Equipment
accuracy and finish demands are higher. “Customers expect to get finished parts off the machine with very little polishing (for the obvious reason of cost),Accuracy demands also have increased. Moldmakers want greater control of wall thickness and feature location than ever before. It’s no surprise,

really. Why would we expect demands to become less tight? As a result, we continue to develop robust, simple solutions to help our customers achieve their accuracy and surface finish requirements, like improved servo performance, improved thermal compensation models, variable roughing and finishing parameters, improved thermal stability, etc.

Makino has been providing its own automation options for more than 10 years, Shafer stays, from pallet changers, table changers, pallet pools, pick and place robot systems, FMS systems and has never offered a VMC without an automatic toolchanger. We also have been pushing HMCs to mold shops as a way to automate small and medium molds as well as inserts and slide components,

Eighty percent of all VMCs and specific HMC lines go to mold and dies shops—they have the highest market share of any OEM in the mold and die business. Features like 5-micron parting lines, benchless surfaces are the hallmark of Makino technologies and are supported by unique spindle thermal growth control, SGI.4 control technology and extreme thermal considerations along with basic robust machine construction. All new technologies are aimed at controlling spindle location even at high speeds to a sub-micron level. Strong uptime and unattended machining is a must for shops these days and to implement 24/7 robotics.

Over at Okuma, the focus has been on thermo stability. According to Schwartz, the company has won numerous awards for designing a very stable, rigid, strong platform. “We have some very special thermo control capabilities where we are making machine position changes automatically based on thermo compensation, and along with that came some additional Super NURBS which dealt with processing speeds,

Delays in information and flow can potentially cause issues with getting the transitions and geometry shapes in the speeds that one would like because one just can’t transfer information that fast. I would say that with our new control, its processing speeds have been improved, and with our Super NURBS capability, allow us to move at very rapid rates with very fine, very exotic geometries.

Along with thermal stability we have created what we’d say is probably a finished product out of the machine tool with very little, if any, manual polishing or deburring.10 years ago most shops were just getting use to utilizing better tool changers and using all of the advantages that the more advanced CAD/CAM systems could bring into the shop.

While price was always an issue, the increasing competition and the way the market functioned, leadtimes were a bit longer—allowing for some times to correct errors,Today there is no time for any errors, in design, cutters or set-ups. Tooling and automation are the solutions to help increase actual man hours worked on a job in a shorter period of time. Quality standards are getting tighter and customer expectations and demands are growing. Our products have kept pace with the demands of the market.

Since we are not only a producer of automation, we also have a job shop and have had to adjust to the demands placed on us. We have increased the capability of several automation devices while expanding and making our software more user-friendly to manage the cells and the workflow. Our workholding products also have expanded to be able to standardize the steel and hard milling operations and not just the EDM side. We live in a lean environment and since we employ the very tactics we promote we know they are working and are very successful.

CAD/CAM
CAD/CAM technology has matured greatly over the past 10 years, citing the example of 3-D really becoming the de-facto standard for advanced toolmaking and manufacturing. “Maybe the most important change that is still taking shape these days is the understanding of the role of technology among moldmakers,In the early days, moldmaking used to rely greatly on the skills of individual craftsmen. Today, companies understand that in order to compete they must transform moldmaking into a fully industrialized process.

“In this context, CAD/CAM software is no longer viewed as an application for the individual designer or programmer, but rather as an organizational platform that must support the entire mold production process,” Bareket continues.

“The ability to support collaboration, concurrent engineering, integration and streamlined processes are becoming the most important attributes for moldmakers when implementing CAD/CAM solutions.”

Dickin of Delcam shares his thoughts on the evolution of 3-D.Most moldmaking companies already use 3-D CAD techniques to develop the cores and cavities of their tools. More recently, software has been introduced to enable not just the core and cavity but the complete mold design to be developed in 3-D.

The biggest time savings is not in generating the initial design but in the subsequent downstream machining and assembly operations,Focusing simply on speed of design ignores the inherent management difficulties in using a combination of methods. Even with careful planning, it is difficult to ensure that all of the various parts of the tool can be delivered in the correct sequence for assembly.

Any changes to the product design that might affect the tool design must be communicated correctly to both teams. Having two separate groups effectively doubles the chance that someone will be working with out-of-date data. In contrast, having a single team—working with the same 3-D system—makes it easier to prioritize tasks and to ensure that everyone involved is using the correct data. Significant improvements also can be made through eliminating mistakes during both design and manufacture. 2-D drawings can be ambiguous, with different toolmakers interpreting the details in different ways.

Furthermore, it is much more difficult to ensure consistency in a large number of drawings than it is with a single computer model,Errors in dimensions and positions within drawings can be impossible to spot until the final assembly stage is reached. Of course, even a single mistake—such as a hole in the wrong position in one component—can cause serious delays at this stage.

In contrast, with a 3-D computer model, realistic representations of the individual components and computer simulations of the mold’s movement will help ensure both that the individual components will fit together successfully and that the mold will operate as expected.stereolithography also has gained popularity by enabling companies to build solid parts in a one-off fashion for testing. Design considerations and mistakes can be brought to everyone’s attention much sooner and at a much lower cost than if an actual part was to be machined,

These prototype parts can often be used by pattern makers as a master. The solids also allow the sharing of data, including features and strategies to machine these features. Many parts share similar features that also see a repetition when it comes time to machine them. These features can include diameters, depths, minimum radii, width, areas, etc. and each of these parameters will affect the strategy and tool used to machine it.

Today, these can all be automatically recognized by a CNC programming software—enabling the user to automatically generate the NC code required, Additionally, once that manufacturing process has been ‘certified’ by the company, the machining process (i.e. center drill, drill, tap) can be saved in the PC for use on any similar feature,Today, this process is called ‘knowledge-based machining’ and is being employed by more and more companies to increase their machining experience and reduce costs associated with scrapped parts and labor.

CAD/CAM also has advances as new discoveries are made in machining processes. Today we have new software machining algorithms that are specially designed to address the needs of new tool geometries or machine capabilities,One example would be a process commonly referred to as trochoidal milling, which significantly extends the life of a tool enabling users to rough mold cavities unattended, and with confidence. Another is a process of using a milling spindle to actually turn a part on a lathe.