June 2008 Edition

CAD/CAM

The Right Software Led to Shop Success

After striking out on his own, a shop entrepreneur found a CAD/CAM package that saved him time and money, as well as solving “impossible” problems

Being something of a free spirit, John Graney left his father’s business, J.G. Machine, Woburn, MA, in 1999 to start his own job shop – Surface Solutions, Ipswich, MA – because "I like doing things my own way," he said. He started with some used equipment and has been trading up since then.

He knew that flexible, full-featured CAD software would be essential to meet the expectations of high-tech customers in Massachusetts and nearby southern New Hampshire. So he bought a Mastercam CAD/CAM software license from CNC Software, Inc., Tolland, CT, and has kept it upgraded, as he has his physical equipment.

Graney said his rationale for maintaining his hardware and software in top-notch condition was that when well-paying customers need only one or two items, a shop has to be nimble at programming quickly and making the parts right the first time.

"With some software, glitches can require producing two parts to get one right," he said. "I don’t worry about that because we use Mastercam’s verification to make sure we remove all of the material. We use the backplot feature to eliminate potential tool crashes."

Going Down the Right Toolpath

When his copy of Mastercam X2 arrived, he said he was impressed by the extensive collection of high-speed toolpaths and the ability to generate a comprehensive set of efficient toolpaths from a surface model. He got to put to use both capabilities soon after he opened his doors.

The total timesaving was 20 minutes per part, providing a combined savings of 26 hours the next three times he ran the job

Santa Cruz Bicycles, a trail bike manufacturer in Santa Cruz, CA, needed a job shop with almost overnight turn-around to make components for one of its models. Graney, with the same spiritedness with which he started his business, said he could do it. But, when he got the drawings, he was astonished.

"These are the craziest bicycles, with all sorts of sculptured parts," he said. "The ones they wanted me to make did not have a flat or parallel surface anywhere. I had never seen anything like it.

"There was no way I could have done this in previous versions of any CAM software package I had used," he said. "Mastercam seemed to have the tools I needed to do the job. So I learned to use them as I was programming the customer’s part. Fortunately, it worked."

In programming the part, Graney learned how to adapt toolpaths. These included high speed area clearance; rest roughing; high-speed horizontal; high-speed scallop; and high-speed pencil. That experience still provides him with benefits.

Graney gained a virtual grip on the sculptured part using the CAD program’s Work Coordinate System feature. The WCS lets users establish a coordinate system oriented to the top of the part rather than the designer’s coordinate system, which is oriented to the component’s position in the entire assembly.

"With that I can do six different planes within the same WCS," Graney said, "so I don’t have to keep switching around. It’s much faster than continually rotating and reorienting the part."

Graney took a bit longer than a day to construct the model in Mastercam and generate the toolpaths for manufacturing it. What assisted him was that the parts were almost mirror images of each other with only slight differences in geometry. To make the second part, he duplicated the first, flipped it, and made modifications.

The next day he cut the parts and shipped them overnight to his customer.

While his mill was doing its share of the work, Graney said he saw how smooth the high-speed toolpaths were running.

Eye-opener

After his eye-opening experience with the high-speed machining toolpaths, Graney looked for other business opportunities that would take advantage of them.

"Ours isn’t true high-speed machining because we don’t have any high-speed machines. We use high-speed techniques to maximize the machine, the tools, and controls, finding a sweet spot where it’s accurate, fast, and least abusive of the machine."

He uses the high-speed machining toolpaths whether he is manufacturing two pieces or several hundred. Mastercam is an integral part of his strategy for squeezing more profit out of his manufacturing processes.

An example is a set of parts Surface Solutions ran five times in just more than a year, for a semiconductor equipment manufacturer. The first two times – before he had his latest version of Mastercam – took about 17 hours to manufacture 26 parts. A low profit-margin job.

"I thought there had to be a better way," Graney said.

"When I get a problem like this, the first thing I think of is the tool. It has to be programmable."

Graney reworked his toolpaths and fixturing using Mastercam X2. The high-speed toolpaths, because they stay in the cut longer and are climb milling, shaved five minutes off a 40-minute cycle. He saved more time by going from a 5/8" end mill to a 3/8" end mill. The smaller tool removed material at higher speeds and lasted for the entire part run. The total timesaving was 20 minutes per part, providing a combined savings of 26 hours the next three times he ran the job. Because the smaller tool cost $40 less, he also saved $120 on end mills for the three part runs.

Documenting Success

Graney told his brother-in-law – a videographer – how high-speed machining made his business more efficient. They decided video would be a medium to show the advantages of the process. They shot the video and posted it on YouTube. A link to the videos is at the Surface Solutions website, at www.surfacesolutions.com/video2.html.

Early in the "High Speed Machining" video, before any chips fly, a single image tells the story – a spindle load meter shows a very low load.

By running high-speed machining toolpaths on CNC equipment, barely considered to be high-speed by current standards, Graney is achieving higher feed rates and with less tool wear. The results please both him and his customers. CNC Software

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What do you think?
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