Esprit supports DED manufacturing

The DP Technology team has launched the first commercial version of Esprit CAM software that includes additive direct energy deposition (DED) cycles.

Esprit’s additive capabilities are the product of the team’s more than 35 years of experience in tool-path generation, and include the same intuitive user interface that users expect from the software. The product release includes three-axis, four-axis and five-axis DED support. Combined with subtractive processes into a single software, DP Technology brings a full spectrum of support to hybrid manufacturing. Esprit’s additive DED cycles include additive simulation and verification, as well as global support from the software’s technical teams.
Notably, DP Technology validated its post processor through collaboration with major machine manufacturers and educational nstitutions.
“For more than a decade, we’ve been working on additive manufacturing, including research on DED tool-path trajectories and AM thermal simulation,” says Frederic Vignat, head of the additive department at Grenoble University in France. “Esprit’s additive DED solution is the result of close collaboration between DP Technology and Grenoble University, a world-leading research institution on additive DED technology.”
The new additive cycle offers users a full-spectrum additive solution, from CAD file to finished part.
For further information www.espritcam.eu

Cutting tools for ventilator production

McLaren Racing, which is part of the Government’s Ventilator Challenge UK, has enlisted the expertise and cutting-tool technology on offer from Ceratizit UK & Ireland.

Initial tooling requirements have been from the Ceratizit drilling range, with drills provided to produce holes up to 16xD in both aluminium and steel. “While the initial demand was
for drills, we have made many recommendations across a series of approximately 15 components to help improve the production of these vital parts,” says Ceratizit industry solutions engineer Michael May.
For further information www.ceratizit.com

Virtual showcase for metrology

A UK provider of production metrology is going online to help it deliver product awareness and technical application sessions during the current pandemic.

Blum-Novotest is looking to maximise any industrial downtime by offering new and existing customers the opportunity to take part in 60-90 minute sessions that will give them the chance to learn about the latest products and how they can be used to save time and improve accuracy.
Six clients have already taken part as a way of finding out more about Blum-Novotest products, the benefits they provide and how technical experts can get the most from the technology. Among them is Kildare, Ireland-based Premier Machine Tools. Six of its staff from across all areas of the business completed an introductory session to the range, exploring tool setting, workpiece and Digilog touch probes, including the recently launched LC50 that promises to be 60% quicker than conventional in-machine measuring.
For further information www.blum-novotest.com

Advanced chip breaking at Sub CNC

Like most turned parts subcontractors, Sub CNC Precision uses its 14 twin-spindle, multi-axis bar autos, in this case all from Citizen Machinery UK, to turn-mill parts in one hit from a wide variety of metals that extend from mild and stainless steels, through copper and aluminium alloys, to exotics such as Monel, Inconel and titanium. Likewise, the company produces components from many types of plastic including nylon, PEEK and Delrin.

The list of industries served is also long, encompassing aerospace and defence, telecommunications, motorsport, automotive, marine, agricultural and medical, the latter accounting for 20% of turnover in an average year.
So when Rolls-Royce was trying to find a suitable firm to produce a particularly difficult pair of plastic components for the Ventilator Challenge UK, it is unsurprising that its email list included ISO 9001:2008-accredited Sub CNC, whose name had been passed to the government’s consortium by Citizen, which had been identified as a critical supplier.
One of the reasons for Sub CNC winning this plastic turn-milling work, as well as subsequent urgent medical contracts, is the option to use on four of its 12 Citizen sliding-head lathes the manufacturer’s patented LFV chip-breaking software. The machining of plastic materials, as well as many metals, results in stringy swarf wrapping itself around the tool and component, forcing the operator to stop the machine frequently for remedial action, compromising productivity. LFV avoids this situation by oscillating the tool by a few tens of microns to break the swarf into small, manageable pieces, the length of which can actually be programmed.
The two components for Rolls-Royce required the use of sliders capable of turning 32 mm diameter bar. At Sub CNC, the only machine of this capacity equipped with LFV is an L32-VIII, which was deployed for producing the most difficult part with drilled and milled features.
For further information www.citizenmachinery.co.uk

ModuleWorks hits million milestone

CAD/CAM/CNC software specialist, ModuleWorks, is celebrating a special milestone with the millionth commit to its software version control system.

“This is a special day because it means we’ve improved, enhanced and extended our software 1,000,000 times,” says David Plater, technical director of ModuleWorks. Founded as an independent CADCAM component supplier in 2003, ModuleWorks has grown into a 200-strong international team whose software solutions are optimising the quality and efficiency of manufacturing processes in over 500,000 seats of installed CADCAM and CNC software around the world.
For further information www.moduleworks.com