DEVELOP3D Special Report: CAM and CNC – April 2014

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SHANGHAI AUTO WHY THE UK DESIGN TEAM BROUGHT BACK CNC

ROBOFOLD USING INDUSTRial ROBOTS TO CREATE METAL ORIGAMI

Reviews LATEST FROM EdgeCAM, POWERMILL & Autodesk CAM

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[RE]BIRTH OF THE COOLANT 03 NEWS 08 CHALLENGES OF BRINGING BACK CNC

There’s a growing trend for organisations to bring machining facilities back in house. Al Dean explores why and the challenges that lie ahead

12 ROBOFOLD

Imagine being able to design a shape using folded paper, then have that scaled up to produce that same shape, repeatedly and reliably. Robofold has mastered the process with ABB robots.

16 CNC AT SAIC EUROpean DESIGN CENTRE

Alongside continued investment in a world class concept styling and engineering team at its European Design Centre, SAIC is investing in in-house prototyping to help bring MG cars back to life

18 ON THE RIGHT TRACK

Detroit-based Hi-Tech Mold & Engineering re-examined its mould and die design and production processes and stripped both time and cost using Tebis’s range of products

20 BLOODHOUND SSC + EDGECAM

If you’re driving a vehicle at 1,000 miles per hour, you need to make sure your components are just right. NAMRC in Sheffield is using Edgecam to help bring Bloodhound to a reality

22 STORK TURBO BLADING

Stork Turbo Blading produces, repairs and remanufactures turbine blades for a wide range of industrial customers. It chose NX CAM to revitalise its process and capability

I

’ve a theory about why there’s a sudden resurgence of interest in all things machining — CNC and CAM. It essentially boils down to two things: firstly, offshoring is becoming less attractive because of delivery, quality and control issues and secondly more people are generally interested in ‘making’ (either professionally or as a hobby).

So let’s look at these two things in more detail. The economics of offshoring production machining are starting to swing back in the favour of ‘local is best’. Costs in the East are rising, delivery times aren’t cutting the mustard and quality and process control are always an issue.

There’s also the fact that more younger people are becoming familiar with the mechanics of manufacturing. Yes, 3D printers are helping. Once you’ve got the bug of how you make things yourself, then you want to know more.

That inevitably leads to making things from metal, rather than crappy bits of plastic. To paraphrase Mark Hatch, CEO of Tech Shop from his Maker Manifesto book, “3D printing is the gateway drug for CNCs”.

In this 38 page report, we look at some of the challenges that lay ahead for the CAM and CNC industry, look at companies doing interesting, novel and innovative things with their products and processes. From industrial robots folding complex shapes from sheet metal, through turbine blades and mould manufacture into things that undoubtedly go vroom!

We also take a look at three new software releases from Autodesk, Vero Software and Delcam.

Enjoy!

24 POCKET ROCKETS

We learn how the Gilberti Brothers decided to diversify and start to produce 49cc, 25kg scale motorcycles that will easily reach 120km per hour on the track with HAAS machine tools

27 Review: AUTODESK CAM 2015

Whether within SolidWorks, Inventor or on the cloud with Fusion 360, Autodesk’s HSM products have something to offer. From free up to simultaneous 5-axis machining

30 Review: EDGECAM 2014

Automation has been the key focus for this Edgecam release.

Bringing together intelligent tools to assist with knowledge capture and efficient reuse with Edgecam Workflow

32 Review: DELCAM POWERMILL 2014

The venerable system for complex machining, PowerMill gets a couple of key upgrades that brings better support for the fullflute machining crowd

Al Dean Editor-in-Chief DEVELOP3D Magazine @alistardean

34 THE CASE FOR MACHINE SIMULATION

CGtech’s managing director, John Reed, explores the case for independent machine verification and simulation and discusses the key focus points that its customers have identified

36 TALKING HEADS: CAM for beginners

We talk to three CAM industry veterans about how the industry needs to change to better support those introducing CNC into their workflows for the first time

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NEWS

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DELCAM to remain independenT following Autodesk Acquisition

» Ever since the news broke that Autodesk was to acquire Delcam, the industry has been buzzing with speculation about the future. Al Dean explores what it all means

I

f there’s one thing that the CAD/CAM industry loves it’s an acquisition and the last few years have seen much consolidation within the CAM sector in particular. Many of the acquisitions have been made possible by founders of companies closing in on retirement and looking to cash out and buy a yacht.

While much of this consolidation has been internal to the CAM industry, Autodesk’s recent acquisition of Delcam is different in that it was conducted in the wider design and manufacturing technology sector.

Until Autodesk acquired HSMworks a few years ago, it had steered clear of the nuts and bolts of production. And while it has been obvious that the company has had much larger ambitions outside of design and engineering for some time, few predicted either the scale of those ambitions or its desire to invest in those ambitions. In the end, that willingness amounted to a cool £172.5 million.

In years gone by, Autodesk has had a habit of strange manoeuvres once acquisitions were complete. So, with such a great deal at stake, for both the existing Delcam CNC4 APRIL 2014 DEVELOP3D.COM

team and its customers, it was with some anticipation that we awaited the finalisation of the deal and more clarity on the plans for the future.

The end result was that the Delcam shareholders (much of the shares are held by the staff as well as founding partners) voted resolutely to proceed with the venture and news started to emerge.

Delcam will continue to be operated as a wholly owned, but independently run subsidiary of Autodesk. This will allow it to maintain its product line and be accountable for its own sales channel (which is extensive in emerging markets in particular, as well as the usual manufacturing strongholds in North America and Europe).

For the time being the Autodesk CAM channel (with HSMworks) will compete directly with Delcam’s offerings, including FeatureCAM, PartMaker.

But looking to the future, Autodesk and Delcam will look to co-operate in a number of areas. One quoted example is in the automotive styling studios, where Autodesk has a big presence with its Alias range of surface development tools. These dovetail nicely with Delcam’s PowerInspect and PowerShape tools to assist with the measurement and

machining of clay models.

In terms of influence of the greater market, it’s too early to make concrete predictions. Personally speaking, I find this one of the most intriguing moves in a couple of decades. Autodesk has a large customer base across a wide spread of the manufacturing industry, while Delcam has some of the most impressive technology stacks and serious customers in manufacturing.

Whether other major vendors will step up their games with acquisitions or crosspollination of their own manufacturing technologies remains to be seen. Both Siemens and Dassault have machining expertise in-house, but have yet to introduce these into their mainstream offerings in any meaningful way. Will they, after this? Who knows?

The good news is that Delcam’s Birmingham, UK headquarters has yet to see much of an effect from the acquisition.

The staff canteen still has curry on a Thursday and if you’re there, you can grab a cup of tea in a polystyrene cup from the tea trolley that passes around the offices and extensive tool-room. After all, some things just don’t need to change, do they?

■ autodesk.com ■ delcam.com

Above: (left to right) Glen McMinn, president, Delcam North America, Clive Martell, president, Delcam, Carl Bass, President and CEO of Autodesk, Steve Hobbs, development director, Delcam, and Bart Simpson, commercial director, Delcam

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CIMdata NC market report recognises CAMWorks as fastest growing CAM vendor

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eometric, the developer of CAMWorks, the integrated NC programming product, has been recognised as the fastest growing CAM company in CIMdata’s 2013 NC Market Analysis Report. The feature-based CAM software is available standalone or embedded within SolidWorks and Solid Edge.

Geometric was also identified as one of the five fastest growing CAM companies consecutively for the past four years.

“CAMWorks has a strong offering for generative knowledge-based machining, a segment that is poised for mass adoption,” said Stan Przybylinski, vice president of research, CIMdata. CAMWorks revenues have grown rapidly in the last few years and are expected to sustain this momentum.”

Published every year, CIMdata’s NC Market Report has become the bible for those looking at where the NC market is heading and what the expected areas of growth will be for the coming years ahead.

■ camworks.com ■ cimdata.com

CAMWorks for Solid Edge is a feature-based CAM tool that works with Synchronous Technology

ZW3D CAD/CAM 2014 boasts ‘smarter CAM’

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W3D CAD/CAM 2014, the latest version of the Chinesedeveloped all-in-one CAD/CAM software, features upgraded CAD functionality, an optimised mould module and what is described as ‘Smarter CAM.’ For CAD, the software features an integrated file translator supporting various formats, like Parasolid, SolidWorks, Solid Edge, UG NX, Creo and Catia etc and a simplified feature manager providing faster history regeneration.

For CAM, there is a newly-developed Tool Path Editor, which allows ‘intuitive control and adjustment of the entire or partial tool-path’. With calculation of tool paths

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Dropbox integrated or via email.

The Reviewer app is now available through the Apple App Store and is free of charge.

More information and sample Reviewer files can be downloaded from: ■ cgtech.com/ipad

TopSolid CAM from Missler Software will feature Spring Technologies’ NCSIMUL machine code simulation technology in its next major release. This new package, TopSolid’NCSIMUL, will be available later this year within TopSolid’Cam 7.8.

The integration will be ‘completely transparent.’ topsolid.com | ncsimul.com The CAMWorks Handbook offers concise, step-by-step instructions on creating toolpaths using best in class machining strategies.

The 14 lessons illustrate a variety of useful CAMWorks commands. Topics covered include 2.5-axis, 3-axis, 4-axis and 5-axis milling camworksguide.com hyperMILL, the CAM solution from Open Mind Technologies, is fully compatible with Autodesk Inventor 2014. The integration of includes data associativity and allows continuous workflows all the way from design to CNC manufacturing. openmind-tech.com

becoming more accurate and smarter, ZW3D claims the software can ensure machining reliability, prolong tool life and improve CNC efficiency.

Other new CAM features include corner finish, a specialist operation for rest finishing that will help clear up the corner smartly. Roughing has also been improved with region priority of roughing becoming more accurate, with a view to reducing tool lifting and improving machining efficiency.

The optimised mould module is designed to simplify the mould design process by improving the speed of layout generation, flexibly splitting and other practical improvements.

■ cgtech.com/ipad

CGTech’s new iPad app for shop documents Gtech, the developer of VeriCut, has launched a Reviewer app, one of the few iPad tools focussed on the CAM market.

The software is designed to allow those on the move or away from the shopfloor to interact with machine and toolpath simulations being worked on in the office.

CGTech’s app links to a desktop bound license of Vericut. Users can output VeriCut report files which contain information about cutting tools, job setup, machining instructions and other information. These can be automatically created and packaged up to be delivered to those that need them.

The NC programmer saves a “Reviewer” file which can be saved at any point in a simulation session. It is then transferred to the Vericut Reviewer iPad App through iTunes or, perhaps more usefully, using

ROUND UP

CGTech’s Reviewer iPad app gives mobile access to Vericut report files

Delcam has released the 2014 R2 version of FeatureCAM. This release brings support for milling and drilling with rightangle heads and one-stop programming of multiple roughing operations.

Other enhancements include better control of Z-level roughing, and improvements to Wire EDM and chamfering featurecam.com Type3 has released Type EDit V12, the latest version of its software for industrial and artistic modelling, design, engraving and cutting, dedicated to NC machines. Version 12 brings a refreshed user interface as well as new features in 2D, 3D and machining, new import options and easier scripting for automation and customisation type3.com

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LOCK MAKER REDEFINES ITS PRODUCTION PROCESS

NCG CAM V13 unveiled

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raditional manufacturing can mean many things: traditional in terms of its geographic heartland, but also the method by which the end product is made. Based in Willenhall in the Black Country, B&G Lock & Tool Co complies with both, being one of the few remaining lockmakers in an area that was once synonymous with the industry.

B&G Lock’s business was built on the manufacture of high quality brass padlocks under its STA-LOK and STASECURE brand names, which are still manufactured in relatively high volumes.

However, manufacturing methods remained the same, with traditional flowline techniques being employed to produce the lock bodies. “Traditionally, we manufactured the lock bodies on a line of 16 pedestal drills, with individual fixtures, and the operator walking each lock body down the line,” says Jim Plimmer Production Manager B&G Lock & Tool Co. “This is a very inefficient method, but with the growth in more niche products we needed to look at our machining process and make investment in the right areas.”

Demand for more bespoke products led the company to small to medium size batch manufacture and a review of its process brought B&G Lock & Tool Co into contact with XYZ Machine Tools resulting in the purchase of an XYZ 710 VMC machining centre.

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B&G Lock now fully utilises the machine’s 760 by 430mm table size through use of a multi-part fixture that holds three rows of 16 lock bodies, each presenting the part to complete a single operation, with each cycle creating 16 finished machined lock bodies.

“The old method of working severely restricted our ability to respond to design changes and meet short run orders due to the time required to manufacture jigs,” says Jim Plimmer. “With the XYZ 710 VMC we have dramatically reduced set-up and cycle times and it has also allowed us to develop new products, such as our HS650 hardened steel padlocks, which we simply couldn’t have manufactured using the pillar drills.”

■ xyzmachinetools.com ■ bgpadlocks.co.uk

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CG CAM Solutions has officially launched NCG CAM V13. This latest release includes a large number of new features and enhancements to existing tools.

Features include helical machining, the ability to cap holes, shaft profile export, optional origins, and the ability to save values in the edit transform dialogue.

Also new is the ability to pick a surface’s colour and make other surfaces the same colour, tapping with chip break, the ability to use lollipop and dovetail cutters for 5-axis surface machining, as well as many other enhancements including improvements to the rest machining and waterline linking strategies.

■ ncgcam.com

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© 2014 Siemens Product Lifecycle Management Software Inc. All rights reserved. Siemens and the Siemens logo are registered trademarks of Siemens AG. All other logos, trademarks or service marks used herein are the property of their respective owners.

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NX CAM for faster machining

Great decisions in part manufacturing #481.

An NC programmer saves a revision to his code... and saves the company $550,000 in rework costs.

NX CAM: Smarter decisions, better products.

Sometimes, the smallest decision in part manufacturing has the greatest impact on a company’s success.

NX part manufacturing solutions from Siemens PLM Software give everyone involved in your CAD/CAM/CNC process chain the information they need, right when they need it and in the right context to do their job. The result: your company takes full advantage of its manufacturing resources, makes smarter decisions — and produces better parts.

Find out how NX part manufacturing solutions can help you make the decisions that make your part manufacturing business better.

NX CAM and Teamcenter ensure that you use the right data from NC programming through to machining.

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The challenge of BRINGING BACK CNC There’s a growing trend for organisations to bring machining facilities back in house. Al Dean explores why and the challenges that lie ahead

W

e’ve all heard how CNC manufacturing was abandoned in the late 1980s and 1990s for cheaper, outsourced and offshored services.

But the truth is some of it never went away. And now, for those engaged in the business end of the process, that of actually designing, developing and producing these products, there are multiple reasons that CNC manufacturing is becoming more attractive than ever.

From idea to prototype to refinement to production we look at some of the different areas driving this trend and consider how firms can embrace the challenges of the changing manufacturing landscape.

IN prototyping

manufacturing back in house.

A recent report, entitled Backing Britain, by the EEF (eef.org.uk) surveyed companies that are reshoring manufacturing from overseas to discover what’s driving that shift.

As you can see from the chart over the page, the key reasons are split between those associated with delivery (both in terms of logistics costs and time) and cost of those overseas activities (the report’s respondents work in China and Eastern Europe, with India being in third place). But the overriding factor is quality — especially in the SME sector.

While machining only covers a portion of the production process, it can have a dramatic effect on the quality of a product.

Whether that’s relating to the absolute quality that can be measured (in terms of tolerances in individual As an educational tool components or fit between Manufacturing technologies assembled components) or have now reached a point of perceived quality (in terms of Organisations need to look at their CAM affordability, both in terms how a product appears). programming best practice to ensure that of capital cost and the time Interestingly, neither quality these highly efficient and highly complex required to learn their foibles. or timescale issues are the machines are used to their full capability I’m not just talking about leading factor in reshoring, but 3D printers here though: otherwise any competitive advantage is lost the combination of the two is laser cutters, CNC routers, what’s really driving the trend.

CNC mills and lathes have all The following extract from massively come down in price. the EFF report sums this The knock on effect is young people design or engineering team can quickly turn up quite nicely “A guarantee of quality is now have access to a much wider range around prototypes, test, evaluate and refine critical for a large minority of companies of manufacturing technologies than ever those early stage concepts, they can fine-tune who report this as contributing to their before – in schools, university, techshops, the product more readily. competitive advantage in the market. Almost hackerspaces, even at home. They can And, taking a long term view, if this half of manufacturers believe that the quality experiment and learn and develop a much can be done without sending out for of goods sourced from lower-labour-cost greater understanding of production and manufacturing, it will be cheaper as well. economies is getting better, with larger manufacturing with numerically controlled If that cost is reduced, more prototypes and companies seemingly better able to secure methods than ever before. ideas can be explored and everything feeds quality improvements, but confidence that We are already seeing the fruits of this into the process in a highly beneficial way. overseas operators will supply to the required shift with new design and manufacturing specifications is not sufficient for many.” endeavours popping up all over the place.

In Production The routes may be less traditional – gaining CNC’s greatest impact comes in the CHALLENGES FOR THE tech INDUSTRY funding for an idea and taking it into manufacturing and production process Whether for prototype or production production – but there are many solid — and it’s in this area where there’s some purposes, organisations looking to bring foundations for building successful businesses. incredible movement in terms of bringing CNC in-house face a fair few challenges.

While many firms continue to outsource prototype components, some of the most innovative organisations have brought prototyping in house. And there’s a number of tools in use, from 3D printers to CNC mills and lathes and laser cutters.

But why such a mix? While a 3D print might give you shape or form or basic functionality, you simply can’t beat the use of production intent materials to build, test, refine and develop your products in that formative stage. With CNC, parts are more resilient and there can even be support for early stage production.

Every time I visit a company that has facilities in house, the message is consistent.

There are huge benefits in time and cost. If a

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IMAGE CREDIT: GROVE (www.grovemade.com)

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Grovemade runs a HAAS CNC mill with Mastercam and SolidWorks providing the CAD/CAM back up

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CAM software vendors have seen more and more knowledge capture tools introduced as well as tools that allow that knowledge to be used intelligently where needed.

Using previously established routines, decisions and standards, standardised operation parameters for machine tools, cutter lists and material- or task-specific strategies can help ensure that toolpaths are run that are not only safe, but take advantage of the latest capabilities in the machines in-house.

One such example is the recent wealth of interest in using the full flute of a cutter to rough out material stock. While this might have been avoided in years gone by, advances in cutter technology (in particular, chip splitting cutters) and the software available to optimise the tool-paths for this type of work (constant cutter engagement is the key Firms need to invest in training and make word du jour here), means that it’s possible the most of older, knowledgeable staff, to help to remove material at a much faster rate skill-up newer, younger, team members. than has ever been possible before. But to For those outside of this, it presents both do that, the operations need to be fine tuned a problem and an opportunity for the CAM by machine, by cutter type and for each software industry to sharpen its tools and material. gain new customers.

Elsewhere, the cost of mill/turn machines Where this rich vein of potential exists is in is reducing with each year and more the provision of tools that allow the capture are being sold than ever before. Again, of knowledge and the ability to not only organisations need to look at their CAM formalise that in terms of best practice, but programming best practice to ensure that also to help with establishing knowledgethese highly efficient and highly complex based execution of machining strategies. machines are used to their full capability Many of the last few releases from the major otherwise any competitive advantage is lost.

Percentage of companies citing reason behind reshoring decision - (Backing Britain, 2014)

We’re not just talking about the machines; also the inherent technologies for creating G-code that drive the machines, and the equipment needed for inspection.

Alongside the age-old challenges of capital investment, financing and facilities firms need staff and knowledge to make the most efficient use of the new tools.

We’re all familiar with the so-called skills gap in manufacturing and this is never more true than when it comes to finding staff experienced with efficient machining strategies and machine set-up and optimisation.

GROVEMADE: Learning from hardware start-ups The iPhone and iPad accessory market is cut throat. Cheap Chinese imports are rampant and it’s hard to distinguish between the offerings from the different brands. One that stands out is Portland-based, Grovemade.

Founded in 2009 by two friends with divergent backgrounds, Grovemade has built its business around a combination of unique products, customisation (using laser engraving) and sustainable materials.

The company has mastered its production processes with in-house manufacturing, so we asked cofounder, Ken Tomita, to share some of his experiences.

Al Dean: What lead to the decision to manufacture in house, rather than to outsource?

Ken Tomita: My background was originally in carpentry and then custom furniture design and fabrication. Joe [Mansfield, co-founder at Grovemade] had a custom laser engraving shop.

We were both comfortable with and completely accustomed to taking control and making things ourselves.

It was more natural for us to do it

ourselves if we wanted it done right and we wanted to do something difficult.

I personally held a belief that products were better if designer and maker were the same person with my old business. Both processes can feed off of each other and you can more freely experiment. That philosophy just carried onto Grovemade.

AD: What are the key factors to consider for start-ups looking to manufacture their own products rather than outsourcing?

KT: “Making things is hard.” That is a catch phrase of mine. If you aren’t willing to do it the hard way, don’t even bother. I don’t recommend it for most people. We started out with zero knowledge of machine tools or CAD/ CAM. We learned from a consultant and taught ourselves with DIY brute force.

You need people that can, and are willing to, do that OR you need to hire seasoned pros to begin with.

If you are starting out, don’t forget to consider not just the cost of the machine but expensive CAM and CAD software and the expensive people that can do the programming.

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AD: You run a Haas machine. How did you end up choosing that particular machine?

KT: Our CNC consultant basically told us what to buy. His background was making aluminium motorcycle parts.

Now that I have a better understanding of the industry, I know that HAAS machines are relatively inexpensive and provide good value, dollar for dollar.

There are Japanese machines that do the same thing that cost three times as much. Are they better? Yes. Are they worth paying three times as much? That’s a question for the individual to answer since it depends on the application.

AD: If you had to share one tip for a small organisation looking to move into CNC based manufacturing, what would it be?

KT: Don’t do it! Haha... Besides that I would say make sure you have the right people who have a knack for both programming, CAD, and actually making stuff.

■ grovemade.com

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Visit Birmingham - the home of Delcam The world’s leading specialist in CAM Software

See our latest developments in:5-axis machining High-speed area clearance Turn-mill programming Reverse engineering Inspection On-machine verification

Delcam employs more than 200 CAM developers – that’s more than any other supplier.

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Visit us at Stand 4011

Complete CADCAM Solutions Delcam UK Small Heath Business Park | Talbot Way | Birmingham | B10 0HJ Tel: +44 (0)121 766 5544 | Email: marketing@delcam.com

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Robofold’s process allows for elaborate metal sheet work to be designed, simulated and manufactured by robots making changes to patterns or parts simple and low cost

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Into the fold Using robots to bend, shape and fold sheet metal is bringing freedom to design.

Stephen Holmes visits Robofold and becomes transfixed by its robotic origami

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pproaching a pair of stationary assembly robots is an odd sensation; even when switched off they have character unlike any other machinery you’ve come across. So it seems fitting that they have been given names, but R2D2 and C3PO won’t be saving the galaxy anytime soon; these orange giants are strictly business.

Their business is folding sheet metal, an innovative form of CAM being pioneered by UK firm Robofold.

The process enables incredible forms, metres in size, to be designed, simulated and manufactured for use in architecture, aerospace automotive and other sectors. And since 2011, our robotic friends have been very busy.

into their pre-programmed positions, suction cups attaching to a sheet of pre-cut aluminium before them.

From there they arch and twist till the metal is bent and formed accurately into a giant petal, a replica of the one the screen on the nearby controlling laptop.

This process happens over a dozen times during our visit to Robofold’s headquarters in Brixton, London, and each and every time we stop dead in our tracks to watch.

It’s not just us, as there’s nearly 30 students from Leeds University crammed into the space, all having been part of the three-day workshop to learn to design using Robofold’s software plug-ins for Rhino.

They’re studying, not mechanical engineering or robotics, but architecture, and nearly all of them Dynamic duo pause to snap photos, record a video When R2D2 and C3PO begin to move on their phone, or simply gawp at the in tandem they are at once the most two orange beasts. hypnotic things in the room, gliding For architects, these tools are SPECIAL REPORT: CAM & CNC

helping liberate designs – Zaha Hadid has already used it to great effect for creating the Arum sculpture for the Venice Biennale in 2012.

Elsewhere, both the automotive and aerospace industries are experimenting with the possibilities that this robotic forming offers them.

Back at base, the robots are forming an interlocking pattern of aluminium petals as a cladding that the university class have designed for an 8-foot tall, curved dummy wall.

In a separate room the metal sheeting is cut to size, and drilled for mounting before being offered up on a table in front of the giant arms that drift into action at the press of a large industrial button once the area is clear of squidgy humans.

The only person in the room not entranced is Gregory Epps, founder of Robofold, who has seen this all before.

Epps has spent nearly half his life researching and building the Robofold

R2D2 and C3PO: RoboFold dedicated ABB robots in action

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2 system, starting in his late teens with visions of origami-style folds in metal.

“At the age of 17 I didn’t have any money for tooling – as you do when you’re 17!” laughs Epps. “But why would you want to spend that money anyway?

“You can fold this stuff by hand, but if I could industrialise it I could make high quality items that I could use wherever I wanted to.

“I didn’t even know what I’d use at the time, I didn’t know about robots and they came along later. I knew I had to do the software and know how to model it, because if I couldn’t model it I couldn’t make it.”

The first steps involved him having to learn both about computers and CAD, while switching between various university courses and jobs.

Finally Epps graduated with in an Industrial Design Engineering dual Masters at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London in 2007, before deciding on robots as the means of folding metals.

“We bought them secondhand,” explains Epps as the pair dock from having completed another sheet metal fold. “There’s a company that does secondhand robots and in the recession they were going to Detroit and buying thousands of robots – they had a football field full of robots.”

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3 Heavy metal?

Metal is best for bending, typically using 1.5mm aluminium, cut with the CNC router in the factory. It can also use laser cut steel or stainless steel up to 1.5mm.

The steel can be finished with paint or dipped in zinc, while the aluminium should be anodised, giving a range of finishes.

“Normally in architecture we get requests like, ‘can you make it 3mm?’

as they’re used to a flat façade panel, but once you put the curvature in it and the fold in it you’ve added so much rigidity that you don’t need all that material - you can halve the amount of material that you need.”

The main process people compare it to is pressing, yet as there’s no tooling it immediately reduces the time and financial cost, as well as other benefits.

“If you want variation it becomes

2 From its factory in ●

London, the company can produce exciting shapes without the need for tooling 3 RoboFold’s ●

delightful desktop folding machine allows prototyping to be conducted at scale - perfect for experimentation and optimisation

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really valuable,” says Epps. “You can program that in up-front and say ‘what are the parameters that you want to vary’.

“If you want to tweak the design a little bit you don’t even have to reprogram the CAM software and the robot software – if you had to make a new mould then it would be crazy – so this is super efficient.

“You can prototype in production materials and then manufacture using the same equipment, so you know what you’re going to get.”

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METAL ORIGAMI THe ROBOFOLD PROCESS #1 FOLDING

DESIGN FOLDED SURFACES INTUITIVELY BY HAND 1 Fold paper along curved crease lines and ●

watch as new types of surfaces are formed.

2 Quickly build an intuitive understanding of ● folding geometry and apply it to your design.

3 Shapes that you fold in paper can scale up ●

to metal panels.

Cutting edge All the accuracy is pushed into the cutting of the flat panel, and because the process is not stretching the material like a press would, holes can be pre-drilled and trimming is not needed.

Local stretch can be calculated as you would normally with sheet material around the fold, so the designer knows that it is going to fit to whatever substructure it’s going to fix to.

The speed of the process is slower than pressing, but offers labour-saving benefits – this is a single stage process, whereas pressing could involve several stages before needing to be drilled and trimmed by a 5-axis laser-cutter.

“Normally you would say that you have to



#2 SIMULATION

1 Folding simulations only require 2D patterns ●

to create 3D shapes.

2 Scan your design, trace it in CAD and use the ● folding software to bring it to life.

3 Test the manufacturing process using ●

Godzilla software

#3 DATAFLOW

parametric design data to the manufacturing data – any updates in the design automatically generates new code for machine operation.

2 The designer should consider the parametric ● design and the Design-for-Manufacture-andAssembly 3 The KingKong software demonstrates how ●

parametric folded panels can be used as a façade design and production.



■ robofold.com

DESIGN DATA AUTOMATICALLY UPDATES PRODUCTION DATA 1 The Robofold approach is to link all ●

You can prototype in production materials and then manufacture using the same equipment, so you know what you’re going to get make the forming part to be perfect, but in this case it’s not too critical about the forming, it’s more critical about cutting it right first.”

You can fold something in paper and go and make it – it’s the ultimate goal.”

The students in the workshop have all worked with small desktop paper printers to verify and tweak their designs, the emphasis being that if you can fold a mini version to make your design, you can scale up the same design in metal.

If in the future we become more dependent on mobile, localised factories, then methods of manufacture like this are destined to lead the way.

With the detail in the initial cutting, which can be done in a factory elsewhere if necessary and flat-packed at low cost to the assembly location, the robots forming on site are going to be as accurate as the designer’s 3D models.

ANIMATE COMPLEX FOLDS FORM ONLY A 2D PATTERN

#4 PROTOTYPE

DEVELOPMENT OF THE DESIGN FOR PRODUCTION 1 An in-house CNC router and two ABB 6400 ● industrial robots allow Robofold to develop a design by prototyping multiple iterations.

2 Prototypes are built at 1:1 in production ●

intent materials and finishes. This gives the opportunity to get it right first time when production begins.

3 The equipment is controlled directly from ● the suite of production software – Unicorn for the router and Godzilla for the robots.

#5 MANUFACTURE

LICENSE THE SYSTEM OR OUTSOURCE PRODUCTION 1 For Manufacturers: license the Robofold ●

system and get a full turnkey solution for sheet metal forming.

2 For Architects: get RoboFold on board as ●

a specialist fabricator, or commission us to install short term RoboFold system with your selected façade contractor.

3 For Designers: contract production ●

Gregory Epps, founder of Robofold, will be speaking at DEVELOP3D LIVE on April 15 2014. Register free at develop3dlive.com SPECIAL REPORT: CAM & CNC

capabilities allows Robofold to manufacture on demand – no stock means you only pay when orders are made.

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SAIC brings CNC back to European Design Centre British automotive marque MG has been brought back to life by Chinese manufacturer SAIC, where investment has put CNC at the heart of its new designs

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t the time of its demise MG was a name that encapsulated the British motor industry; a cherished brand, yet with products that failed to meet the expectations of new generations.

Falling into administration in 2005 the company has since been acquired by SAIC, one of China’s largest automotive companies, giving hope to the resurrection of the Birmingham-based brand. At the forefront of automotive development in the Far East, SAIC produced nearly 4.5 million vehicles in 2012 alone, and operates joint ventures in China with General Motors and Volkswagen.

Physical styling models in clay play an essential role in SAIC’s design process

New dawn Both MG’s styling and engineering have continued to be developed at the company’s historic Longbridge site, where SAIC has invested heavily into its European Design Centre, providing chief designer Tony Williams-Kenny and his team with the latest in design tools.

This major expansion has included the addition of its first machining shop, doubling the size of the design facilities and making it one of the largest in the UK. A Kolb StudioLine M five-axis milling machine was installed earlier this year, being used to produce scale and full-size models of new designs, as well as concept vehicles and show cars for international exhibitions.

Prior to this investment, all machining of this type was subcontracted to a number of UK suppliers. “The main reason for bringing the work in-house was to give us a faster turn-around of new designs,” explained SAIC design operations programme manager, Darren Redhead.

“While computer visualisations have become more realistic, we still need to physically make styling models in clay as part of our design process. We can now produce models in days instead of the weeks that it was taking when we were outsourcing our designs.”

Scaling up use With a typical design project requiring four scale models and two full-size models for both the exterior and interior, these savings CNC16 APRIL 2014 DEVELOP3D.COM

With CNC SAIC can now produce models in days instead the weeks it used to take outsourcing designs

make a significant contribution to cutting the overall development times.

Taking the digital design team’s models from tools such as Autodesk Alias and Maya, the model making team use Delcam PowerMill CAM software to program the machines for physical model building.

“We spoke to modelling teams in Germany that were using the StudioLine M, they said that they preferred to use the Delcam software,” states Redhead. “They told us that PowerMill was more intuitive to use for modellers, as well as being able to take full advantage of the five-axis capabilities of the machine.

“We wanted to have an experienced user to program the machine but also to train

two of our modellers to be able to use the software if he was busy. Ease of use was essential for these part-time users.

“We’ve been running the machine five days a week since it was installed and have machined hundreds of products with consistently excellent results. With the savings in external costs that we are achieving, I expect to have a payback time of less than eighteen months for the Kolb machine and the Delcam software.”

With the second model in the new generation of MG vehicles released recently – the MG3 – the team at Longridge have produced a stylish small car entirely the work of the SAIC European Design Centre.

■ delcam.com ■ mg.co.uk

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The first projects using Delcam software at SAIC were part of the final development stages of the MG3

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On the right track North American mould manufacturer Hi-Tech Mold & Eng re-examined its mould and die design and production processes and stripped back time and cost

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i-Tech Mold & Eng. was set up as a small family firm by Siegfried Schulte near Detroit, US, in 1982. Today, Schulte is chairman of a 450-strong global company that supplies tools, fixtures and gauges to customers in the plastics processing sector in the US, Mexico, Brazil, and Germany.

In 2001 Hi-Tech Mold & Eng. invested in a single Tebis CAD/CAM workstation, and today has approximately 22. The software is used throughout the mould manufacturing process, from job preparation to the finished part in the workshop. Various other modules of the Tebis family such as Organisers, Simulators and Electrode manufacturing are also utilised at the company.

As Hi-Tech Mold & Eng. has grown, the need for innovative process solutions has grown too. For instance, allowing increasingly more employees access to the same information and co-ordinating the work steps between individual departments.

So, in late 2011, Hi-Tech Mold & Eng. and Tebis America undertook a process analysis.

At the end, two results became apparent: Tebis BREP modules should be utilised as part of job preparation, and the NC libraries and template technology were identified as a major opportunity to optimise processes and better utilise potential.

Milling preparation Components are optimally prepared with the Tebis Surfacer, a module of the BREP product family, before milling takes place.

This enables surfaces to be combined and significantly reduces segments. During the trials at Hi-Tech Mold & Eng. it was found that the milling processes could be shortened by an average of 20 per cent thanks to Surfacer. These results are continuously confirmed and the Surfacer tool is now an essential element of the company’s machining process.

“The decision to structure our processes according to the Tebis standardisation concept has revolutionised our work processes in design and manufacturing,” says Tim Cheyne, an application specialist.

He summarises the benefits: “By using NC templates including feature recognition and machine-specific tool libraries, we achieve a significantly higher quality with shorter throughput times. We harness the unleashed potential to develop new ideas, to refine processes, and to advance our employees.

NC automation “Thanks to the template technology, even During 2012, the departments handling new employees without programming 2.5D, deep-bore, and electrode machining experience are able to create simple NC were further expanded. This proved to be programs after only one week of training. a good time to implement the suggested In short: We save time, have become much improvements obtained from the second part more effective, and achieve faster and better of the process analysis: NC automation. results with fewer personnel,” he says.

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Tebis Simulator The Tebis Simulator has also become firmly established in the process chain.

“We would not want to do without the Simulator for the collision control. All components including machine, tools, and all retracts are taken into account,” explains Cheyne. “Moreover, we also use the Simulator as a planning tool for configuring the workpiece fixture and positioning. Thus, we can machine every component with the smallest possible machine.”

Hi-tech is continuously improving its processes and procedures, which shows, since the company is now ranked as Number 4 of all North American Mould & Tool Makers, as displayed by “Plastics News,” the information platform for the plastics industry.

■ tebis.com ■ hitechmold.com

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THE NEED FOR SPEED RAF fighter pilot Andrew Green will be relying on precise manufacturing when he drives the 1,000mph Bloodhound supersonic car into the history books

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Straight down the line The body and chassis are relying on a range of advanced design and manufacturing techniques, including a specific production engineering solution with Edgecam that prevented distortion of the rear subframe side wall structural panels.

The 1.6m x 1m panels were produced by the Nuclear AMRC on its Starragheckert HEC 1800 large format horizontal boring machine.

They have to mate up with other parts in the rear assembly which are vital in keeping the rocket pointing perfectly backwards and providing downward thrust when RAF fighter pilot Andrew Green drives into the history books in South Africa in 2015 and 2016.

NO ROOM FOR ERROR While the typical machining tolerance for milling was + or – 0.1 of a millimetre, some of the wall thickness tolerances were + or – 0.05, and hole diameters down to + or – 0.025. Also, the original billet of aerospace grade 7075 aluminium was 80mm thick, and the finished component is 20mm, with some minimum wall thicknesses just 6mm.

Removing such a large amount of material while maintaining the flatness and shape of the component over that size and envelope of machining, was quite a challenge.

Couple that to the fact that the billet was only around 30 mm longer and wider than the finished part, and it is easy to see why Andrew Wright’s experience in finding correct production engineering solutions across a variety of projects, was essential.

“My main concern when I started programming was that the part would distort and we’d struggle to maintain wall thicknesses.

If some of the walls became too thin, the component may not have been strong enough.”

But he says Edgecam’s roughing strategy and profiling cycles were perfect for his solution.

“We used a three-side machining strategy of roughing one side out, rotating the component and roughing the opposite side, then we released it and reclamped it to finish machining that side. We turned it back round again to finish the side we’d started cutting originally. That way we minimised distortion and any chance of having the walls too thin.

“I built the machine setup in a 3D design package and Edgecam allowed me to import this directly into the system. This included the part model originally supplied by Bloodhound in NX format, the modified stock model and all clamps and fixture elements. Edgecam’s ability to read a wide range of model formats and to handle assemblies was invaluable, with multiple setups of the part required.”

While utilising some 3 + 2 operations, much of the work was 3-axis milling, contour and profile milling, with 4th axis rotation to reach additional features. “Edgecam was absolutely perfect for that – we set multiple datums, and indexed between those datums all within the same set-up. I built as much of the manufacturing process as possible into the Edgecam part files before taking it to the final simulation.”

Edgecam tailored the toolpaths exactly to the features they needed to machine, particularly when it came to leaving extra material for clamping. With scant excess material on the

IMAGE CREDIT: SIEMENS NX

n essential part of the assembly holding the rocket motor in place when the Bloodhound supersonic car travels at over 1,000 mph during its bid to break the World Land Speed Record in 2016, has been made using Edgecam CNC software.

“The accuracy of Edgecam’s toolpaths was vital in allowing us to achieve the extremely tight tolerances required,” says Andrew Wright, production engineer at the Sheffieldbased Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, which manufactured the rear sub-frame for the car, a large complex assembly which sits inside the exterior Titanium skin.

The Bloodhound Project is led by Richard Noble, who took the record in 1983 with Thrust 2. As well as breaking the existing record and topping 1,000 mph, Bloodhound also aims to excite young people about manufacturing and engineering. The car is a mix of automotive and aircraft technology, powered by the engine used in the Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft, along with a hybrid rocket.

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length or width of the billet, clamp areas were required which were removed later. The toolpaths were customised around the clamp areas and extra geometry added. “Edgecam gave us perfect toolpaths which allowed us to cut very accurate profiles.

“With the difficult shape of the component and small amount of stock material, Edgecam’s ability to tightly control the link moves and feed in / out moves between sections, enabled us to produce smooth and safe transitions between machined features and areas.”

CUT AND DRY For the main machining he kept the cutting tools, all of which were supplied by Sandvik, down to a minimum. “As we were looking for a secure and accurate process rather than a high productivity operation I only used three cutting tools to do most of the milling – a solid carbide end mill, a solid carbide ball nose end mill to finish the profiles, and a chamfer mill to deburr as much of the component as possible in the machine, which reduced manual handling.”

Edgecam’s Code Wizard was another big plus for Andrew Wright, so much so, that he says they could not have produced the components in the allotted time, without it.

“As we were using a brand new machine we only had a simulation post processor for its predecessor, the Starrag 1600. But Edgecam made it very easy to create, in effect, a daughter post processor for the new 1800.”

He created the code using the 1600 post processor, ran a simulation and then reprocessed the file for the 1800 with minimal changes. “This gave me absolute confidence in the toolpaths going down to the shop floor without having to do too much on machine prove-out, knowing that the X Y G-code wasn’t affected between the two simulations.”

The Nuclear AMRC was asked to undertake the machining work following successful testing by the AMRC Advanced Structural Testing Centre. “Our speciality is assisting manufacturers to produce complex, high precision parts to the highest quality standards – which is exactly what Bloodhound wanted.”

(Below) The accuracy of Edgecam’s toolpaths was vital in achieving the extremely tight tolerances required

(Above) Part of car’s rear subframe, vital in keeping the rocket pointing perfectly backwards and providing downward thrust

■ verosoftware.com

 Edgecam gave us perfect toolpaths which allowed us to cut very accurate profiles  Andrew Wright, production engineer Nuclear AMRC

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BLADE RUNNER With the help of a streamlined NX CAM workflow a turbine blade manufacturer has improved production efficiency, reduced lead times and increased quality

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urbines for energy generation are precision machines whatever their scale. The blades wear out while in use and must be replaced as quickly as possible. Down time is expensive. Stork Turbo Blading BV specialises in producing turbine blades for which high precision, quality and short delivery times determine the success of an order. Based in Sneek, Netherlands, Turbo Blading is part of the Stork Power Services division of the industrial Stork Group. The company caters to a worldwide blade market, supplying OEMs as well as the service and aftermarket sectors.

Turbines that are used in energy generation can be applied in multiple venues, including coal-fired power plants, small installations that generate electricity on a ship or even in heat recovery facilities. The broad range of turbine dimensions, from 50 to 1,200 mm, illustrates how flexible Stork Turbo Blading has to be to meet its clients’ needs.

The other business units in the Stork Power Services Group include Stork Thermeq, which specialises in boilers and burners; Stork Turbo Service, which installs and maintains turbines; and Stork Gears and Services, which supplies and maintains gear boxes. As a group, Stork Power Services provides operators of energy generation installations with a full range of services.

“Turbine blades wear during their service life,” explains Gerrit Mulder, engineering manager at Stork Turbo Blading. “Wear is determined by how they are used. Even water has a destructive effect. The blades of both the stationary and the rotor steps of the turbine sustain damage. This leads to a drop in efficiency while posing a risk that can cause a possible imbalance.”

The fatigue and wear of bearings and seals are other reasons to service a turbine.The Stork Power Services Group overhauls aircraft engines and other systems in addition to overhauling steam and gas turbines.

DIFFERENTIATION THROUGH QUALITY Large numbers of blades often are involved when carrying out revisions. An installation in a power plant with two turbines of 15 steps, each with 120 blades per step, requires 3,600 blades. Each differs from step to step.

“On a yearly basis we produce 80,000 blades that can vary a lot in dimension,” explains CNC22 APRIL 2014 DEVELOP3D.COM

Stork Turbo Blading manufactures a broad range of turbines from 50 to 1,200 mm

Mulder. “We do that with 11 engineers, six quality assurance specialists and 40 production staff, who generally work in two shifts and even three at times. But in spite of our significant manpower, we never would have been able to reach this production and the level of quality if we had not figured out better working methods for engineering, work preparation, production and the associated tooling.”

By tooling, Mulder is not just referring to the 4-axis and 5-axis milling machines owned

by Stork Turbo Blading. “The real advantage lies in the efficiency of the process before the data goes to the machines,” Mulder says.

“And this process can only be achieved with the right software.”

An order usually starts by recording blade damage. This is done to determine which steps in the turbine blades need to be replaced. In three-quarters of the cases, once this has been established, scanning technology is used to determine the exact shape of the blades. “In these instances, no drawings of the blades are available,” says Mulder. “The blades are scanned in on-site by a designated partner. Operating on a worldwide basis, this partner also converts the point cloud resulting from the scan

to STEP geometry. We compare this data with the data of blades that we have already produced. It is quite possible that we have produced the blade before. Our database contains drawings showing cross-sections with measurements and shape tolerances.”

software integration Stork Turbo Blading uses NX software, including NX CAM, to engineer the blade and generate NC paths. “We have been using NX for seven years now,” Mulder says. “In 2002, we compared the most important players in a pilot project. NX came out of it unquestionably as the best product. It fits within our organisation. The functionality is what we want. And the applicability to our products is very good.”

Mulder notes that it is important that multiple engineers be able work on a design simultaneously. Based on the STEP model, the base and blade are developed separately because they are two distinct parts of the product. According to Mulder, “We also find it important to be able to develop the fixtures in parallel. This is possible thanks to the NX working method based on a ‘master model.’

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On a yearly basis Stork Turbo Blading produces 80,000 blades that can vary a lot in dimension

cycles become extremely short.”

For the company’s engineers, the scan is the absolute reference when developing the NX model. In this process, the locations where the milled product must be measured are indicated with precision. Step-by-step instructions are issued for production.

Mulder explains the positive impact of NX on the process: “Where we used to have 12 steps in the production process, there are now only five – cutting, base milling, blade rough-milling, blade finish-milling and sometimes blade cutting off. The 4-axis milling machines, which are widely automated with pallet systems, mainly mill the base and rough-mill the blade leaf. All four axes are used simultaneously in these processes. Finish-milling takes place in a 5-axis simultaneous milling process.”

from 3 days to 30 minuTes Mulder quantifies the value of NX on the CAD and CAM integration: “Before NX, we would spend on average three days generating NC paths after an adaptation of the design. Thanks to the integration of NX, this is now done in half an hour. However, time saving is not the only benefit. The risk of errors is lower because the generation of NC paths is almost an automatic process.”

Before the blades can be shipped and assembled, each blade undergoes a quality check. Among its various aspects, the quality plan includes geometrical control and a crack-detection test.

The definition of the performance indicators in NX is transmitted to the measuring device to ensure that measuring the blades takes place automatically for the most part. All of the blades are also subjected to a magnetic test to detect SPECIAL REPORT: CAM & CNC

potential cracks in the material. Each step in the turbine gets its own report and material certificates. Some turbine blades are also weighed.

“We use a special program to distribute the sections of the blades on the turbine disc,” Mulder explains. “Minimum weight differences between the blades are inevitable and can create an imbalance, which needs to be rectified during installation by balancing the turbine disc.

Calculating the distribution of the blades based on their weight results in considerably

less work during the balancing stage.”

After seven years, Mulder remains convinced that the company made the right choice. “Without NX, we would not have been able to offer our current level of service and, as a result, today’s business would not be possible. The simplified production process and the fast processing of modifications have led to a faster overall process and higher quality. In short, NX has played a major part in our company’s success and will continue to do so.”

■ siemens.com/nx

■ he-machinery.com

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POCKET ROCKETS In an Italian region renowned for autosport excellence, a family owned business is building scale motorcycles that perform just like their full size cousins

O

n one side of a narrow, dusty road in an anonymous industrial zone near Brescia, Lombardy, at the foot of the Alps, is a hangar-sized building housing 16-Haas CNC machine tools. On the other side of the road, adjoined to another, smaller factory building, is a family home which acts as the mother-ship for four brothers, their wives, children and two dogs, and the retired grandparents who started Il Gruppo Gilberti S.p.A, more than 30-years ago.

A region rich in motorsport Brescia is well known for its connections to motor sport; the famous Mille Miglia (1,000 mile) road-race is held annually, starting from the centre of the historic city. Nearby, world-renowned engineering company Brembo S.p.A designs and makes braking systems for the world’s most powerful cars and motor cycles.

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For enthusiasts of two and four wheeled fun whose budgets won’t quite allow them to race 1,000 miles in a classic sports car, or invest in the latest Brembo-shod Ferrari, there’s a locally made alternative that promises just as much entertainment, but on a Lilliputian scale.

“OK, so this is our mini-moto,” says Marco, 39, youngest of the four Gilberti brothers.

“We build the whole thing entirely ourselves using our Haas CNC machine tools, except the motor, which we buy.

“The initial project to design and create a mini-moto was born 3-years ago. We started with just a line of spare parts – such as hubs, rims, etc. Now we have an online store where we sell them to customers all over the world.”

As well as parts for the automotive sector and general industry, the Gilberti business makes and supplies components for the GoKart racing community.

RECOVERING FROM THE DOWNTURN “Business took a sharp downturn in 2009,” recalls Marco. “Go-Kart racing was

particularly hard hit. A little while later, we began developing the GR1RR mini-moto, which is currently our show bike.

“We make almost everything on it using our Haas SL-20 lathes and two Haas VF-2 machines. We don’t make parts in large quantities, but we do make a very wide variety. We use the Haas lathes to make the front forks, for example. We use the mills to make the brake calipers, from solid billets, the pistons, screws, all the frame supports, and the steering yoke.”

DIFFERENTIATION THROUGH QUALITY There is no shortage of similar mini bikes and quads available to buy both online and also off. Needless to say, many of them come from countries where price is the most important component, and longevity and safety come low down on the list of priorities.

“We have some examples of Chinesemade mini-motos,” says Marco. “To make something with a much better quality but that is still affordable, we needed to find CNC SPECIAL REPORT: CAM & CNC

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machine tools which were reliable, accurate and not too expensive.

We chose Haas machines because they have all of these characteristics. We bought the first one around 10-years ago and we liked it straight away. It was easy to programme, robust and fast. So, as we built our business, we decided to stay with Haas.

In fact, we don’t have any other make of machine and we’re pretty happy with that arrangement.

“We have a very good relationship with the SPECIAL REPORT: CAM & CNC

sales company – they are attentive, including on the phone, and if we have a problem or a question, they are here immediately. The truth is, we’ve never had any significant problems!”

PREMIUM PRODUCTS ON THE TRACK On the track, with the right rider on-aboard, a 49cc mini-moto like the GR1RR, weighing just 25kg, will easily reach 120km/h. It may not be very far to fall if something goes wrong, but at those sorts of speeds, the

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tarmac is plenty hard enough.

“There are many cheap alternatives around, but there’s a good market for welldesigned and well-made mini-motos like ours,” says Marco.

“People can see immediately that the parts are beautifully engineered and finished.

As well as the sheer fun of riding a Gilberti mini-moto, anyone with a love of fine machining will get a lot of pleasure from just owning one.”

■ haas.co.uk ■ gruppogilberti.it

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REVIEW: Autodesk CAM PRODUCTS 2015 Autodesk’s acquisition of HSMWorks in 2012 took many by surprise. Al Dean explores how the CAD -integrated product range looks now, two years on

1

I

f you’re not familiar with HSMWorks, it was a relatively recent entrant into the well established CAM industry back in 2008. Founded in Denmark with a veteran team of programmers, the intent was (and still is) to focus on CAD-integrated generation of NC code — and to do so using the latest advances in computing technologies that were beginning to take off in the mainstream.

From its adoption of the CAD integrated approach (where the CAM tools reside inside the CAD system) to its ground up support for parallel processing on the increasingly common multi-core workstations and 64-bit operating systems, HSMWorks launched to the market with a SolidWorks integrated offering — HSMWorks.

The company also took the decision to help build its profile by doing

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something that few had tried before — giving away the 2D machining portion of its technology for free. And hence, HSMWorks Xpress was launched.

Fast forward to 2012 and Autodesk acquires the company. When you consider that, at this time, HSMWorks didn’t even have an Inventor integrated version this took many by surprise .

Now, as Autodesk unveils its 2015 products, we have a much clearer picture of where Autodesk’s integrated CAM solutions are heading.

Essentially, Autodesk now has a three pronged attack for the market; HSMWorks for SolidWorks, HSM for Inventor and CAM for Fusion 360, which is still in beta test. The latter is part of Autodesk’s plans for cloudbased design and manufacturing tools.

SINGLE CORE PLATFORM So what does this product range look like? The development team take the

95/5 approach. Essentially this means that 95 per cent of the development work is done on the core underlying technology that’s shared across all three streams of products.

The remaining 5 per cent is dedicated to integration to the host application’s user interface and making sure that it follows each product’s conventions, user interface guidelines and expected user experience.

In a couple of month’s time, both the SolidWorks and Inventor versions of the CAM tools will have reached parity. What I mean by that is that, at present, the Inventor version is slightly lagging behind the SolidWorks variant — specifically in the fields of Mill/Turn and Turning.

It’s worth noting that CAM for Fusion 360 is following later (in terms of capability) as the offering moves closer to becoming a shipping product intended for commercial work.

1 New to the market ●

for the 2015 release cycle, Inventor HSM offers a fully integrated CAM solution for Inventor

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COMMON WORKFLOW All of the HSM products work in the same way. They don’t rely on feature-based machining per se, (as is common in CAD-integrated flavours of CAM), but rather create toolpaths based on pure geometry, restricted where necessary by boundaries and edge loops. That’s not to say that the tools don’t take advantage of features found in CAD models, but they do so where it makes sense — hole drilling for instance.

Whichever flavour you’re looking at, the workflow is pretty standardised and both follow the same conventions.

Both have a dedicated toolbar showing all of your options and operations.

Where they differ in look and feel is where the system stores its parameters.

In SolidWorks, these are found in a special purpose PropertyManager.

Inventor has panels to the left of the UI by default.

JOB SET-UP You begin with importing the part and adding in jigs and fixtures. As they’re CAD-integrated, the reliance is on the host system’s import capabilities. It’s also worth noting that you can bring in jigs and fixtures (clamps, vices and the like) and the set-up process allows these to be quickly identified as such (to be avoided during machining operations).

You also need to define the stock for the parts. This is pretty simple — using a bounding box with offsets if you’re working on a rectangular billet.

If you’re working with casting, then you can also use a separate CAD file as the cast form from which the part is machined.

In SolidWorks, a good approach is to use configurations to hold this alongside the actual part. In

2 Inventor, iParts provides much the same capability Next it’s time to define set-ups. CAD geometry isn’t always in the correct orientation for machining, where the Z axis needs to be pointing upwards, so the HSM products allow you to have multiple set-ups in a part, then each operation is calculated to the particular assignment.

OPERATION PROGRAMING Once done, you start to add in the operations that machine the part. At this point it’s worth discussing the variants of each system integration.

Inventor HSM Express and HSM Xpress for SolidWorks are the free versions, which bring you 2.5 axis milling and hole drilling.

What’s interesting is that while this might typically just include primsatic pocket and boss machining, there is also a little bit of 3D machining included so basic 3D forms (for

example, pockets or bosses with draft) can be machined.

Then, as you step up into the paid for options, there are essentially two levels. HSMWorks and Inventor HSM gives you 3D milling, 3+2 machining (for positional work), turning and then support for mill/turn machines which combine all the tools.

Then at the high-end, you can add in support for true simultaneous machining with the HSMWorks Premium and Inventor HSM Professional.

Whichever flavour you’re working with, the process is the same. Create the operation, choose the set-up, select the tool (from a pretty extensive tool library), add in the parameters and have the system calculate it.

The HSM products are pretty nifty, particularly on today’s multi-core workstations and you get the results back in a short amount of time (as ever, dependent on the operation and

2 All of the paid for ●

versions of the HSM products include full machine simulation tools — particularly critical when dealing with 3+2 and simultaneous 5-axis

HSMWORKS KEEPS production ROLLING at LIQUID Liquid Trucks are innovative designs that combine high performance precision parts for the next generation of skaters. In addition to a wide range of cast skateboard trucks, Liquid Trucks has sought to machine the most comprehensive collection of compatible precision baseplate geometries and hanger widths. Simply put, Liquid Trucks will give skaters more and better choices than ever before.

Liquid Trucks started out sourcing production to machine shops but got tired of the cost of prototypes and being held hostage by the machine shop schedule.

So the company decided to buy its own CNC machines to take control of the process. “We started to use HSMWorks and couldn’t believe how easy it was to create the professional results we were looking for. The clean UI and seamless integration with SolidWorks allowed us to significantly increase our ability to revise our design and produce the best possible trucks for skaters,” commented Chris Chaput, owner and designer at Liquid.

■ cam.autodesk.com ■ facebook.com/liquidtrucks

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3 3 The HSM products ●

eschew feature-based machining, instead adding in clean, efficient toolpaths for cutting geometry directly, then trimming it back to specific boundaries

how much compute time is needed).

The parameters are defined in either the Panels or Property Managers of the host systems and are broken down by Tool, Geometry (for adding in boundaries and such), Heights (for your retraction and safe heights), Passes (for step-downs and such) and Linking (for how the cutter transitions between each pass). Hit OK and they calculate immediately, showing feedback as they go.

SIMULATION Once the operations are in place, simulation tools allow you to run through the result of each. The advanced variants include full machine simulation, so you can not only check against gouges and collisions between the workpiece, the cutter and the toolholder, but also the full machine.

This is critical if you’re looking at running 3+2 or 5 axis simultaneous machine tools.

EDITING & POST PROCESSING So far we should have given you a feel for how the workflow runs. It’s pretty standard for any CAM system and a little time spent exploring each operation you’re using will pay massive dividends.

One area that is worth talking about is how the system works in terms of standardising your operations something that many shops look to do.

There’s no formalised method of defining the standard presets for each operation. Instead, as you play with the parameters for each operations and cutter combination, you find what works then set those values as the defaults.

Those are then available next time you use the operation. For those used to doing the work up front, this might be a little strange, but HSM has been built for those that want to crack on and get cutting, rather than setting up parameters and such. This

approach is also evident in how the system works in terms of editing toolpaths, operations and such — much of which is multi-threaded in terms of calculation.

Edits are very quick to make and the calculation happens very quickly.

Also the structure of your job and the relationships between set-ups and operations isn’t locked down once defined. It’s possible to drag and drop operations between set-ups, so edits to the machining process can be made pretty quickly and fluidly.

The system is also supplied with a pretty extensive range of post processors for outputting your g-code but, as you’d expect, these can be tweaked, adapted and rewritten to bring in the requirements for your machine tools and preferences for how things are done.

CONCLUSION The release of the two streams of the HSM products shows that Autodesk has a commitment to the CAM market in a big way. It’s maintaining the SolidWorks tools while extending the integration with Inventor.

They all look clean, modern and reuse your CAD system knowledge.

If you’re looking at bringing CNC in house, this gives you options — particularly when you consider that the paid for versions of Inventor HSM products also include a seat of Inventor.

Many are looking at CNC driven machine tools for both prototyping and production purposes. The HSM product range gives you a very low-cost (i.e; free) place to start with professional, modern CAM then room to move up the complexity scale as your needs grow and mature.

■ cam.autodesk.com

CAM FOR FUSION 360: CLOUD for the shopfloor

Autodesk is leading the charge into the cloud when it comes to 3D design and production tools. Its release of Fusion 360 for modelling solids, surfaces and organic forms with t-splines has shown the future of these types of tools is real.

The 360 platform brings together all of the company’s cloud offerings and will soon become a fully integrated

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platform for conducting design and documentation with a heavy smattering of on-line collaboration and project management.

To go alongside this, over the few months, it has also been trialing a similarly cloud-integrated version of the HSM products that allow you to take your Fusion 360 models and start to prepare them for manufacturing.

As anyone that’s trialled Fusion 360 will know, the workflow is different to standard CAD (and CAM) tools, in that everything relating to your project is stored on the cloud.

While for many this might be a no-no, of course, there are some benefits to this approach.

The first (but often relegated to last) is that you’re buying access to the tools, not specific and node locked licenses.

This means that on whatever machine you want to run the tools, you can. It also means that all of your data is available, wherever you are.

There are mechanisms in place to work off line and any changes or work when your internet connection drops out or

in unavailable, are synced when it comes back on-line.

This means that you can work on your projects when you need to, rather than being tied to a specific machine. Whether you’re prepping a model for casting on a train or in an airport lounge, or calculating toolpaths live with on-site with a customer to work up a quote, the tools and the data are there to use — then also available when you’re back in the office or on the shopfloor.

It also means that you can share data with other users and track collaboration where needed, store all of your documentation online and centralise everything without the need for heavy IT infrastructure and associated costs.

Cost is also something that changes with the 360 services.

The costs for 2.5D, 3D and 3+2 milling starts at $115 per month (or $900 per year if paid up front - that’s $75 a month) all in. Compared to the costs of purchasing CAM in a more traditional manner, that makes getting up and running much more affordable than has been the case before.

■ cam.autodesk.com

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REVIEW: EDGECAM 2014 With its reputation built as a standalone application that has close links with CAD systems, Edgecam is expanding into new areas. Al Dean explores what’s new

T

here are a couple of reasons why Edgecam has gained a solid reputation in the machining market in the last ten years. The first is that, while other systems looked to full integration within host 3D design tools, Edgecam integrated tightly with the data formats using a standalone application.

The second is it concentrated on production machining of, typically, prismatic parts.

In the intervening years, the system has expanded its coverage, not only to enhance and improve those core tools, but also to extend the types of machining strategy that it supported.

Looking at Edgecam today, now under the Vero Software group’s ownership, the system covers the full spectrum of machining tasks.

From its roots in 3-axis, high-speed machining, it has now moved into the realms of 4- and 5-axis, turning, mill/ turn and wire EDM (thanks, in part, to the knowledge available in the Vero product range which includes PEPS for wire EDM).

EDGECAM WORKFLOW The latest release introduces the usual slew of new operations and options but has also focussed on a new set of tools collected under the name Edgecam Workflow.

As we’ve discussed elsewhere, there are big issues in the manufacturing industry that range from the shortage of knowledge and experienced machinists to the need for even the smallest of job shops to ensure that they get projects underway in the quickest time possible — but at the same time, ensuring that the machining operations are using best practice and are optimised to reduce cycle time.

Edgecam Workflow introduces an environment in which much of the routine tasks associated with part preparation and operation definition are automated where possible. It does CNC30 APRIL 2014 DEVELOP3D.COM

1 this in a logical sequence that follows the familiar process, beginning with part set-up.

As we’re all aware, geometry from the CAD system isn’t usually aligned (in terms of 3D co-ordinate space) in a manner that’s suitable for machining.

Workflow includes tools that allow the user to quickly import the geometry and define the correct datum. This can either be selected automatically based on part geometry or tweaked manually if there’s ambiguity.

It also steps you through the definition of any jigs, fixtures, vices and clamps from predefined libraries.

As with all knowledge-based systems, time spent setting these items up to match your best practices and available items, is time well spent.

Once done, the process of extracting the machinable features from the part geometry begins. Again, Workflow is designed to run off the back of your own internal best practices, whether that’s by machine set-up (it’s perfectly suited to organisations running multiple, different machine tools), by geometry or by material.

It begins by using Edgecam’s feature recognition tools to find machinable features using geometry analysis, rather than extracting features from

2 1 Edgecam easily the CAD part — allowing it to work ● with dumb geometry just as well as it positions fixtures, with automatic does with native CAD parts. toolpath avoidance It looks for pockets, bosses (both 3 Full machine ● open and closed), holes, flat faces and simulation allows Edgecam users such. It then uses its intelligence to review the (again, based on your input to guide manufacturing best practice) and creates a Planning process before it is sent to the machine Board of machining operations (found in the left hand panel of the UI). This selects the most appropriate cutter and operation for each set of features found based on the size of the part, the geometry and your settings.

As you can see from both figures 1 and 3, this is displayed in a colour co-ordinated manner, splitting out each operation type (here, roughing is followed by profiling/finishing and then drilling cycles). On the Planning Board , operations can be reordered

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prior to calculation, so things are as close to the final intent — way before calculation takes place. Once in a fit state, the toolpaths are calculated.

Then it’s a case of fine tuning things, ensuring there are no collision or gouging issues.

full flute with WAVEFORM Edgecam has its own take on the use of full flute machining techniques. As is now rampant across the industry, many are looking at this area to cut large chunks (metaphorically and literally) out of the machining cycle time by using the combination of cutting with the full (or near the full length) of the cutter with clever toolpaths to ensure that the cutter engages in a consistent manner with the material.

This means that large depths can be removed. How each vendor approaches this differs but the end result is the same. Loading on not only the cutter, but the whole spindle, is consistent and without those gut wrenching moves. That means quicker cuts, removing more material, but just as critically, less wear on both the cutter and the machine.

Edgecam has built its own take on this technology (named Waveform) and built it into every appropriate strategy, so it’s a case of using them, once the feeds and speeds and other settings for your machine tools are dialled into the system.

Rather than adjust speeds and feeds,

3 Waveform automatically manages the width of cut of the tool, so the feed/ speed remain the same.

Conclusion In terms of ease of use Edgecam has been a leader in the standalone, yet CAD integrated, CAM market for a fair old while. The latest updates show that it’s using its knowledge to automate the routine jobs, leaving the expert time to fine tune, optimise an validate tool-paths.

Edgecam Workflow makes great sense for those machining departments where multiple machines are running, perhaps with similar, yet different components and the company has a need to increase throughput from the programming

3 Edgecam office, onto the shopfloor. It’s also key, ● Workflow allows the as with any knowledge-based system, user to manually create toolpaths that the time is invested to define the parameters in which that automation complimenting automatic toolpath can operate. generation Without that effort upfront, the benefits can be hampered. Elsewhere, Edgecam is keeping pace with the current trends. While we’ve not covered mill/turn much in this article, the tools are already in the system and improving with each release, enabling those investing in that type of machine tool to take advantage of its benefits, using a familiar programming system.

Waveform also brings high-speed machining up to date with the current state of the art that many firms are exploring.

■ edgecam.com

edgeCAM workflow CAPTURING AND REUSING Intelligence

1 Import the geometry for the part as well as aligning ●

2 Define the stock more (from standard forms, from offsets ●

3 Find the machining features. It’s worth noting this uses a ●

4 Categorise each feature or group of features using the ●

5 Full machine simulation can be used to ensure that each ●

6 Once the back of the job has been broken quickly, time ●

the datum to get it in the most appropriate orientation for machining

Planning Board. This allows you to organise the feature, then apply preset operations

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from the component or import geometry) and any fixtures, clamps and other fittings

set-up and operation is gouge free as a first pass. The trick is then to use this as the basis for fine tuning

geometry analysis, rather than CAD features — enabling it to also work with import geometry

can be spent fine tuning each operation to ensure that the machine is running as optimally as possible

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REVIEW: DELCAM POWERMILL 2014 PowerMill is a legend amongst those machining at the bleeding edge.

Al Dean explores the highlights of the latest release

A

nyone that’s been involved in the more complex end of the machining spectrum will know about Delcam’s PowerMill.

Whether you’re a user or not, its reputation as one of the go-to systems for machining complex forms, is undeniable.

While its background is in the mould and die market, the last few years have seen PowerMill expand its reach. That reach has grown not only in terms of the types of machine tool activities that it supports, but also the industry tasks and activities it encompasses.

In addition to mould and die, you’ll now find PowerMill working to help control all manner of complex machine tools — whether that’s gantry mounted CNC routers, or robots grinding to remanufacture turbine blades or driving the trimming of complex composite structures.

What links all of these activities is the inherent complexity that comes with those machines and absolute control required over their movements.

different materials etc. It’s also worth noting that these are now stored in XML format, so they’re much more shareable between users and PCs — which aids both back up and standardisation. And the latter is particularly key when getting new team members up to speed.

User experience

DYNAMIC TOOL CONTROL

As with all the other Delcam systems, PowerMill has been through a pretty major overhaul of the user interface in the last few years. But if you’re expecting an experience that follows Microsoft’s current UI guidelines, then you’re out of luck.

Instead, what you’ll find is an interface that’s suited to the complex business of part programming.

Everything is laid out logically, icons are clear, clean and communicate the operation involved. What has changed, however, is the scope for customisation. In previous releases, you had a maximum of four toolbars for collecting users’ most-used operations, linking to macros and the like. That’s now been expanded to give you a whopping 32. That should just about cover everything you need for different types of part,

Moving onto the programming of complex machines, perhaps the biggest highlight for this release relates to tracking and simulation of the motion characteristics of complex 4- and 5-axis machine tools.

Now, unless you’ve worked with one of these machines, the subtleties of the importance of these tools might be missed. These multi axis machines are difficult to program because alongside the movement of the cutter and holder around the part, the user also needs to factor in the rotation and tilting of the machine bed and/or the movement of the machine head.

The new tools allow the user to not only visualise the exact movements of all aspects of the machine with a new Machine Tool Position dialog (which shows the XYZ translation and A/C axis rotations), but also to grab the

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1 1 PowerMill’s new geometry of the head and manoeuvre ● composite curve it into position. creation tools give This allows experimentation to find automation where needed, then prompt the optimal combination of head position, part rotation, cutter length to for user input. For example, where reach those hard to reach places. Once tangency can’t be it’s found, a new work-plane can be tracked quickly created, a very useful addition for those using 3 + 2 machines.

While PowerMill, along with similar programs, has included collision detection for some time, the new version also allows users to detect less serious, but still important, problems like sudden changes in direction or axis reversals that can leave marks on the part’s surface. Often, it is simply a case of changing the position of the part on the bed to solve the problem.

VORTEX machining The next headline update for this PowerMill release cycle is Vortex machining. This is Delcam’s take on full flute roughing with solid carbide tools and takes its mastery of the complex machining strategy and applies some smart thinking to the process. While we should be aware of this movement towards deeper roughing operations, Delcam’s take SPECIAL REPORT: CAM & CNC

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differs from others on the market in that it’s based on tool-paths with a controlled engagement angle between cutter and material.

Other offerings tend to focus on maintaining the material removal rate and varying the feed-rate. What Vortex does is look to ensure that the feedrate is maintained as close to constant as possible, with the tool-path varying to the engagement angle – that gives you a much more constant load on the cutter, which in turn reduces the wear on the machine and cutter as a whole.

While metrics are always difficult to verify (as usage scenarios differ dramatically), customers that have been trialing this approach have found that in addition to reducing the cycle time for specific operations, the costs associated with cutter stock has also shifted in their favour, whether enabling lower cost cutters to be used or needing fewer cutters for a run of parts.

At present, Vortex machining can be used in a select number of operations including 2- and 3-axis roughing, three plus axis area clearance and for rest machining, though I’d expect these to be expanded in coming releases. Of course, given the correct parameters, these options can be used to machine almost all materials, titanium, tool steel and more exotic alloys such as Inconel.

Finally, although not directly related to PowerMill, it’s also being integrated into some of the other CAM systems

in Delcam’s portfolio, including PartMaker, FeatureCAM and Delcam for SolidWorks.

COMPOSITE CURVES Moving onto more functional matters, a generally applicable update for this release is on the creation of composite curves, one of a number of CAD tools included in PowerMill. While these have always been a mainstay of mould and die applications, those used to mainstream modelling tools might not be an familiar term. Essentially, composite curves (or comp curves for short) are a series of connected edges, extracted from your geometric model.

Whereas mainstream tool users might be familiar with the process of selecting edges around a set of geometry (for example, as you would for filleting or chamfering operations), they’re typically selected as part of the feature creation process and not retained.

In the CAM world, comp curves allow you to do the same (selecting either manually or tracking tangency automatically), but the result is formalised as a single curve that’s stored as part of the model.

These can then be used for a variety of purposes. The most common is to define parting lines in mould design but, in the CAM world, they serve additional purposes, such as restricting the creation of toolpaths, defining profiling operations, or the trimming of composites.

2 The new tools in PowerMill give you a mix of automated tools (where the tool follows lines, circles and arcs by tangency connections) as well as manual input where needed (for example, where tangency breaks or three edges meet).

2 PowerMill’s Vortex ●

machining operations allows full flute length cuts to remove material at higher rate using the full flute length of solid carbide cutters

IN CONCLUSION PowerMill is always pushing the limits of what can be achieved with state of the art machine tools, but also, and arguably more importantly, allows machinists to work with their existing tools more efficiently.

There’s plenty more else to dig into but the key updates in this release, in particular the introduction of the new five-axis tools and the Vortex area clearance strategy, show that Delcam is finding ways to do things differently and to add intelligence to the machining process to create higher quality, more consistent tool-paths for all manner of machine tools.

■ delcam.com

MACHINE CONTROL: REIGNING IN THE COMPLEXITY OF five axis

1 Simulating the tool-path. PowerMill will detect any ●

2 Open up the new Dynamic Machine Control toolbar ●

3 Interactive grab handles allow you to move and rotate the ●

4 Grab the machine tool and drag it around the remainder ●

5 Update your existing tool-path with one click (if using ●

6 Accept the changes made using PowerMill’s Dynamic ●

collisions that occur between the machine tool and the model during the simulation

of the toolpath checking for further collisions, dynamically and with real time feedback

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allowing you to re-orientate the machine to be collision free

spherical tooling) or create a new workplane aligned to the tool for use on additional toolpaths

machine to any desired orientation. The information dialog tracks movements and warns if an axial limit has been met

Machine Control and run a new simulation of the new, now collision free, tool-path

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MAKING THE CASE FOR MACHINE SIMULATION CGTech Managing Director, John Reed explores the benefits of having independent machine simulation tools as part of your machining workflow

Y

ou would be forgiven for thinking that NC simulation software was a mature market.

CGTech’s own VeriCut software, which accurately models CNC machine tools in order to independently simulate the postprocessed version of an NC program, has been available for many years.

However, new business continues to surge as manufacturing and engineering businesses that have never considered simulation software before are opting to invest in the technology.

Machine simulation, verification and optimisation software enables users to totally eliminate the process of manually provingout NC programs. It reduces scrap loss and rework. It can also optimise NC programs in order to both save time and produce higher quality surface finish.

So why are so few organisations adopting NC machine tool simulation outside of the tools provided with their CAM software? Or to put it another way, what are the reasons that our customers are evaluating our solutions?

At CG Tech, we’ve identified several key reasons for this continued interest from new customers, as well as ongoing appeal among existing users.

Capacity constraints. Many machine shops have sufficient work; the challenge being scheduling it with finite capacity. Performing prove-outs on the machine, therefore, becomes a costly use of machine capacity.

Far better to do it in a virtual environment, allowing independent software to provide the confidence in the tool path and machine set-up. Some can also optimises the NC program, allowing it to run faster, increasing the capacity of the shop.

Complex 5-axis machining. Many machine shops installing their first 5-axis machine tool are justifiably cautious about the complexity of this machine’s axes movements. Simulating the 5-axis job before it runs offers a way to safeguard this sophisticated machine technology, often ‘sophisticated’ can also be considered as ‘high-priced’.

Cost considerations. A machine crash is very expensive, potentially ruining the machine tool, and delaying your entire manufacturing schedule. However, with simulation software, you can dramatically reduce the chance of any error.

Machine simulation detects collisions and near-misses between all machine tool components such as axis slides, heads, Solid models. During the past few decades, turrets, spindles, tool changers, fixtures, many machine shops were programming workpieces, cutting tools, and other userwithout solid models; relying on paper-based defined objects. designs and, at best, wire-frame models.

‘Near-miss zones’ can be set up around the Today, however, with the development of components to check for close calls, and even PC-based CAD/CAM software the use of machine over-travel errors can be detected. solid models is commonplace. The broader Once the risk of crashing the machine availability of solid models for workpieces, has been removed, simulation software cutting tools and machine tools makes then provides ongoing savings by removing program simulation far easier to implement. the wasted production time lost during the proving-out of new programs on the Higher value work. Particularly for Western machine. manufacturing businesses, some of the most Every machine shop has to introduce and lucrative machining opportunities involve prove new NC programs at some point. For parts that are geometrically challenging, most engineering companies around 15 to often produced from difficult to machine 20 per cent of a machine tool’s spindle time materials and to increasingly tight tolerances. is allocated to this.

Where the part value is higher, the On a single shift, this equates to one lost importance of avoiding an error or collision day per week per machine. Assuming the that could damage the raw material or the machine is charged out at £70 per hour, machined component becomes that much that’s £560 worth of lost production time more significant.

– for each machine. So, a shop with 10 CNC34 APRIL 2014 DEVELOP3D.COM

CNC machine tools manually proving-out programs is losing around £263,000 per year.

A paperless working environment. For management and supervisors, having access, on demand, to all their critical files provides confirmation of the safe machining of any production parts, and for the operator it provides additional set-up information and subsequent ‘op’ sequences.

Supply chain security. This is a vital consideration for any company operating in the aerospace or other high-tech industry supply chain, where key performance business indicators measure both quality and OTIF (On Time, In Full) delivery. NC code verification ensures the safety of the component; it allows the programmed cut part model to be measured against the design CAD model and also safeguards the machine tool from collision damage.

Staff stress. Companies have a duty of care towards their employees’ health and safety; stress is known to be one of the major causes of lost time for staff work attendance.

Machine simulation provides the comfort of checking any tool-paths before they are released to the shopfloor, giving the opportunity to programmers and engineers to identify and rectify any errors beforehand.

This improves health and safety by reducing the stress levels for everyone involved, especially the machine operators that will be ultimately responsible for the safe operation of the machine tool.

IN CONCLUSION As well as protecting the machine tool from programming errors and optimising the NC cutting tool path, machine simulation’s ability to move the prove-out process from the shopfloor into a virtual environment makes a sound investment argument.

When you consider all the advantages, the investment in machine simulation by new customers discovering all the benefits available, it becomes easier to understand why they choose to use the software. Today, the question is likely to be why wouldn’t you use it?”

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CAM for beginners Marc Freebrey Marketing Director VERO GROUP

Peter DICKIN Marketing MANAGER DELCAM

results and high quality toolpaths.

Intelligence can be added to the CAM software so the best strategy or machining parameters based on remaining stock or geometrical attributes is selected. One example of this is the ability to take a standard 3-axis toolpath and convert it for use as a 5-axis toolpath, rather than having to rework it from scratch. t is important for the CAM Feature recognition is key as industry to recognise this ensures that data can be that many of companies successfully passed from CAD involved in the manufacturing to CAM. Those same design process are typically not the same features, diameters, hole depth, company involved in the design etc. can be automatically read of the original component. by the system and passed to Therefore, regardless of the the CAM engine. Once the CAD/CAM system, the tool set machining parameters of a provided must be as unobtrusive feature are known this feature as possible; ensuring that the can be assigned the relevant engineer is able to concentrate machining process to efficiency on the job-in-hand, rather than cut at the machine. the working constraints of the Lots of development over CAD/CAM system. the last few years has seen Before the CAM process “automation” of machining at begins, a major factor is the the forefront of development. ability to accurately read data The choice of strategies and from a wide range of suppliers. tooling used, based on the Globalisation has increased the component and what tools are need for cross-platform systems. available to the user will allow the Due to the nature of iteration CAM system to choose the best in product engineering, the machining methods including data must be transferable from the number of setups to keep one team (and one product) to machining time and setups another. down to a minimum.

CAM systems are addressing The future of CAM will the skill shortage by reducing be based on the continual the reliance of CAM experts. development of design This can be achieved by using intelligence and maximising software intelligence and a the use of industry innovations knowledge-based database, and cutting edge technologies. which adapts over time and can Advances in PC hardware, be used by anyone to achieve the design/engineering, machining same results, following proven methods and cutting tools will and tested rules and conventions. result in CAD/CAM suppliers By establishing plant-wide optimising their offerings. The database defaults that represent harmony between software, company standards, this ensures CNC machine and tooling that from user to user, job to job, performance is fundamental to you are producing consistent manufacturing quality.

needed to operate a CAM system. After all, having a variety of sophisticated machining strategies available is of little use if the operator doesn’t know how and when to apply them.

In addition, the potential cost is high of any errors in the program that could cause a collision.

Similarly, struggling to produce the most efficient machining strategy is not as important when making a single model, espite the constant that could well be machined improvements in digital overnight, as it is when prototyping, there is still manufacturing thousands of no substitute for being able to parts in a long production run. touch, feel and play around with To obtain the ease of use that a physical model of a new design. is required, a feature-based While many of these models programming system is by far are now produced by additive the most suitable choice. manufacturing, there is a With this approach, individual growing trend for design pieces of geometry, such as agencies to also invest in holes, pockets, slots or bosses, subtractive manufacturing or and even surfaces, are created as machining as it is known to features in CAD software. Their traditionalists like me. form is then recognised by the The main driver for this change CAM system and a program is not, as might be expected, generated automatically, to save money as investing which allows each feature to in a machine tool, together be machined in a standard with the associated software way. All of the decisions that and accessories is not a cheap otherwise need to be made by the exercise. The real benefit is programmer, including the sizes the ability to save time – an of cutting tools to be chosen, the increasing precious commodity strategies to be applied and the as there are constant pressures to feeds and speeds to be used, are reduce the development time for made by the software. new products.

While these systems might Selecting the most suitable seem to be inflexible, that does machine tool depends on a huge not need to be the case. Either variety of factors, not least the the company supplying the size of the models being made software or an expert user in and the materials to be used. the company can modify the Fortunately, it is much simpler templates used in the CAM to choose the most appropriate system to take account of the CAM software since only one materials to be cut and machine factor is really important – ease tools available. of use.

In this way, design companies Even though CAM software can have a system that is easy for is generally easier to learn than designers with little machining CAD software, it can still be a experience to use and still able challenge for casual users to to produce efficient and reliable maintain the level of knowledge toolpaths.

I

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The CAM industry needs to adapt to support the growing number of firms bringing machining back in house. But how will it ensure that customers who are short on experience are still efficient and productive?

 Having a variety

of sophisticated machining strategies available is of little use if the operator doesn’t know how and when to apply them  Peter Dickin, marketing manager, Delcam

Mirko Bäcker Manufacturing Marketing Director, Siemens can be done to lower hurdles like these?

The key is to look at the change as an opportunity to improve everything. Rather than see the effort as a barrier, consider it an investment in a critical business process. After all, if the component is complex, requires precision, and is key to the overall product, then maintaining control of its production is worth it. Those are the reasons you anufacturing has wanted it back in-house to begin always been a with. And don’t forget that you balancing act of know better than anyone else the cost, quality, and speed. These requirements and performance goals are in competition with environment of your component. each other, and tradeoffs are It is a benefit to spin up a constantly evaluated and remanufacturing process with new evaluated. Manufacturing has machines. They get better all the always been a balancing act of time in terms of cutting speeds, cost, quality, and speed. These precision, and repeatability. The goals are in competition with same is true for tooling. Putting each other, and tradeoffs are together a new tooling package constantly evaluated and refor a job will probably improve evaluated. As the cute posters performance as each operation is seen in so many shops say, re-evaluated for the best process. “pick two.”

And using the latest integrated These tradeoffs led many programming tools provides OEMs to turn to suppliers for opportunities for family- of-parts some key components. But in the programming, automation, high interest of maintaining quality, speed machine support, and data or reducing transportation costs, and process management. The or providing faster turnaround, part manufacturing solutions many of these same OEMs are from Siemens PLM Software, wondering if they would benefit for example, cover all of these from bringing their component opportunities with NX CAD manufacturing back in-house. and CAM, the Manufacturing The answer has been yes, Tooling Library, and shop floor increasingly, when a component applications. is complex, precise, or critical to Chances are good that an the overall product. That is when investment in infrastructure the tradeoffs become greater for and process will do more letting someone else do it. than restore the expertise and Bringing an operation back in experience that was lost when house is easier said than done, the part was outsourced in the however. It probably involves past. It will bring the OEM building up a facility, acquiring to a new level of expertise in machines and tooling, and manufacturing the component, adding staff. More importantly, as it employs the latest the OEM may have lost a equipment and technology in significant amount of expertise pursuit of speed, quality, and and experience for the job. What efficiency.

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