under Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Vista, and is compatible with all other CAD/CAM systems. For more information about CNC Software, Inc. and its Mastercam family of products, contact CNC Software, Inc., M – F, 8 AM – 6 PM EST at (800) 228-2877 or (860) 875-5006, 671 Old Post Road, Tolland, CT 06084. Or visit www.mastercam.com.

GE Fanuc has developed a series of aftermarket services that the company said can deliver as much as 25 percent more machining capacity without buying new equipment.

GE Fanuc’s Engineered Solutions (www.gefanuc.com) business unit has developed a method to optimize machine tool processes that includes adjusting the functions on machine tools to ensure they operate accurately and that they deliver the correct information to the machine controller.

GE Fanuc Engineered Solutions aftermarket services tune-up such machine functions as feed-forward, look-ahead, contouring controls, NURBS interpolation, and feedrate and adaptive controls.

Tuning such functions on a machine tool can extend a machine’s capabilities, Gary Highley, manager of Engineered Solutions for GE Fanuc, said.

“Users often don’t understand the full capabilities of their CNC machines. There are literally hundreds of tools in the CNC that can be used to improve productivity of the machining process,” Highley said.

“Machine tool builders provide the best value CNC system to meet their machine specifications, but may not take advantage of some key advanced features unless specified by the end user. Awareness of this functionality can lead to huge improvements in manufacturing processes,” Highley added.

For example: A machine tool’s servo system may not be properly adjusted and optimized for manufacturing, he said. Servo motors are responsible for moving spindles and tables on machines, and parts will be made out of tolerance or nearly out of tolerance if they do not function properly.

To get the best performance from a machine tool, GE Fanuc tests and adjusts servo system parameters while monitoring the machine to ensure that the responses from the servo system match the mechanics of the machine.

In addition, current loops are adjusted to high settings to realize a high response rate, and velocity loop and position gain also are set high to get higher responses to commands and to suppress disturbance torque.

Highley has a long list of other adjustments, tests and checks that he does on a machine, but he said the current loops are the heart of the servo system.

“Faster current loops equal faster response to disturbances and reduced path error. A fast current loop allows for a fast velocity and position loop. Faster loops improve speed and accuracy,” he said. A high velocity loop improves a machine’s speed of response to commands, while position gain determines how fast the servo system reacts to position deviation. A high position gain helps to reduce errors as long as stability is maintained.

Highley said basic servo tuning on a machine run by an aerospace parts producer improved the cycle time and the part profile. Cycle time was reduced by tuning the velocity and position loops for higher speeds, and by reducing acceleration/deceleration times to 150 ms from 600 ms. Part accuracy was improved by reducing path errors and interpolation errors.

In a second example, Highley said another aerospace parts producer was able to save $150,000 in the production of one part as a result of servo tuning and machine optimization on a line of seven horizontal machining centers.

The shop could not hold tolerances on the part, even while machining at 72 ipm, and had to make significant edits to its part programs each time it ran the part. Also, a separate, edited program was needed for each part on each machine, and the edited programs were based on test cuts that were done each time a new batch of parts was run.

The machine optimization included correcting settings for pulses per revolution of the spindle, which is a feedback response to the CNC; adjusting gains on the machines and correcting high precision contour control parameters.

“The result is that the programmed path now is the path that they get,” Highley said, adding that the shop now uses one part program for all seven machines instead of individual programs for each machine, and it has reduced hand deburring operations by 98 percent.

Delcam, the software developer and distributor of such products as PowerMILL, Partmaker, FeatureCAM and ArtCAM, has a special hands-on approach to its software development process.

Delcam operates a machine shop, its Tooling Services Division, next to its software development headquarters in Birmingham, England.

The main aim of the facility is to allow comprehensive real-world testing of software before it is released to customers. However, it also operates as a working machine shop which is profitable in its own right. It uses the latest machining and inspection technology from manufacturers such as Mecof, Anyak, Matsuura, Bridgeport, Renishaw and POLI.

“The Tooling Services Division has always had a dual role within Delcam,” Brian Hawkshaw, division director, said.

“While we provide a real-world testing environment for our CAM software during its development, we are also required to operate as a profitable business in our own right.”

Delcam just added a WFL mill-turn machine with a three-meter working capacity to the Tooling Services Division.

“Until recently, we have concentrated on five-axis machining, both because that was the main focus for our PowerMILL development team and because five-axis operations increased our ability to take on more complex jobs and complete them more efficiently.

“The move into mill-turn has had similar motives. Delcam has expanded its product range with the acquisition of FeatureCAM and PartMaker, both of which offer millturn functionality, so we needed equipment with the ability to test new developments in these programs.

“Secondly, we have received more inquiries for large-scale projects that would only be possible to undertake efficiently with a mill-turn machine. We were taking orders for work even before we acquired the machine, and its capacity is already booked for most of this year,” Hawkshaw said.

He added that Delcam’s Tooling Services Division duplicated the diversification into other industries that Delcam accomplished with its software business in recent years.

“The aerospace sector now provides our biggest source of work, rather than the toolmaking industry,” he said.

Delcam sees the manufacturing expertise it gains in its Tooling Services Division as an important part of the comprehensive support it gives to its customers.

Besides helping the ocmpany’s development teams, experience it gains in the division is passed on to its support staff.

Hawkshaw said Delcam’s support staff uses the knowledge developed in the division to give its software users advice on all areas of their work, including the best choice of machining strategy and cutter selection.

Being able to test such developments on-site obviously gives Delcam a major advantage in proving out its software.

“Many CAM programs generate data that is mathematically correct but that is often impossible to machine in practice,” Hawkshaw said, adding that the company’s machine shop had a roll in the development of its PowerMILL software for high-speed machining and shop-floor programming and that he expects the mill-turn equipment to have a similar role in developing software for multi-function machining.”

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’.

Affordable CNCs and DROs will be demonstrated at MACH 2008 performing milling, machining centre and turning applications and show that price does not compromise performance

Anilam will be demonstrating the easy-to-use yet powerful functionality of its extensive range of CNC systems for milling, machining centre and turning applications (Series 3000, 4000, 5000 and 6000) alongside its equally impressive Wizard 411 and Wizard 1000 digital read-outs (DRO). And it will show how price does not compromise performance.

The 2-/3-axis milling Anilam Series 3000M will sit side-by-side with the 3-/4-/5-axis 5000M Series and the multi-axis 6000 Series, as well as the 2-/3-axis 4200T turning system.

The aim, said Anilam, is to highlight their unbeatable cost-to-performance ratios.

Visitors to the stand will be able to learn that Anilam CNCs feature a minimum of 8 Mbytes of RAM (up to 64 Mbytes) and networking capability that boasts auto-sensing at 100Mbit/s for data transmission.

The result is that users can gain improvements of up to 50% in program verification, and performance improvements of 15% in the processing of 8,000-block programs featuring 0.003in step-over increments.

* probing functionality – probing functionality for all industry-standard probes is standard on the 6000 Series (optional on the 3000 and 5000 Series) and, as is usual with all Anilam control functions, probe cycles are easy to use through a graphical/conversational screen.

After a cycle is selected, the appropriate variables are input via simple question and answer routines.

Tool measurement cycles include the following.

* Tool probe calibration.

* Tool length and diameter offset preset.

* Manual tool length and diameter measurement (for special tools).

* Tool breakage, length and diameter wear detection.

Workpiece measurement cycles cover the following functions.

* Edge find – single surface measure/edge.

* Corner out/in – outside/inside part corner find.

* In/out boss – inside/outside hole or boss find.

* In/out web – inside/outside web or slot find.

* Probe move – protected positioning.

* Skew comp – skew error compensation or angle find.

The multi-axis 6000 Series CNC is increasingly gaining approval by original equipment manufacturers and importers of vertical machining centres.

The control combines Anilam’s conversational Machinist’s Language programming routines with G Code programming to create a CNC that has an unrivalled level of functionality and user-friendliness within a single system.

It is supplied as a complete OEM package with a range of nine axis motors rated from 3Nm to 20.5Nm and ten spindle motors covering the power range 4.5kW to 22kW.

These suit the high traverse speeds of up to 30m/min and the up to 10,000 rev/min spindle speeds common on such machines.

The CNC has a powerful 586 DX4 133 PC processor and 16Mbytes of RAM, plus a 12in TFT screen.

It has enhanced mould and die capability (scaling, mirror image, modal corner rounding/chamfering, for example), said Anilam to manufacturingtalk.com, as well as a host of canned cycles including mould rotation and draft angle.

It also features a cam programming mode for interactive programming using icons (moves shown as they are being programmed), menu-driven tooling, tool compensation and interference checking, as well as built-in post-processor.

Simulation graphic functions embrace rapid, feed and compensated moves (colour differentiated) isometric views, auto part fit, window zoom and static tool display, for instance.

Canned cycles include the following.

* Irregular pockets – a simple routine of prompts produces clearances of irregular shapes.

* Geometry – the geometry calculator, for determining points, lines and circles, automatically forms the program foundation.

* Bolt hole pattern and drill cycles are created by simple question and answer routines.

The 6000 Series CNC also features Anilam’s Integral Programmable Intelligence, so there is no need for a separate PLC unit and, compared to older CNC systems accompanied by a separate bank of drives, these are now housed in one compact module.

* Turning – for lathes, the 4200T turning control’s functionality includes create, delete/undelete, list, copy, rename and print, and the system also features constant surface speed as standard, to help guarantee consistent surface finish and extended tool life.

Also, the control can run in several operational modes – including teach mode achieved via single or dual handwheel operation with dual axis interpolation.

* Milling – the Anilam 3300 MK 3-axis milling CNC on show also features the Machinist’s Language coupled with a wide range of standard cycles such as peck drilling, bolt-hole patterns, pocket milling and face milling; advanced cycles including ellipse, spiral, helical, tapping, irregular pocket milling and profile milling, as well as special cycles that include counter boring.

* Borering machines – the stand at MACH 2008 will also highlight how the Anilam Commando CNC has for almost 30 years been synonymous with transforming the performance of manual borers, and in its latest guise harnesses the ease-of-use capabilities of Machinist’s Language in a Series 3000 CNC system.

In its new format driven by 8.1 Gbyte Intel hard drive, Commando complements its ability to automate machine positioning with the offer of on-screen editing and help graphics as well as DXF and G-code conversion to further save operator time and increase machine productivity.

* DROs – of the two Wizard DROs being shown, the 1-/2-/3-axis Anilam 411 (which complements the 4-axis Wizard 1000) is an ‘entry-level’ DRO.

It has powerful functionality, substantial technical service back-up and three-year warranty reassurances that belie its low-cost price tag making it incomparable with any other product available in the global low-cost DRO marketplace, said Anilam.

In addition to standard functionality embracing tool offsets, sub datums, linear patterns (row, frame, array), PCD calculations (full and partial) and vectoring, the ultra-reliable all diecast-constructed Wizard 411 sets itself apart from other systems courtesy of LCD screen (the only DRO available using this technology) plus sealed membrane keypad and powerful canned functions for incline, arc, rectangular frame and rectangular pocket routines.

Complemented by ENC 125 precision glass scales that boast a resolution of five microns and an accuracy rating of 10 micron/m, the Wizard 411’s ease of set-up and use is also signified by the fact that the system will be shopped with a two-page quick reference set-up guide rather than a handbook.

* Anilam at MACH 2008, NEC, Birmingham, UK, April 21- 25, Hall 5, Stand 5011.

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.

A high performance, 5-axis machining centre, a wire EDM and a die-sinking EDM will reflect the latst in milling and EDM technology at MACH 2008

GF AgieCharmilles, a market-leading EDM and milling machine tool manufacturer, will be showing its very latest EDM and milling machines – with many of the machines making their UK market debuts at the MACH 2008 machine tool exhibition. The new machines include a Mikron High-Performance 5-axis machining centre (HPM 800U) and two EDM machines: the Form 2000, an advanced and sophisticated spark erosion machine, and an AC Cut 20, a high-productivity standard wire machine.

They will be joined by three more GF AgieCharmilles machines, as follows.

* A Mikron HSM 400U high-speed 5-axis machine.

* A FI 640 CC (CleanCut) wire edm machine.

* An EDM Drill 11 (EDM hole-drilling machine).

UK managing director of Agie Charmilles, Steve Sylvester, told manuacturingtalk.com: ‘We’ve put a lot of thought into our machine tool line up at MACH – and believe we’ve got the balance just about right’. He said: ‘Our milling line-up substantiates our market-leader position in 5-axis machine tool manufacture, and reflects the growing market trend towards multi-axis machining’.

Sylvester added: ‘Both High-Speed and High-Performance 5-axis machine tool technologies will be represented by the two Mikron machines being exhibited – and both will feature integrated automation and SMART technology software for increased productivity’.

* EDM – about EDM exhibits, Sylvester said: ‘On the EDM side we’ve made sure that we’ve covered all the bases too.

We have standard and advanced wire and die-sink models on show, and our line-up demonstrates to precision manufacturers (precision toolmakers and component manufacturers), that our range of EDM machines is second to none’.

In addition to (and to complement) the machine tools on show, GF AgieCharmilles will also use its MACH exhibition stand to promote the company’s comprehensive and highly-successful Customer Services Business – Consumables, After-sales services, Technical and Applications support and so on.

Finally, the company’s popular ‘Privilege Club’, a recently launched customer loyalty and incentive programme, will also be promoted from its Stand.

Agie Charmilles at MACH 2008, NEC, Birmirngham, UK, April 21-25, Hall 5, Stand 5410.