FEATURE ON CNC & CAM

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

ModuleWorks 2022.12 digital manufacturing software

ModuleWorks’ 2022.12 release of its digital manufacturing software components sees the introduction of new and enhanced features across the company’s entire CAD/CAM/CNC portfolio, including a new deburring preview, new cycles for rotary and turn milling, multi-regions for fused deposition modeling, and simulation and post processing for U-Axis turning operations.

For example, for multi-axis subtractive machining, there is a new option to preview the automatically detected deburr edges before calculating the toolpath. Users can also include/exclude drive curves in/from the tool-path calculation to accelerate programming.

Users of ModuleWorks will also find that the rotary machining component now offers a floor finishing cycle to complete the ModuleWorks basic finishing portfolio of wall and floor finishing. In addition, users can use the cusp height to adjust the step-over on rotary and turn-milling operations. It works for all supported tools and incorporates the axis offset to eliminate complex manual calculations.

In the latest version, the ModuleWorks Machine Simulation supports U-axis turning where the part is static and the turning tool is mounted on the spindle and rotates around the workpiece. The Machine Simulation also now includes flexible machine components such as cables or elastic bellows that are used as machine covers. These components are attached to a fixed point and connect to a movable component.

For the cutting simulation, enhanced triangulation algorithms accelerate the generation of the simulation model. This capability also speeds up mesh export, which significantly enhances the performance of stock management where the stock is exported after each operation.
For further information www.moduleworks.com