Forge Motorsport & Engineering is a business that evolved from Forge Engineering, a subcontract manufacturing company founded in 1983. Down the years, the firm developed what it claims to be the world’s largest and diverse supply of aftermarket car tuning products.It is this evolution that led to a change of name, becoming Forge Motorsport & Engineering in 1996.Like many motorsport manufacturers, the company today relies on HyperMill from Open Mind Technologies for the CAM programming of its components.

The company has offices in the US and Taiwan, retaining its R&D activities and manufacturing in Gloucester. Discussing the business, Peter Miles, managing director at Forge Motorsport, says: “Forge Motorsport Engineering is a manufacturer of performance products and aftermarket parts for a range of petrol and turbo vehicles. We specialise in CNC machining, turning and fabrication, producing the largest range of performance aftermarket parts worldwide. The components we manufacture are extremely complex. For our engineers to get the best from our machines, it’s vitally important that we have the best software on the market, to drive our innovation and designs.”

It is here thatOpen Mind plays a major role with its HyperMillCAM suite, as Miles explains: “In 2019, we recognised that we’d been inactive in updating and improving our machining capacity. That led to us looking in detail at our CNC machining capability. Ryan Speck, our chief engineer, led us down the road of investment in five-axis machining capability and, subsequently, the need for CAM software to help further improve our engineering capability. This brought the need for us to invest in the right kind of software to drive our processes.”

Discussing the on-boarding of HyperMillfrom Open Mind, Speck says: “My role is to ensure our manufacturing operation is as efficient as it can be, and that we’re as competitive as possible within our industry. That prompted us to look at our five-axis options and the software to drive that. We scrutinised various different products on the market, but we felt that the HyperMillproduct from Open Mind Technologies was the right CAM solution for us.”

He adds: “What we need from a CADCAM system is the ability to program parts accurately and in the most efficient way possible. Not only that, but to post the program and, when we get to the machine, have trust in the program that’s been posted – for it to run as intended.

“Everybody encounters problems, and we are no different,” continues Speck. “During the time when we’re programming our components and we’ve come across problems, Open Mind has been able to support us really well in that aspect. Every time we call, they do their best to put things right there and then. It also enables us to upskill our staff. Open Mind doesn’t just put things right and then not explain how it’s done – they continually involve our staff and make sure that we stay up to date with any changes in the software. For us, using HyperMillmeans that we can hit our deadlines and our lead times don’t drift.”

A great example of the support provided by Open Mind is the Team Viewer function, which enables programmers to view exactly the support that’s being given on the screen live right in front of them. It almost mimics an in-house training session.

“What’s really interesting is that Open Mind’s HyperMillhas given us the ability to increase efficiency by reducing our cycle times and enabling us to program offline,” says Speck.“This has made us more competitive within the subcontract engineering industry and helped us to re-launch our Forge Engineering brand.”

Looking at some of the components programmed and machined with HyperMill, Rich Rymer, CNC machinist atForge Motorsport & Engineering, says: “There’s quite a lot that goes into these parts. We have one particular component that we actually do in one operation. We get the raw stock, hold it in the five-axis machining centre, perform the profiling or the pocket milling, and then flip it over and just skim off the back.Finally we snap it off in the vice.”

Alluding to another component, Rymer continues: “These parts are DV37s, which is a dump valve. It requires quite a lot of trochoidal milling. I think if we were to use a long-hand machining strategy, we wouldn’t be able to get into the gaps, as they are a little tight. Trying to get any cutter in there would necessitate very light cuts in a horizontal plane. However, we use a trochoidal toolpath, so we go to the full depth of cut with light movements in a radial axis.”

Discussing specific features within HyperMilland, in particular, the merge function, Rymer concludes: “It’s a very good function. There’s always model and drawing changes in engineering. This function allows us to update a model rather than re-program the whole part through HyperMill. Effectively, we can take the old and new model and just merge them into one. Any changes can be edited by ‘cut and pasting’ the faces on. From there, it’s just a case of going through what we’ve programmed and selecting the new faces. It makes things a lot easier, and it allows us to just continue with the program so we don’t have to restart from scratch.”
For further information www.openmind-tech.com

With four generations of toolmakers in the family, Denmark Products has been manufacturing injection mould tools since its inception in 1993. Started by father and son team Dennis and Mark Rowlands with a £15,000 investment that stretched to the purchase of a mill, spark-erosion machine and surface grinder, the company has come a long way since the 1990s. Testament to the journey travelled is the recent investment in a high-end Mitsubishi spark erosion machine from the Engineering Technology Group (ETG).

The small start-up that operated out of a 900sqft unit has moved to a 4500sqft facility in Donnington on the outskirts of Telford, where it manufactures precision injection mould tools for the automotive, medical and white goods industries. With considerable business growth, the company has added both a Mitsubishi wire EDM and a spark erosion machine to its plant list in a little over 12 months. As a company with everything from three- to five-axis machining centres, milling machines and lathes through to surface grinders, spark erosion machines and more, the interest in Mitsubishi machines started just over a year ago.

The seven-employee company was using an external supplier for its wire EDM requirements. This was not an ideal situation with costs and process control surrendered to the subcontract supplier.

Recalling the situation, company co-founder and managing director Mark Rowlands says: “With the demise of so many companies through the pandemic, we had an opportunity to buy a used Mitsubishi MV1200S wire-erosion machine. As the UK supplier of Mitsubishi machines, we went straight to ETG for installation and commissioning support. In the 12 months since the machine arrived, we’ve eliminated our subcontract wire EDM costs and the lead times associated with a subcontractor turning work around, and have complete process control. Additionally, when it comes to wire EDM, we 100% know if we want a loose or interference fit between our components.An external supplier would not know this, so our quality and surface finishes have improved too.”

With next-generation technology such as precision automatic wire rethreading, IoT capability, the latest drive systems and a user-friendly control system, the high-performance Mitsubishi MV1200S has reduced lead times and improved throughput for Denmark Products. Furthermore, the acquisition exposed the subcontract manufacturer to the high service levels provided by ETG.

With customers in the high-end automotive and medical industries ramping-up production post-Covid, Denmark Products needed to invest in a larger capacity spark-erosion machine. Three ageing spark-erosion machines were already on site, so the company needed a machine with a larger bed and tank capacity for processing the increasingly larger dimensions of automotive interior trim parts and large white goods injection mould tools. Despite having spark-erosion machines from several different vendors on-site, the service provided by ETG with the MV1200S was a major factor in why the company invested in a second Mitsubishi machine.

As Rowlands continues: “We did our due diligence and looked at spark-erosion machines from a few leading suppliers. Once we identified our capacity needs, it was the technology, capability, reputation for quality and impeccable service levels from ETG that were the main factors in our decision to buy a Mitsubishi EA28V Advance.”

The Mitsubishi EA28V Advance can accommodate maximum workpiece dimensions up to 1350 x 850 x 450mm in its 390-litre capacity tank that utilises an automatic elevation method. Capable of accommodating electrodes up to 200kg and workpieces up to 2000kg, the Mitsubishi EA28V is a powerful workhorse with technology that delivers finesse for the productive processing of components.

Discussing this spacious work area, Rowlands says: “We’ve been increasingly receiving requests for larger components that had to be producedexternally as our spark-erosion machines were not big enough. This resulted in external subcontract costs that were a drain on our business and extended lead times. With the arrival of the Mitsubishi EA28V we’ve brought all of this work in-house, reducing both our costs and lead times.”

However, the Mitsubishi EA28V Advance has given Denmark Products so much more.

“The extra capacity not only allows us to process larger parts, it also enables us to put two or three different smaller jobs on the bed and run them consecutively,” explains Rowlands.“This means we can undertake lights-out machining and, in many instances, we can set the machine up on a Friday night to run all weekend unmanned. This is a huge saving for our business. The ability to run up to three different components on the machine consecutively is a credit to the 20-electrode tool-change facility and intuitive programming technology on the Mitsubishi EA28V.”

He continues: “Our existing spark-erosion machines only have single-electrode capacity, which means that we would continually change electrodes for every operation and part. With the Mitsubishi EA28V, we can set up to 20 electrodes and program several parts, and the machine will run for a couple of days unmanned. From a productivity perspective, the technology in the Mitsubishi EA28V means that we can adjust our settings to erode components at higher speeds and feeds, or we can similarly slow the speeds to extend the life of electrodes or improve surface finishes. Regardless of the multitude of settings, the machine can process parts far faster and to a higher level of quality and precision than any of our other spark-erosion machines.”

All of this is reducing energy consumption and costs for Denmark Products while simultaneously lowering consumable costs. Another advantage for the small business is the reduction in hand polishing.

“Our existing spark-erosion machines are typically generating a surface finish in the region of 1.6Ra, which often requires considerable post-machining hand polishing,” says Rowlands.“This is particularly the case for injection mould tools for interior vehicle trim components and medical mould tools. With the new Mitsubishi EA28V, we’re easily achieving surface finishes of 0.4Ra, which has drastically reduced our hand finishing. On some parts such as ribs and cavities, the high level of surface quality has eliminated hand finishing, which is a necessity for sensitive features. Overall, bench finishing has massively reduced, freeing up hours for our machinists every week.”
For further information www.engtechgroup.com