ShopSolutions Case Histories of Manufacturing Problem Solving Getting into Five-Axis with CAM Programming H
ytech Machine transitioned in two short years from a G-code based CNC shop to a CAM-centric opera- tion with five-axis capabilities. Out in the woodsy surroundings of Anderson, SC, the 22-employee job shop is leveraging its newly established CAD, CAM, and five-axis machining capabilities to satisfy a wide range of customers in the automotive, electrical device, heavy equipment, and many other industries.
Phil Anderson and his partner Billy Davis started Hytech Machining in 1995, operating two manual vertical mills and accepting any kind of machining work they could get. Fast forward 20 years and the company is now nurturing close relationships with design and build firms supporting automotive plants and other major OEMs.
In 2012, the company reached a critical juncture at which Anderson had to make some decisions about the future of the company. Until that point, its diverse customer
Five-axis programmers at Hytech Machine are becoming more and more proficient with Mastercam programming by increasing their education at Tri-County College and training with Mastercam reseller Barefoot CNC, along with their daily work experience at Hytech.
base allowed Hytech to experience continuous growth by making simple parts on two and three-axis mills, programming them at the machine in G-code or a simple conversational
data translated into costly CNC miscues; using CAM so that parts could be accurately and quickly moved onto the CNC machine and manufactured.
Hytech would have to become a more sophisticated user of both CAD and CAM to become tightly integrated with the customers’ engineering processes.
language. However, customers were becoming more sophisti- cated and Hytech was missing out on more complex work that could not be produced efficiently using manual programming. Perhaps even more disturbing was the fact that engi- neering staffs at some of their best customers were shrink- ing. Because there were fewer engineers, they were more
To accomplish these twin objectives, Hytech acquired three seats of Mastercam Mill CAM Software from CNC Soft- ware Inc. (Tolland, CT) and a seat of Solidworks CAD software. Hytech made the selections because these well-regarded products were the ones most frequently used by Hytech’s customers and also used at the local technical college. Then
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ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com 47
difficult to access for clarifications of design intent or if Hy- tech wanted to request changes to make a part more manu- facturable. This situation indicated that Hytech would have to become a more sophisticated user of both CAD and CAM to become tightly integrated with the customers’ engineer- ing processes: using CAD to keep on top of design intent from the outset and cleaning up models before incomplete
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