“There are some very, very important trends that have been going on—and they’re all being driven by economics,” said Bill Gibbs, president of Gibbs and Associates (Moorpark, CA), developer of GibbsCAM software. “We’re very happy with the reshoring of work coming back to the US. By far and away the biggest factor in all of this is increasing levels of automa- tion and high-productivity CNC equipment, particularly with multitask machines, which continue to be the fastest-growing segment of CNC manufacturing. This trend continues to be the primary way to remove the cost of labor out of a manu- factured part, and once we reduce the labor, then there’s no advantage to having it manufactured in Asia.”
New MTM Programming An early advocate of multitask machining, Gibbs and
Associates introduced its first MTM programming solution a decade ago. At IMTS 2012, the company demonstrated its next-generation GibbsCAM MTM programming for complex
MTM machines including five-axis rotary head and Swiss- style machines. GibbsCAM’s easy-to-learn user interface walks users through complex part programming, including multiple spindles and turrets cutting parts simultaneously, and the program allows users to see accurate simulations of parts being machined, with full visualization of any errors like tool interference and gouges before parts get to the shop floor.
The HAIMER, the better. Indexing of balancing position
Tool Dynamic TD 2009 Comfort Plus Application Operation
Balancing of cutting tools, tool holders Brilliantly simple via Control Terminal Automatically
“Of all the bets I made with my business, this is the one I got right 10 years ago when I said the most important thing for us was to get ready for the advent of the multitask machine,” Gibbs said. “What this offers the customer is the ability to put material in one end and get a complete part out the other end. Each of those setups requires human labor, and that also means there’s lot of opportunity for human error and cataclys- mic problems to happen.” Today’s multitasking machine tools are extremely compli- cated, requiring CAM software capable of programming and accurately simulating simultaneous operation of multiple spindles and tur- rets. “CNC machines are getting much more advanced and software has been lagging behind,” noted Vivek Govekar, CAMWorks R&D Head, Geometric Technologies (Scottdale, AZ, and Mum- bai). “What we are seeing is that the machines have developed much faster than the software. There are not many software packages that can handle four turrets at a time, and very few can do two turrets.” With its CAMWorks 2013, also
previewed at IMTS 2012, Geometric Technologies introduced a system that includes the new Synchronous Machin- ing Module (SMM) that greatly simplifies programming of complex mill-turn ma- chines, Govekar noted. CAMWorks 2013 also provides what the company calls the first cost-effective true G-code machine simulator, giving users the ability to create “first time right” programs for mill-turn and other complex multiaxis machines. “More programmers want to try the program on virtual machine simulation