Toolpath tales

Remnant and part picking capabilities are key to Recol Engineering, a sheet metal fabricator producing high quality, precision sheet metalwork in stainless and mild steel, and aluminium, largely for the food distribution industry and one of whose main production lines is for stainless steel hoppers that measure food quantities for packing. The company uses an Amada F1 laser and an Amada EML 3510 NT with full automation, high speed servo-electric punch with combined 4 kW laser, both served by racking towers and both driven by Vero Software's Radan (01225 721330). Recol's head of engineering, Simon Hollin, highlights that part picking on the EML is an essential element of its production process. "But we had major issues regarding part picking with our previous software...it just wouldn't do what we wanted it to, which is why we switched to Radan." Now, when the company has nests with large, similar parts, the EML combination laser-punch cuts the part three-quarters of the way out; arms then 'sucker' the part for its final cut before it is stacked. When all part picks are completed, the skeleton is taken off and stacked at the back of the machine, if it is scrap, or at the front, if it can be used as a remnant. "We can create as many as 50 nests and just leave the machine running overnight. It all helps us to achieve optimum production," explains Mr Hollin (pictured), who highlights that the part picking capability also ensures material wastage is kept to a minimum. "We have a number of nests that don't use the whole sheet. Where we have a remnant, it's transferred into an 'Unreleased' folder. Once we've run the nest that's been produced from it, it's transferred into our 'Remnants' folder. When we create another nest, Radan scans for remnants first, and puts as many parts as it can on those remnants before going on to use full sheets. This is done automatically and means we don't have to buy as much raw material." While sheet utilisation is an important requirement to keep costs down, Recol's IT manager, Ben Guntrip, says there are so many variables involved in nesting that they take a number of other aspects into consideration. "It's acceptable to waste a certain amount of sheet space to save time on the shopfloor. We focus heavily on organising nests into certain formats. We tweak our nests to create a sheet that may contain three different segregated areas of the same part. Otherwise, the system would nest dissimilar products all over the sheet, meaning that we'd then have to spend time working out from a small printout where each product is. "For instance, instead of having small brackets spread all over the sheet, we'd rather sacrifice a bit of sheet space and have them in rows, which will save us time. Sheet utilisation is important, but it's not always the best overall solution, so we make full use of the option to manually adjust the nest." To get the benefits of an integrated manufacturing and management system, Material stockholder C Brown and Sons (Steel), Dudley, West Midlands, has installed Lantek's Integra suite of CADCAM and ERP software (01684 585384). The company works with both heavy and light strip steel from 0.8 mm to 15 mm thick, uncoiling, levelling and cutting it to length, followed by plasma, flame or laser cutting to suit the customer's requirements. ISLANDS IN THE FACTORY Julian Adkins, marketing director, explains: "We had islands of software dedicated to the CNC programming of each individual machine and this seriously affected our flexibility, as, if we needed to move production to a different machine, we had to program it over again. We realised that we needed one CAM system to program all the machines and a management system that integrated with it to run our whole business. We wanted a joined-up solution that was within budget. Lantek Integra was the only one we could find which suited our requirements." The Lantek Integra ERP system ties together all the manufacturing functions. It includes customer relationship management, a Sales module and a Purchasing module. Integrated with this is the Lantek Expert CADCAM system for nesting and programming parts for the laser, plasma and flame cut machines from the customers' CAD data or drawings; the Warehouse module, which manages stock control and traceability; the Manager module, which controls capacity on the shopfloor; and the Lantek Wos module, which keeps track of the progress of each job through the workshop. The Lantek Manager module takes details of each order from the Sales module, allowing Lantek Expert to nest and program each machine. Mr Adkins describes the process: "The Manager system works on 'buckets' of capacity, so it sorts the requirements by the type of steel, S275 for example, and then again by thickness. Typically, we could have 35 different jobs running at any one time in each thickness, and there could be 100 parts in each job, all of different shapes, making it quite a complex problem to resolve. These 'buckets' of requirement then go to the Lantek Expert CADCAM system, where they are automatically nested into our standard sheet sizes and the CNC program generated. Material sizes range from 2,000 by 1,000 to 4,000 by 2,000 mm. Our aim is to achieve at least 80% material utilisation." REALISTIC COSTINGS The nesting capabilities of Lantek Expert also allow the company to produce realistic costings, while Lantek Wos tracks job progress, allowing the company to provide accurate lead times for each job, as current workload for each machine is known. Mr Adkins concludes: "Our sales team is reporting a substantial improvement in our on-time deliveries, which significantly improves our customer satisfaction levels. Furthermore, we can use Lantek Integra to identify common problems in our manufacturing and service, and take action to prevent their reoccurrence. Overall, it is vital to the growth of our business. It helps us to identify key areas of weakness in our business model, allowing us to develop and test the most effective improvements. It is also a driving force for capital investment, as it gives us the ability to find where we are making money and identify the best investment opportunities." Beechwood Engineering, Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancs, acquired its first 5-axis machining centre, a DMG DMU 80 MonoBLOCK, in 2007 and the company installed hyperMILL, supplied by Open Mind Technologies (01869 290003) to drive it. Over the following three years, which included the recession, the firm bucked the trend by expanding its customer base in the aerospace, Formula One and medical markets. This success was credited to the new machine tool and CAM software. Explains Beechwood director Stewart Churchill: "With hyperMILL, our engineers are able to take a customer's three dimensional model and apply toolpaths that not only remove material in an efficient manner, but also with full control over the finishing process. Several of our older products have been migrated across from multiple set-up operations on the 3-axis milling machines and been re-engineered for the 5-axis machine, using hyperMILL. This has delivered productivity improvements of over 20% and reduced set-ups by 15%, whilst delivering cost reductions and surface finish improvements that have certainly been well received by our customers." Further improvements have been achieved, following the adoption of the hyperMAXX software module. "At first, we were sceptical towards the claimed savings and benefits, as we thought our experience of removing large volumes of material using advanced pocketing cycles was unbeatable," offers Mr Churchill. "However, it was immediately clear that the new hyperMAXX strategies for removing material were generating completely new toolpaths that delivered staggering results. From this, we added a second seat of hyperMILL, together with the hyperMAXX module, and we have standardised on this software for program generation for all our milling requirements." TOOL LIFE AND CYCLE TIMES The company reports tool life increases of 50% and cycle time reductions of up to 50%. Says senior programmer Andy Whitney of the reduced machining times: "This was remarkable for us, particularly as our experienced CNC engineers believed that we had previously been pushing our machine tools and the tooling as hard as we could." The latest addition to Beechwood Engineering's hyperMILL set-up is the new 5-axis Shape Offset Roughing module. Says Mr Churchill: "This will enable us to apply hyperMAXX toolpaths to two and three-dimensional workpieces, utilising the capabilities of the 5-axis machine tools that we now have. This is further reducing the programming burden by offering a strategy for the 5-axis machining of surfaces with a uniform offset. "This is done with simple programming, while avoiding the formation of 'steps' that would be common with Z-level roughing approaches. Improved 5-axis swarf cutting results in better surface quality, whilst the new contour milling features allow for better control when using large milling tools." Box item 1 Traceable part programs As soon as the NC code goes from the network into the machine tool, Vero Software's Manufacturing Control Solutions software (www.mcs.planit.com) is functioning in the background, logging everything that is happening, ensuring full traceability of every line of code throughout its life cycle. Explains Phil Gill, manager, Manufacturing Control Solutions (MCS): "This includes when the code is first produced, when it was made available to production, when it went to a machine for the first time, and if and when it was modified. It means the logbook inside the system has everything fully detailed. This feature has proved to be vital for companies working with DIN EN ISO 13485 Standards or ISO 9001, and the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA), to provide specific information about code for compliance audits and checks." MCS DNC Pro also logically organises NC part programs, working with smart IDs that can be linked to ERP or work order-related procedures. The system also makes it easy to call programs from the network to the machine, as it treats all machines the same. Software loaded to the control system allows operators to use the softkeys on the screen to drive it, eliminating the need for disks or USB pen drives. Box item 2 CADCAM products and news on the web [] Jetcam International has launched updates of its two flagship products – Jetcam Expert CADCAM and nesting software for sheet metal and composite users, and the premium version of Jetcam Order Controller (JOC) – www.machinery.co.uk/42223 [] Open Mind Technologies has developed machining strategies for its 2011 version hyperMill CAM system, so integrated hyperCAD/hyperMill now supports tool and mould makers right from importing item data to NC program post-processing – www.machinery.co.uk/40966 [] Xisis, Wheatley, Oxon, is the UK's exclusive supplier of 'directMILL', claimed to be the first CAM solution to be compatible with all major CAD formats, while it is also said to boast the world's easiest to use, advanced 4 and 5-axis machining features – www.machinery.co.uk/42257 [] Vortex and Machine DNA from Delcam are claimed to be revolutionary roughing technologies and able to shave up to 60% off machining time. The new technology will feature as part of forthcoming versions of PowerMILL, FeatureCAM, Delcam for SolidWorks and PartMaker – www.machinery.co.uk/41453 First published in Machinery, June 2012