Automation is being rapidly adopted, from large corpora- tions to small, innovative shops. That’s partly an effort to squeeze out profits, but it’s also partly out of necessity, as demand for production goes up and the number of skilled workers remains in short supply.
In addition, machine builders and cutting tool suppliers are being challenged to produce innovative tools to handle the most difficult-to-machine metals and materials like Inconel, nickel and cobalt-based alloys, and composites.
Contract Jobs
Discrete parts manufacturing remains the lifeblood of most industries and covers a wide range of size, produc- tion volume, and materials usage. Molds can be thought of as one-off workpieces that start out as a chunk of tool steel that costs $5000, and a month later, after significant machining time, is worth several hundred thousands of dollars. Mold makers are one type of contract manufacturer
supplier of everything from cutting tools, workholding solu- tions, automating devices, and inspection and measurement. Manufacturers simply don’t have the engineering staffs that allow them to do it all themselves so they expect their machine tool suppliers (builders and distributors) to provide out-the-box solutions. Some machine tool builders have created business models that recognize the opportunity to fill a gap on the main- tenance side of the business, too, by supplying that service to their customers.
Software in Manufacturing
Software continues to drive manufacturing innovation, with the latest programming tools breathing life into older systems and processes, as well as leading in the discovery of new ways to tackle manufacturing design and production challenges. With CAD/CAM/CAE and product lifecycle management (PLM) software tools, product designers and manufacturing experts can devise new ways of creating and building exciting products ranging from initial product design con- cepts through the nuts-and-bolts process of final assembly in the factory.
Increasingly, manufacturers are using sophisticated multitasking machines that can complete, or nearly complete, a part in one setup.
(a.k.a. job shop). Other contract manufacturers produce parts in the tens and hundreds of thousands; mass cus- tomization has reduced requirements for larger volumes. Traditional screw machine shops are adopting CNC bar technology that replaces long setup times for CAM-operat- ed machines with quick changeover for shorter part runs, often of families of parts.
The trend toward turnkey service for their customers will be a priority with machine tool suppliers and their third party-
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ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com | March 2014
In the CAD/CAM world, new trends include more widespread use of integrated 3D design modelers that give engineers the ability to design and create new products while also offering the manufacturing-centric tools of CAM software systems, which run within modeling software such as Autodesk Inventor, Dassault Systèmes’ SolidWorks or Siemens’ Solid Edge software. Today’s CAM software gives users more options for programming the increasingly complex multi- tasking machines (MTM) and simultaneous five- axis machining operations. MTMs require only one setup, reducing setup times and machining costs, and as MTMs have come down in price they’re increasingly popular. Programming these complex
machines makes simulation mandatory, and new options in high-end NC simulations like CGTech’s Vericut software or CAM software’s built-in simulations allow programmers to more easily visualize and prove-out product designs in the virtual world before cutting metal.
Besides MTM and simulation, many new CAM software packages have added toolpath optimization techniques that can speed up the roughing operations in metalcutting that take up the majority of machining time. Options for high-speed rough-
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