Shop Solutions
to create programs for the machining department’s nine Haas Automation VF2-VF9 mills, a CNC lathe and a Mazak Integrex seven-axis machining center. Parts destined for subsequent processes with long lead times must go to the head of the line to assure that they all arrive at assembly in time to meet the customer’s delivery requirements. At the customer’s plant, the progressive die will be installed
in a large stamping press (e.g., 350 ton) that operates at up to 400+ strokes per minute. With each down stroke of the press one, two, or three rows of 0.010–0.035" (0.25–0.89-mm) thick lamination steel are successively die cut, stacked, compressed and interlocked into unique rotor and stator cores that could be from 18 to 80 laminations high. In spite of the incredible pounding these tools take, they will endure for well over a million stamping cycles before requiring maintenance. As the economy was heating up in 2011, it was becoming dif-
ficult to keep up with the volume of work that was being pushed through the manufacturing department. Neuenschwander said that early in 2011, two things changed that made a big differ- ence. Up until that time, 10 machine operators did most of their own CNC programming. The company decided CNC program- ming should be a separate function, making it a full-time respon- sibility of their two most experienced programmers. This gave the dedicated programmers more time to focus directly on optimizing Mastercam programs for improved manufacturing productivity. Operators on the shop floor still have access to Mastercam for making some program adjustments and off-loading work from the primary programmers when work volumes spike.
Dynamic toolpaths in Mastercam X6 CAM program like the ones shown next to this lower half die model use minimal stepovers and as much of the tool’s flute length as possible. While cutting, the program automatically adjust feeds and speeds to avoid excessive stress and heat buildup on the tool.
About the same time, CAD/CAM Technologies (LH Carbide’s
Mastercam reseller) introduced the company to a new kind of dynamic toolpath strategy that was developed by Mastercam to address the types of throughput and tool-wear problems that LH Carbide was facing.
The dynamic toolpath strategy goes against the conven- tional wisdom of aggressively hogging out parts with high ste- pover cuts using a very small portion of the tool’s flute length. Instead, stepovers are very slight but use as much of the flute as possible, often at spindle speeds as high as the particular
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ENCLOSURES ENCLOSURES 46
ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com | August 2013 POWPR DI R R BUT ON EOWEST DISTRIIBUTION CLIMATE CONTROL CLIMATE CONTROL
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