FEATURE ON CNC & CAM

Creo 11 delivers better designs in less time

PTC has released the 11th version of its Creo CAD software and the latest version of its Creo+ SaaS CAD solution. The launch enables engineers to deliver their best designs in less time and enjoy a wide range of enhancements for electrification, composites, model-based definition (MBD), simulation-driven design and manufacturing.

“Creo 11 and Creo+ deliver enhancements that design engineers will use every day,” says Brian Thompson, general manager of Creo at PTC. “Improvements to our AI-powered generative design and integrated Ansys-based simulation gives customers the opportunity to employ simulation-driven design earlier in the development process to improve time to market, initial product quality and manufacturing cost. PTC has continued to invest in Creo’s capabilities for MBD, composite designs and advanced manufacturing.”

For instance, optimised additive and subtractive manufacturing tools ensure greater efficiency and versatility in the manufacturing process. Improvements include enhanced lattice structure creation and smoother operations, such as four-axis rotary milling and area turning.

More powerful MBD tools enable teams to organise design data easily in simple tables that can be read by humans and machines with user-defined text, parameter callouts and semantic references.

As a further point of note, Creo 11 introduces new simulation-driven design capabilities for better design ideation, guidance and validation. Its generative design has been enhanced with minimum limits on feature size, bearing load support and constraints for planar symmetry.

In addition to the release of Creo 11, PTC is releasing the latest version of Creo+, which allows users to leverage the power and proven functionality of Creo in a SaaS solution with cloud-enabled collaboration and entitlement tools.

For further information www.ptc.com

Ticking to perfection at MACH 2024 show

SolidCAM UK says the company validated its admission of being one of the most powerful CAM systems in the world at its stand at the recent MACH 2024 exhibition in Birmingham.

Customer Sinclair Harding (UK) kindly displayed one of its refined clocks on SolidCAM UK’s stand throughout the week-long event. At MACH, attendees could see for themselves the result of hard work through studying and preserving original production techniques, blended with the introduction of new modern technology.

“If I’m going to call myself a clockmaker, I decided we’re going to make pretty much all of the parts in-house for each clock,” says Bob Bray, the company’s managing director. “A combination of traditional clockmaking and modern technology allows us to produce a clock with soul and character.”

This maker of fine clocks, based in Emley, West Yorkshire, machines a remarkable 99% of its parts in-house, which the company states would not be possible without its CAM software, training and support. Despite continuing to use the firm’s previous CAM software alongside, owing to the newer SolidCAM simultaneous five-axis capabilities, Sinclair Harding is now producing parts that it could only dream of before.

“Before SolidCAM we didn’t have the control over tool paths and operations like we do now,” says Bray. “SolidCAM allows us to control factors like step overs, lead in and lead out, where we can get the best quality surface finish on something where traditionally we probably wouldn’t be able to achieve a good finish.”

Utilising SolidCAM means that when Sinclair Harding does all of its hand finishing, the company saves a lot of time.

For further information www.solidcam.com

Sheet metal factories ready for change

Lantek found that manufacturers in the sheet metal industry were ready to integrate all their production and business systems at the recent MACH 2024 exhibition in Birmingham. By demonstrating its Lantek Expert software, which is capable of nesting and programming parts for hundreds of makes and models of cutting machines, visitors could see how to increase business efficiency and reduce workloads by automating and integrating their operating systems.

Commercial director Adam Ball says: “Sheet metal is a niche industry and, at Lantek, we’ve been working and developing solutions in this sector for more than 35 years. Over 32,000 companies use Lantek to drive their sheet metal machinery and many of them already depend entirely on Lantek software to run every aspect of their business.”

Advances in how companies work can be introduced in stages, making it easy to implement Lantek’s technology gradually with the minimum disruption. By adding IQuoting, for example, companies can achieve consistent and highly accurate pricing in a few minutes. This takes the subjectivity out of the task as well as the tedious calculations involved and, when hundreds of quotes are necessary, saves many hours of work.

New at MACH, Lantek demonstrated machine connectivity. This capability enables real-time feedback from the workshop on the status of machines and parts, and the time taken during manufacture. Not only does this make it easy to find parts in production and check delivery date targets, it also keeps track of costs to make sure every component is profitable.

Lantek’s Integra software brings the whole system together, connecting to existing accounting and business systems, delivering MES capability, controlling stock levels, subcontracted parts, non-CNC operations and traceability of material and more. For more information www.lantek.com

AMS drives efficiency and sustainability

AMS (Architectural & Metal Systems), a manufacturer of aluminium extrusion and façade systems, has achieved a 19% improvement in machine utilisation and identified annual efficiency and sustainability improvements worth more than €30,000 within three months of installing machine monitoring technology from FourJaw Manufacturing Analytics.

AMS, which employs more than 300 people at its 400,000 sq ft facility in Cork, introduced FourJaw’s plug-and-play machine monitoring system in December 2023 to measure machine utilisation and support its move to shift-based working patterns. AMS wanted to provide site managers with an objective view of production visibility during lights-out manufacturing and improve its ability to deliver products to customers within short lead times.

FourJaw’s platform, which AMS installed initially on several CNC machines, immediately provided reliable real-time data on machine utilisation, enhancing resource planning and enabling the manufacturer to identify areas for process improvements and cost reductions. Enhanced communication between managers and machine operators, and interventions inspired by analysis of downtime data, are enabling AMS to reduce time lost on each monitored machine by an average of 20 minutes per shift.

AMS is also improving machine utilisation levels, which ran at an average of 39.8% at the time of installing FourJaw, to 52.9% within three months. AMS calculates that these initial efficiency improvements are worth between €19,000 and €28,000 a year.

Analysis of energy consumption data recorded by FourJaw is also identifying opportunities to reduce energy use by as much as €8000 a year on some machines, as well as further savings worth €12,000 per annum by reducing energy wasted on machines that were not isolated correctly.

Chris Ryan, continuous improvement manager at AMS, says: “FourJaw was an easy investment to make and a giant leap forward in our digitisation journey.”

For more information www.fourjaw.com

HyperMILL sparks productivity gains

With a growing machine shop boasting over 40 machine tools, subcontractor Future Advanced Manufacture (FutureAM) soon found its existing CADCAM system lacking capability in several areas. The Cheltenham-based business subsequently turned to Open Mind Technologies and its hyperMILL CADCAM system.

The shop floor at FutureAM has a diverse mix of machine tools that include three- and five-axis machining centres, and multi-axis turning technology from brands such as Doosan, Mazak, DMG Mori, XYZ, Colchester, Hardinge, Correa and many more.

Oliver Allen, head of R&D at FutureAM, says: “With our previous CADCAM supplier, five-axis machining was more a bolt on to their CAD system whereas with hyperMILL, the five-axis suite is incorporated in the system and Open Mind provide full support. Our previous supplier could not offer that.”

And there are many more benefits, as Justin Talboys-Cotton, a sales manager at Open Mind Technologies, reveals: “Previously, FutureAM had no graphical simulation and they were running programs to the best of their knowledge on the machines. By adopting hyperMILL Virtual Machining, the company now has a full digital twin of the machines running NC code simulation. It doesn’t stop there: FutureAM have also invested in the Optimizer module, which will automatically work out the best and most optimal solution to fit the required tool path within the machine envelope. With their previous supplier, the business was limited to just milling only. HyperMILL has now also given this customer turning capability – all in one supply.”

Adds Allen: “Now that everyone here is using hyperMILL, it’s very apparent that our productivity levels are increasing and efficiency is improving, with the company subsequently making more money.”

For more information www.openmind-tech.com