Extraordinary times call for extraordinary suppliers and, luckily for Birmingham-based CNC Routing, the company has a long-standing relationship with Industrial Tooling Corporation (ITC). With the COVID-19 pandemic taking a firm grip on the nation, UK manufacturers like CNC Routing are stepping up to support the NHS and critical infrastructure projects.

Founded in 2005, the company has an established position serving the automotive, retail, healthcare and industrial sectors with its design, routing, finishing, fabrication, installation and building services. The company has three AXYZ routing machines, each having a twin-head facility. So, when a customer became overrun with the production of critical ‘sneeze screens’ for supermarkets, the 26-employee business immediately stepped-up to help the cause.
Discussing the sneeze screen project, head of design and technical at CNC Routing, Chris Noble, says: “Just a week ago we were commissioned to manufacture 8000 acrylic, PETG and polycarbonate sneeze screens for supermarket checkouts. Machined from 3050 x 2050 mm sheets, the screens are manufactured in two sizes of 600 mm wide by 750 mm high, and 750 mm wide by 1000 mm high, with panel thicknesses ranging from 3 to 6 mm. With the screens being supplied to more than a dozen supermarket chains, each with various till and checkout dimensions, the different sized screens require both hole position and dimensional variations. This has resulted in our company producing more than 12 different screen variants.”
As soon as the order arrived on the Friday, the company placed an order with ITC and tools were delivered the next morning (Saturday). Discussing why the company turned to cutting tools from ITC, Noble says: “We’ve been successfully working with ITC for over 12 years and they supply all the cutting tools for machining our plastic components. The service, support and technical advice is surpassed only by the quality of their tooling.

“The ability to supply 60 cutting tools on a Saturday morning as a next-day delivery service during the coronavirus pandemic speaks volumes for ITC and its service,” he adds. “But from a technical perspective, we were having problems some years ago with our cutting tools gripping parts and lifting thin sheets from the vacuum bed of the AXYZ machines during processing. ITC provided first-class technical support by investigating our existing tools, materials and cutting parameters, and subsequently supplying new tools and machining strategies that resolved our issues. Since then, we’ve had every confidence in ITC and their tools.”
Observing UK Government and WHO safe-working guidelines, CNC Routing has moved many of its office-based staff to homeworking, while the huge influx of work has also seen the company change from a two-shift to a three-shift pattern.
“As a business we are conscious of the health and safety of our staff, and all employees are provided with suitable PPE. By moving to 24-hour production with three shifts, our shop-floor staff levels are naturally reduced. Furthermore, each of our three AXYZ routing machines are 3 m apart, so our factory floor automatically exercises social distancing.”
From a production perspective, the company has one AXYZ router with bed dimensions of 4880 x 2635 mm, while two further machines have a slightly smaller bed. This allows CNC Routing to place four 8 x 4’ sheets on the machine bed at any one time.
“The large machine beds allow us to set up four parts at a time,” explains Noble. “Additionally, each router incorporates a twin cutting head, which we can set at different widths. For the sneeze screens, we have spaced the cutting heads at a distance of 1230 mm apart, so we can cut two sheets simultaneously. With three twin-spindle routers running 24 hours a day, the performance and reliability of the ITC solid-carbide routing tools is essential.”
Initially, CNC Routing placed an order for 60 Clearcut series single-flute routers (6 mm diameter) from ITC. Commenting upon the tools, Noble says: “From experience, we know that these tools perform really well, have exceptional tool life and, with the upward spiral flute geometry, are perfect for machining thin sheets without lifting from the vacuum bed. This confidence in the 180 Clearcut series has been confirmed, as we’ve run the tools at 24,000 rpm up to the full 6 mm depth of cut at cutting speeds of 7 m/min. These machining parameters are beyond the recommended cutting conditions, but extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. Luckily, the quality of the ITC Clearcut series can handle the increased speeds and feeds with ease.

“Despite running at significantly increased machining parameters, the 6 mm diameter cutters can comfortably process more than 50 sheets before we have to change the tool,” he continues. “After 50 sheets, the cutting performance and edge finishes are as good as they are on the very first sheet that we cut with a new tool. The only reason we change the tools after machining 50 sheets is because the protective film over the acrylic, PETG and polycarbonate sneeze screen sheets begins to fray slightly and ‘fluff up’.”
Nobody has a crystal ball, especially during a pandemic that is likely to change the face of UK manufacturing. However, CNC Routing is in a somewhat envious position compared with most manufacturers. The company has already manufactured 8000 sneeze screens in a week and has another 8000 to produce imminently.
Says Noble: “We are currently in the process of machining sneeze screens for supermarkets and, as the longevity of this situation continues and ‘non-essential’ retail companies re-open their doors for business, we expect to be making these sheets for everything from pharmacies and hardware stores to pet stores and other retail outlets. Added to this, we also have a strong order book with the healthcare sector for furniture, storage units and lockers that has to be fulfilled imminently. As a business, we’re very lucky that we can give all of our routing capacity to these essential services. We can do this as our regular retail work is naturally ‘on pause’. However, regardless of whether we are making sneeze screens, furniture or storage units for the health service, we know that we can rely on specialist cutting tools from ITC, even during a crisis.”
For further information www.itc-ltd.co.uk

Mould maker Kavia Tooling is using a Hexagon co-ordinate measuring machine (CMM) to create an offline zero transfer system ahead of the manufacturing process for parts and electrodes. This strategy considerably reduces downtime on its CNC and EDM machines when setting up new jobs.

Production director Mark Cole says some components are particularly time-consuming to set up traditionally, and even simple parts mean the machines are idle during set up. However, Kavia’s unusual use of the Hexagon CMM means that machines are cutting one job while the set up for the next one is being carried out.
“Hexagon customised their PC-DMIS software, which comes as standard on their measurement devices, to enable us to use it to find offsets at the beginning of the operation,” says Cole. “Instead of having to put each part on the machine and then set it, we set it on the CMM, which gives us the X, Y, Z and U orientation. We only have to put the zero transfer plate, which is micron-accurate, into position on the machine, and it knows the exact location of the part.”
This approach can be done with any number of components, thanks to another piece of customised software that Kavia Tooling devised itself, and which engineers from its CAM system, Edgecam, developed for the company. Edgecam drives seven high-speed CNC milling machines with spindle speeds varying from 12,000 to 30,000 rpm, and a Sodick EDM machine.
“But it’s no ordinary machining process thanks to the customised software which we call Merge,” explains Cole. “It collates data from all programs for the job and merges them into a single file, many at 36 MB and containing around 1.5 million lines of code. Merge also includes the Edgecam NC code, datums to set the parts on, zero transfer, and cutter tool heights.”
He cites an example when the company was working on two cavity plates on one side of the machine, and four inserts on the other: “We put the individual Edgecam CNC programs for each component together into one file, and it all went to the machine as one large program.”

Merge also keeps cutting tools to a minimum, by looking at information such as duplication, length and quality of the tools in all programs.
“If there are two repeating cutting tools in the individually merged program, it selects the best one for the manufacturing process,” says Cole. “It goes through every single NC program and rearranges all the tools accordingly.”
The end result of using Merge with the zero transfer fixture plates created on the CMM is a CNC program which can machine several parts at a time without the need to use the machine as a set-up station, as all preparatory operations are carried out offline.
Says Cole: “If we were setting up a component to be square, directly on the CNC machine tool without the CMM, we’d have to ensure it was perfectly in line with the machine’s axis. Doing that for 10 components considerably increases the risk of error, especially where there are overhangs. In contrast, setting them on the CMM means everything is automatically correct, because it tells the machine the angle of each part.
“To set up six fairly difficult components directly on the machine may take one day, during which time it’s not running,” he adds. “However, it’ll only take about an hour on the CMM, and we can be confident that they’ll all be absolutely accurate.”
Cole says that while the Merge software combines with the CMM zero transfer system to get the best out of the company’s CNC mills, even greater benefits are gained from using it on the Sodick EDM machine.

“This machine used to be our biggest bottleneck,” reveals Cole. “We had to set the electrodes and the part on the machine, and program it by typing-in figures manually, which led to errors. It was an absolute nightmare. However, when we developed the Merge software it went from being the largest bottleneck to the fastest machine in the factory. And it’s all mistake-proof; there’s no typing as everything’s done from the CAD dimensionally. Moreover, all the offsets are set on the CMM so there’s no setting on the machine.”
Merge collates all the programs, zero transfers and information about the spark positioning. The software works with up to 12 electrodes at a time; brings all the CNC programs together; identifies the X, Y, Z and U orientation; puts everything in a format that runs on the Sodick EDM to the correct datum; automatically adjusts the tank height; and provides a setting sheet.
In fact, Merge is proving to be so beneficial for both simplifying and accelerating the work on the Sodick EDM that Kavia is now developing the software commercially for those machines.
“It’s currently being trialled in the field, and we’re aiming to start marketing it shortly,” confirms Cole.
For further information www.edgecam.com

Hertford-based Qualiturn Products is a good example of the productivity increases that can be achieved by the application of advanced IT systems, the use of high-yield machine tools and the adoption of the latest automation technology. In addition to performing daytime manufacturing, the firm’s highly efficient working practices allow it to operate ‘lights out’ each night.

Qualiturn has achieved a genuine ‘virtuous circle’. The company’s application of advanced manufacturing techniques has enabled it to realise world-class levels of production efficiency. These efficiencies have allowed Qualiturn to supply competitive quotes that have resulted in further profitable business. And the profits generated have supported additional investments in ever more advanced manufacturing technologies.
In addition to earning a reputation for efficiency, another important aspect of Qualiturn’s values can be found in the company’s title. Qualiturn’s quality philosophy is reflected in all aspects of its activities. Although, as often happens to businesses that achieve substantial upturns in production, the increased amount of Qualiturn parts needing final inspection, began to place a strain on the company’s quality control provision.
To ensure the continued efficient operation of its inspection department, Qualiturn’s managing director Nick Groom recently undertook a search for a CMM that had a precision specification that would enable the inspection of parts with demanding dimensional tolerances. Also, given the high volumes of components that need to be inspected, a fast-operating, CNC-driven machine with a granite table that could accommodate multiple components, was required.
Having studied the available alternatives, Groom purchased a 500 x 700 x 400 mm capacity version of Mitutoyo’s recently launched Crysta Apex V-series CMM. As a result of increased acceleration, faster travel and improved accuracy specifications, the latest Crysta Apex V-series CMMs are able to accomplish significantly more component measuring cycles in each working day, and deliver higher levels of precision.

Explaining Qualiturn’s quality ethos and his recent Mitutoyo CMM purchase Groom says: “We are an ISO9001 registered business and we see efficiency and quality as the same thing. For instance, the right-first-time production of quality parts is efficient, whereas the manufacture of poor quality parts that require rework is inefficient.
“Having recently searched for a suitably accurate and fast-acting CMM, when compared with the alternatives, I was impressed with the abilities of Mitutoyo’s new Crysta Apex V-series machines and was happy to place an order,” he adds. “Now installed and up and running, our staff soon mastered the new CMM’s logical software and controls following a short operator training session. As well as having the levels of precision that allow the inspection of our most demanding parts, the Crysta Apex V-series CMM has the speed of operation that we need, and it has significantly increased our inspection efficiency levels.
“Now, prior to a production run, when writing a program for our machine tools, we use this model to also generate an inspection program for our Mitutoyo CMM. This means that when manufacturing commences, we can load the relevant program on to our CMM and quickly verify the first-off part. Then, throughout the production run, our quality staff are able to load large batches of parts on to the CMM’s bed and start a fully automated, unmanned inspection routine.
“The performance of our Mitutoyo Crysta Apex V-series CMM means that, not only has it satisfied our current inspection requirements, but it should also meet all of our future anticipated inspection needs.”
Drawing on its technological expertise in the field of CMM design and manufacture, Mitutoyo recently launched the Crysta Apex V-series. The new CMMs have a proven bridge-type construction, feature high-rigidity air-bearing guiding on every axis, and use Mitutoyo’s ABS scales.
As the successor to the previous generation of Crysta Apex CMMs, the new models build on the merits of their predecessors. In addition to boasting impressive accuracy specifications, the latest Mitutoyo models have rapid acceleration and fast speed characteristics. Not only do these qualities allow the inspection of components with challenging dimensional specifications, when compared with other lower specification machines, they increase business efficiency levels by enabling more components to be inspected in a given time.

Increasingly, companies are looking to measure parts closer to their means of manufacture. Therefore, besides being suitable for use in inspection departments, Crysta Apex V-series CMMs have a high level of resistance to environmental conditions and are at home in less than ideal production environments. Further aiding shop-floor use, the new CMMs are equipped with an automatic temperature compensation feature.
As a result of Mitutoyo’s flexible CMM concept, the Crysta Apex V-series represents a future-proof investment. In addition to handling users’ current inspection needs, the new CMMs are capable of adapting to future requirements thanks to the ability to change or add probe systems, accessories and software.
Given the advent of smart factories and the arrival of the IoT, the Crysta Apex V-series is equipped with Mitutoyo’s Smart Measuring System (SMS) technology. SMS allows the online monitoring of operational status and the capture of records related to key parts.
Moving forward, Mitutoyo will drive the installation of SMS technology, not only in CMMs, but in other CNC measuring instruments. Leveraging the IoT, the company will support the realisation of smart factories that conduct the sophisticated management of information relating to production and quality.
For further information www.mitutoyo.co.uk

CGTech’s VERICUT simulation and optimisation software is providing a crucial step on the MAN Energy Solutions digital manufacturing journey. At the company’s Danish production facility, the software has reduced product prove-out times and minimised scrap levels, helping MAN Energy Solutions deliver on the promise to its customers of a sustainable future.

MAN Energy Solutions is a multinational company that produces large-bore diesel engines and turbomachinery for marine and stationary applications, including marine propulsion systems, power plant applications and turbochargers. The company was formed in 2010 from the merger of MAN Diesel and MAN Turbo, and is a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group.
Employing a total of around 14,000 people at 120 sites across the globe, its T35 manufacturing facility located just a few miles from Copenhagen Airport produces fuel injection systems that require extremely tight tolerances components for new installs and service life replacement, as well as the refurbishment and retrofit of older vessels and static sites.
Until recently, this facility had lacked investment in digital manufacturing, as process owner – digital manufacturing, Mikkel Jon Hass, recalls: “In comparison to other sites we were behind in terms of technology and investment because there was no strategy for this segment. We just followed the same tried and tested path to produce components as a typical batch flow engineering machine shop.”
That all changed when, three years ago, a new management team began to influence the direction of the business and focus on its future with fresh ideas. “New manufacturing equipment started to be installed and my role was created,” says Hass.
His appointment marked the first time the business had anyone tasked with prioritising the changes to bring about digital manufacturing. During the investigative process of the various business requirements, Hass discovered that MAN Energy Solutions had an established preferred IT provider strategy which determined suitable software platforms.
He says: “Luckily, Vericut was also on the list, which made it a lot easier. So, the digital footprint was set without any further discussion. Vericut was the simulation system chosen globally by our German headquarter facilities in Augsburg, where they have been using the software for many years.”
The tolerances on certain company parts produced from tool steel (with very specific attributes) are very tight. To achieve these levels, the company operates high-specification machine tools, from multi-axis machining and turning centres, to superfinishing systems and jig grinders.

The machine shop runs on a continental five-shift system, but the CAM programmers are available for the day shift, which is when prove-out occurs. If the prove-out is not completed within one shift then the following two shifts cannot progress or make parts. This was one of the key reasons for investing in Vericut, and the software has helped significantly.
Providing some background, Hass, states: “Our machines and processes are very complicated, and that leads to many issues. Honed parts are often held to 3 µm on a parallel bore with a surface finish of 0.2 Ra that is at the absolute limits of what the machines can achieve.
“Before using Vericut it would be difficult to quantify the time required to prove-out any new components,” he adds. “We knew we had to get the new parts running, but nobody knew how long it would take, there was no transparency. They would allow months to get from the design phase to proven and ready for production.”
Now, prove-out has been reduced from typically taking around five days, a whole week effectively, to just a few hours.
“We recently had a prototype design go through that had six redesigns before being proven in Vericut, machined and measured in the quality department in just 24 hours,” says Hass. “With Vericut we aim for the prove-out to be a factor of the cycle time, so for a 1-hour cycle time we want to prove out in 2.5 hours; we are currently at 3 to 4 hours. This is the goal for us going forward, so everyone has to be open to new ideas and new methods.”
Multi-axis machine tools such as the two new DMG-Mori CTX Gamma 2000 machines represent the future strategy of the business. Where possible, the company will opt for two-turret, twin-spindle machines with a B axis, and a further three machines are already on order to replace older turning centres.
“For the first few years the new machines were operated just for turning,” recalls Hass. “No one could handle the programming complexities of the milling and drilling capabilities as they are very difficult to program safely. There are many opportunities for collisions between the tools, fixturing, machine structure and the workpiece.”
Today, Vericut is used to verify the post-processed CAM program to ensure it will run safely without crashing, and the staff to run these machines have been specially selected, not by skilled capability but by attitude and willingness to adopt new concepts.

Prior to using Vericut, machine-tool crashes were seen as part of the operational risk, and were not usually identified during the prove-out as all the parameters were backed off and the process was being monitored very closely. However, when the parts went to production, errors that did not arise during the early stages were often highlighted. Part of the justification and ROI for investing in Vericut software came from the expected saving of one spindle per year.
“We have had several virtual crashes in Vericut, but nothing on the physical machines,” confirms Hass. “However, the real savings come from the prove-out time achieved.”
Another key part of Vericut software that is supporting MAN ES is the ‘Auto-Diff’ module, which enables programmers to compare a CAD design model with a Vericut simulation to automatically detect differences. Using this module in the production process can identify incorrectly machined areas.
Says Hass: “The process is to turn the blank to size and then mill the prismatic features and so on with following sequential operations. Some of this will be removed by the increased mill-turn capacity where we probe the component on the machine, but for some families of parts it is still the most effective route. Previously, if the parts required say four turning operations and two milling operations, and an error was made at any stage, then it would not be detected until the part had been finished, which wasted time and effort, effectively making scrap.
“Now we’re updating our manufacturing documents in NX and using Auto-Diff in Vericut to check the part stock for each stage of the manufacturing process,” he continues. “It is a great tool to provide confidence in the process and eliminate the risk of bad parts being unnecessarily progressed. If you make scrap you have to make the part again, so it is better to catch the error as early as possible to save your resources. Many of our parts are similar with just small detail changes and these can easily go unnoticed, which is why Auto-Diff is important.”
Thanks to CGTech’s Danish reseller, a total of 10 advanced machine tools on the shop floor at MAN-ES are accurately modelled in Vericut.
Accurate machining cycle times simulated by Vericut are providing better control for various cost centres within the business, and are fed into the company’s SAP ERP system.
For further information www.cgtech.co.uk

A company manufacturing industrial furnaces and ovens has switched from a flat-bed router to a robotic cell designed and developed by CNC Robotics Ltd. The cell uses a Kuka robot arm programmed with Alphacam CADCAM software and RoboDK to cut insulation material at speeds of up to eight times faster than before.

Carbolite Gero, based in Hope, Derbyshire, uses a variety of insulation materials like Kerform insulation board, refractory brick and ceramic materials to keep the temperature of its steel outer cases down to around 60°C, while the internal temperature peaks at 1200°C. The ovens and furnaces are used in a range of testing and heat-treatment processing facilities across sectors such as aerospace, general engineering, materials science, medical, bioscience, contract testing laboratories and universities, to see how products and liquids react in a heated environment.
The company was already using Alphacam to drive its three-axis Biesse router, but plant manager Nigel Holmes-Taylor says the Kerform board, along with other insulation materials, produces a highly abrasive dust when cut, which causes considerable wear on exposed parts of the CNC machine.
“We came across robotic arms with a routing attachment, and decided that was the path to take,” he says.
The company approached CNC Robotics, a UK-based robotics integration company that specialises in machining with robots. An important issue for Carbolite, though, was that it wanted to keep its Alphacam programs and integrate them into the robotic cell. No problem, said Nick Parry, systems engineer and technical lead with CNC Robotics, who led the development of the single enclosed robotic cell.

CNC Robotics founder and owner Jason Barker explains further: “When machining, we need to simulate the robot correctly to give raw data of where the robot goes, to check for potential crashes. Simulation is also vital for checking correct posture, singularity, wrist and elbow, and axis limits. The importance of ‘what you see is what you get’ is critical. If it crashes on screen it will crash in the real world. Using software such as Alphacam and RoboDK means you can correct all that before we go anywhere near the robot itself.
“And being able to convert the existing Alphacam programs that powered the router meant there was no downtime learning a new software,” he adds. “Carbolite was able to take their existing programs and redevelop them into the robotics world.”
Martin Measures, Alphacam area sales manager, explains how the simulation issue was overcome: “Tool paths created in Alphacam are passed directly to a RoboDK interface within the software, which simulates the robot kinematics. RoboDK is a specially configured software development kit (SDK) which outputs the co-ordinate cutting data to drive the robot. It means we can see exactly what the robot’s going to do before it processes the parts.”
And Holmes-Taylor says that because Carbolite’s new robotic cell can move at up to 2 m/sec, it provides a significant improvement over the company’s previous manufacturing process.
“Cutting speeds are far quicker on the robot than on the flat bed router,” he states. “While the router was restricted to working in three axes, the robot arm effectively has six axes, but can actually be infinite in the way it operates.”
His team takes the part files from drawings produced by the engineering facility, and imports them into Alphacam.
“This brings all the cutting paths together, and sends the program to the post processor, which is then fed into the RoboDK module for simulating the movement of the robotic arm,” says Holmes-Taylor.

As the Kerform board comes in a variety of thicknesses and temperature grades, the robotic cell designed by CNC Robotics provides an additional benefit versus a flat-bed machine.
“Thanks to a special rotating table, we’ve now got four positions on both sides of the bed, which means we can cut several different types of board needed to produce a full unit, at the same time,” says Holmes-Taylor. “With the flat-bed router we could only deal with one type of board at a time, so this gives us a 4:1 ratio of cutting it quicker. In some circumstances it’s up to eight times faster.
“The rotating table that works this has a set angle at which the cutter hits the board, and Alphacam, in conjunction with RoboDK, ensures the robot keeps to that exact angle at all times, cutting in a straight line and at the correct depth,” he adds.

As the board has a high aluminium content, another improvement is that all the abrasive dust created during the cutting process is contained within the cell and drawn out through Carbolite’s extraction system, meaning the overall environment is much cleaner.
Finally, an added bonus, as Alphacam can produce a full description of what needs to be added to each specific site at the loading bay, CNC Robotics has been able to develop a piece of software that displays the PDF generated by Alphacam.
“This means that the operative loading the machine knows the next material to load, and where it has to go, saving even more time,”
says Holmes-Taylor.
The partnership between CNC Robotics, Alphacam, RoboDK and Kuka is an optimal solution for Carbolite, according to Kuka’s UK sales channel manager Tara Baker: “Kuka works with a system partner network. System partners like CNC Robotics provide even more industry-specific know-how. CNC Robotics designed and integrated everything into the enclosed cell, turning the robot into a highly effective CNC machine. Furthermore, Alphacam/RoboDK provides a back-up service for the software. It’s a one-stop solution for Carbolite, helping them to future-proof their business.”
For further information www.alphacam.com