Subcontractor Dawnlough reduces programming times through Hurco CNC techology

The purchases include eight vertical machining centres (VMCs) and a driven-tool lathe from Hurco, supplied through local sales representative in Ireland, Michael Gannon. One of the factors that kick-started the investment in Hurco machining centres was the length of time it took to program jobs on a pre-existing 3-axis VMC from another well-known supplier. At the time, Dawnlough operated manual manual machine tools, but was keen to "CNC everything", as director Brian McKeon puts it, to raise component quality and accuracy. "Production here is mainly one-offs and small batches, so we wanted to be able to program each new part quickly on the shopfloor, otherwise job preparation becomes too large a proportion of overall manufacturing time, reducing profitability," he explains.. "Conventional G-code programming on our old VMC was really quite slow. So we looked around for a faster solution and homed in on the conversational Max CNC fitted to Hurco machines. The control is the compact, single-screen version of Hurco's popular twin-screen Ultimax CNC. "The difference was staggering. We found we could program up to six times more quickly by manual data input at the Max control, and as we only make small quantities of parts, it has translated into a 50% increase in production output overall." Dawnlough's first purchase was a VM3, joined two years later by a similar model, followed by a line of three smaller capacity VM1s in 2009, and three of the updated VM10 version in 2010 and 2011. Of the eight Hurco VMCs currently on the shopfloor, three are fitted with an integrated Hurco H200 rotary table to provide a fourth CNC axis that can also be programmed conversationally, directly at the control. The more modern machines have controls equipped with Hurco's powerful, Windows-based WinMax software. Over 75% of programs are prepared on the shopfloor, rather than being downloaded from the CADCAD department, so the extra functionality of Winmax is proving particularly beneficial. Even some complex 3D cycles are generated conversationally, using the software's Swept Surface function. This sees a 2D surface defined and 'swept' along a contour to create a 3D geometry in a single data block. In addition to saving time, the continuous tool path generates a smoother surface finish. Until the beginning of 2011, the company upgraded it turning capacity with the addition of a Hurco TMM8 CNC lathe, with a capacity for producing components up to 256 mm diameter by 588 mm long. The lathe is also driven by WinMax software, so rapidity and flexibility of programming is now also offered in respect of mill-turned parts. According to Mr McKeon, the accuracy of the lathe is particularly impressive, quality is better, lead time is quicker, and as batch sizes are also low for turned parts, profitability is up. He explained that these benefits are particularly noticeable now that his operators have become more familiar with the lathe and are confident in exploiting the driven tooling. Floor-to-floor time for some of the more complicated components is 60% shorter than when other lathes are used. An additional benefit of milling and drilling in-cycle on the TMM8 is that the machining centres are freed from performing these duties.