FEATURE ON CNC & CAM

ModuleWorks 2023.04 offers new control options

The 2023.04 release of ModuleWorks’ digital manufacturing software components is now available. This first major ModuleWorks release of 2023 offers several new options for controlling the machining parameters across different subtractive and additive processes.

For instance, a range of new options for the deburring, roughing and finishing cycles offer flexibility and control for five-axis and rotary machining. Users can choose between the new climb and conventional cutting methods, and define the contact point between the tool and the workpiece. This is relevant for non-ball cutters like chamfer mills where careful control over the cutting conditions creates chamfered edges with a high-quality finish.

In addition, the new horizontal step-overs for rotary wall finishing make it possible to add cuts in shallow, cylindrical areas for a homogeneous finish across the workpiece, eliminating the need for consecutive finishing tool paths.

To speed up the programing of roughing and finishing cycles, 3D containments are now generated automatically from the selected floor surface. As a further point of note, applying tilting during the lead-in ramps and defining the start points and tool engagement offers enhanced control over the roughing and finishing process.

ModuleWorks also provides a new unified solution for three-axis machining, delivering improved performance and reliability with consistent features available across all cycles. It also offers a simple bridge to 3+2 axis and five-axis machining, and enables ModuleWorks to develop and deploy new three-axis features quickly.

Among further additions is a new two-axis contouring cycle that takes a simplified and generic 2D polyline as input. From here, the cycle generates a tool path suitable for plasma and laser cutting processes with specific lead-in and lead-out motions and parameters to control the feed rate, plasma flow rate and pierce-point behaviour.
For further information www.moduleworks.com

Designs for life as father and son seal transatlantic deal

A Herefordshire father and son team has overcome personal adversity to develop a software platform that can change the way the world’s designers and engineers make products. Ryland and Michael Johnson leveraged each other’s talents in manufacturing and software engineering to create CloudMilling, the industry’s first and only cloud-native CAM solution.

The enterprising duo’s efforts attracted the interest of some of the sector’s biggest solution providers before US-based industrial software company PTC recently acquired their company. Both experts will remain in the business, working collaboratively with PTC’s developers across the world.

“CloudMilling has been a real labour of love and it has taken more than 10 years to get to where we are today,” explains Michael Johnson, who studied at Loughborough University and endures severe disabilities because of complications during birth. “As an experienced pattern maker with 40 years in the industry, my dad knew there was a real need to change the way CAM software operated, so we set about developing a platform that could sit in the cloud and would eventually offer two- to five-axis tool paths that could support virtually any design job in a matter of seconds.”

He adds: “Our solution means that engineers don’t need massive investments in hardware and can cut paths using just their iPad or a mobile. The aim is to make the whole process easier, faster and more accessible. Trying to get the simulation right – especially at this complex level – was the hardest task, but we believed we’d mastered that when we heard about interest from overseas.”

PTC has approximately 7000 employees across 80 offices in 30 countries. As part of the agreement, CloudMilling will become CAM Studio, with availability to Onshape users expected shortly.
For further information www.ptc.com

Engineered to deliver, enhanced by Vericut

CGTech’s Vericut software has created a confidence-boosting, reassuring safety net for Hyde Aero Products over the past 20 years or more. As one of the UK’s largest independent engineering companies, Hyde Aero Products has a prominent reputation for the design, manufacture and assembly of components that it supplies to a broad spread of customers.

Comprised of over 20 manufacturing units that specialise in all elements of metallic component manufacture, Hyde Aero Products relies on Vericut CNC simulation, verification and optimisation software across a number of its sites. In particular, Stoneswood Precision Components (SPC), which specialises in the subtractive manufacturing of soft and hard metal aerospace components, is harnessing the functions of Vericut to deliver high-quality components, first time.

“From small three-axis aluminium brackets, through to large, high-value five-axis titanium structural components, everything runs through Vericut,” explains Rob Westley, senior technical engineer at SPC. “No single program, no matter how short, is output to the shop floor without gaining the Vericut seal of approval.”

Tom Whitbread, SPC technical engineer adds: “The simplicity of Vericut and its speed of use has led to it never being seen as a burden to the programming element of our production chain. In my five years as a programmer and through my SPC apprenticeship programme, Vericut has always captured my training errors and helped me develop skills for program optimisation and enhance the quality of the components I engineer.”

SPC also uses Vericut to manage production capacity. The log and run-time estimation output by Vericut allows SPC to review and optimise the balancing of workloads and manufacturing capabilities of the factory’s various machining cells.
For further information www.cgtech.co.uk

HyperMILL revs-up productivity at Alcon Precision

As part of the Alcon Group, Alcon Precision Engineering has been at the cutting edge of performance automotive manufacturing since its inception. To manufacture complex components for the automotive and motorsport sectors, the company relies on HyperMILL CAM software from Open Mind Technologies.

Previously known as GE Precision before its acquisition by the Alcon Group, Alcon Precision Engineering has been using HyperMILL since 2008. When the Tamworth-based Alcon Group, a manufacturer of brakes and clutches, recognised the quality and surface finishes of the components manufactured at Alcon Precision Engineering, it also adopted HyperMILL CAM software to improve the quality of its components. For Alcon Precision Engineering, a company that has always had its niche in the high-end manufacture of motorsport engines, gearboxes and critical components, a high-end CAM system has always been of critical importance.

Alcon Precision Engineering’s managing director Garry Edwards says: “I’ve used all the leading CAM systems down the years and they all have their individual quirky features that make them a feasible choice, but HyperMILL has all the same features of all its rivals and lots more besides.”

He continues: “A major benefit that stands out is the tool paths within the surface machining modules. Parts like engine covers need to be aesthetically perfect and with HyperMILL, if the middle component has a distinct contour shape, we can select the contour as a guide for the tool path to replicate. This will ensure the entire tool path follows the contours of the part to blend perfectly the surface. Comparing this and other features, HyperMILL is a world apart from other CAM systems.”

Referring to other key features within HyperMILL, Edwards adds: “Another advantage is the feature recognition option, which creates less reliance on our team having to create geometries, surfaces and guide curves. The system is very efficient in terms of production engineering and programming times. Previously, we invested in a different CAM system that was very clunky, took a long time to process tool paths and offered no feature recognition, so we decided to change. Once I had a demonstration of the capabilities of HyperMILL, I was sold.”
For further information www.openmind-tech.com

PSL Datatrack gets subcontractor off the ground

One of the first, vital tasks for Bradda Engineering was to invest in a production control software system. PSL Datatrack was identified as meeting all of the start-up company’s initial requirements.

“The control that PSL Datatrack would bring to the business was clear,” states Bradda Engineering’s owner Kenneth Oates. “We are primarily engineers and PSL Datatrack takes care of everything so we don’t have to get bogged down in manual administration work.”

Experience told Oates that investment in production control software was essential in order to provide the highest levels of customer service.

“Understanding how to make the most of stock and materials so that we could be as efficient as possible with minimum waste was a prerequisite,” he says.

PSL Datatrack manages the generation of quotations and all the engineering steps required until delivery and final invoice. Upon raising a works order, the system generates a material requirement and the purchase orders module is used to place an order with the supplier. Users can trace the job through the shop floor, with data collected on operational costs, tooling, materials and machining processes.

Oates initially researched a number of production control systems, but few seemed to fit the exact needs of a small engineering company.

“They did not seem flexible enough and were quite complicated to use,” he says. “We also wanted the modularity that would enable us to build up a system as we grew and attracted more customers.”

Having recognised the real potential of PSL Datatrack and how it could help a growing company, the company invested in more modules than originally envisaged. The administration, sales, purchasing, scheduling, shop-floor data collection and financial modules were installed from the outset.
For further information www.psldatatrack.com