CNC mini-milling machines, for compact 3D milling, can be equipped with a high-frequency 1.1kW spindle 1.1Kw, engraving spindle with tracking nose, micro-lubrication, and servo-brushless drive.

Charlyrobot of France is launching its new generation of Computer Numerical Control (CNC) mini-milling machines, for compact 3D milling, called Charly4U.

Charlyrobot has been a leading manufacturer of milling machines for more than 20 years.

The company has local partners in the UK but is looking for distributors in the Nordic Region.

Charlyrobot will be showcasing its technology at the Euromold trade show in Frankfurt in early December 2004.

Thanks to Charly4U, Charlyrobot is strengthening its leading position in the mini-milling machine market.

With more than 700 units sold and distributed each year, Charly4U is fast becoming a manufacturer’s reference and a logical choice in the field of compact CNC milling.

As the first machine in its industry segment to be based on a steel framework, the Charly4U provides excellent rigidity for the perfect machining of soft metals, such as aluminium or brass, as well as soft materials, such as plastics or resin.

With a movement of 310mm x 220mm x 160mm, the Charly4U can be used for all 2D and 3D industrial applications in a range of areas, including cutting, engraving, re-machining, jewellery, modelling, electronics, moulds, prototypes, prototype tools, and industrial design, among others.

The new milling-machine developed by Charlyrobot is a multipurpose machine with a long list of options - high-frequency spindle 1.1kW, engraving spindle with tracking nose, micro-lubrication, and servo-brushless drive.

It is equipped with a standard tool sensor for easy, rapid and reliable origin positioning.

Maintenance is reduced to its simplest form, with a suction connector on the ‘Z’ axis as well as built-in lubrication of ball screws and guide shoes.

Charly4U is economical, easy to use with fine-machining processes, and has an innovative design.

The Charlyrobot range also includes an A2 format: the Charly2U with a movement of 600mm x 420mm x 280mm.

* About Charlyrobot - Charlyrobot is looking for local distributors in Poland, Saudi Arabia, Scandinavia, Spain, and in the United Arab Emirates.

The company will be present at the Euromold trade fair in Frankfurt (Germany) from 1 to 4 December 2004 (Stand #C14, Hall #9.1).

Charlyrobot is based in Savoie (in South-Eastern France).

Since 1981, the specialist engineering company has designed and produced a new generation of machines, praised by industrial users as well as engineering schools and related institutions.

Charlyrobot’s position is firmly established and widely recognised across several markets - especially fast prototyping, machining systems, CNC and CAD-CAM machine tools.

The partnership developed with each customer means that top-quality onboard solutions can be designed, guaranteeing a high level of flexibility and productivity.

Many of the best-known companies and industrial groups have chosen Charlyrobot technology and machines for the applications that they need, including PSA, Valeo, Siemens Automotive, Rossignol, Steelcase Strafor, ESSILOR, BMW, BASF, Electrolux, Thales Avionics, T Heuer, Rolls Royce, Dassault Aviation, and Bosch.

For more information, go to: www.charlyrobot.com.

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CNC bridge mills offer an economical alternative to routers and large milling machines for producing large components under optional thermal control conditions

Ideally suited to light and medium duty metal cutting applications, XYZ Machine Tools’ new BRM CNC bridge mills offer an economical alternative to routers and large milling machines. Control is by way of the easy-to-use XYZ VMX-7 CNC, with Siemens’ Shopmill conversational or G Code programming systems available as an option.

Each of the six models in the BRM range is equipped as standard with a 24 hp high-torque, vector drive, spindle with a BT40 taper.

This provides speeds of 50-8000 rev/min as standard, with options of 12,000 rev/min, 15,000 rev/min or 24,000 rev/min.

Table sizes vary from 1220 mm by 2440 mm to 2030 mm by 3810 mm, while x, y and z axes maximum travels are 3810 mm, 2030 mm and 760 mm, respectively.

Rapid traverse rates of 25 m/min and a positioning accuracy of +/-0.025 mm over 300 mm (+/-0.12 mm over full travel) combine with a maximum component weight of 2270 kg to provide extremely cost-effective large machine performance.

Repeatability on all three axes is 0.01 mm, and machine construction features linear ways with axes protected by steel way covers.

Versatility is the hallmark of the BRM range, with options including a 24-station toolchanger, 4th axis, electronic spindle, digitising and thermal compensation.

Extended warranty and collision protection insurance can also be provided and, as with all XYZ machines, operator training is provided free-of-charge.

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A Marwin 40m long Alumax CNC twin-gantry milling machine, used for ‘prepping’ wing stringers, has been retrofitted with a user-friendly contouring CNC capable of controlling up to 13 axes

The 40m long by 3m wide bed of the Marwin Alumax CNC twin-gantry milling machine located in Hangar 14 on the 800 acre Cambridge site of Marshall Aerospace enables ‘prepping’ operations to be carried out on aircraft stringers up to 22m in length. Purchased initially as two separate machines, which were then dismantled, moved and re-installed as one machine by Electron Engineering Services, a Heidenhain-approved TNC retrofitter, this refurbished machine is playing a key role in the supply of 11,700 stringers destined for the Airbus range of aircraft.

This is under the terms of an initial two-year contract with CAV Aerospace that requires the Manufacturing 3rd Party Department of Marshall Aerospace to hold buffer stocks of ‘prepped’ stringers ready for supply to the Tier One supplier.

According to Colin Flack, business development manager (Manufacturing), it became a ‘race against’ time to complete both the extensive hangar refurbishment and the commissioning of the re-manufactured gantry mill.

In fact, the entire project was completed within the 24 week deadline, with the official opening taking place as planned in October 2006.

Since then, Hanger 14 has become home to several thousand ‘prepped’ stringers as well as to a sizeable quantity of free issue material and, says Colin Flack, the expectation is that the sizeable order from CAV Aerospace will be the precursor to further support work in the future.

Refurbishment of the gantry mill by Halifax-based EES involved the replacement of an obsolete Allen Bradley control with a Heidenhain iTNC 530 contouring control capable of controlling up to 13 axes.
This has been fitted into a new cabinet on the first travelling gantry, which is equipped with two spindle heads.

A new, heavy-duty, 40kW spindle complete with chiller unit carries a large indexable-insert face mill that machines the upper and lower faces of stringers, with a 3.4mm depth of cut on the first X-axis pass over the work piece and a 0.8mm depth of cut on the return pass completing the milling of each face.

A second Gamfior high speed spindle, which can also swivel (A axis) through +/-20 deg, traverses the Y-axis to machine profiles on the stringer, as and when required.

EES is one of Europe’s leading machine tool CNC retrofit and refurbishment specialists, and its recommendation of the Heidenhain iTNC 530 CNC was accepted after in-depth discussions with Marshall Aerospace.

This was on the basis that future ‘prepping’ work involving more complex shapes and profiles will require a significant five-axis capability.

The intention is to equip the second travelling gantry, which has still to be refurbished, with two five-axis spindle heads that will be under the control of a second iTNC 530 CNC.

Operators report that the new control is extremely user-friendly, although Colin Flack says current machining operations are not especially complex.

Longer term, however, the decision to install the Heidenhain CNCs is regarded by Marshall Aerospace as essential to the cost-effective production of highly accurate, complex workpiece contours machined in the shortest possible time.

The iTNC’s short block processing time of 0.5ms for a 3D line segment without tool compensation permits fast traversing speeds, even on complex contours, and with its optimised tool path control, pre-calculation of the contour, and algorithms for ‘jerk limitation’, it ensures that the end result is a perfect mirror surface finish.

According to Heidenhain, this reflects the fact that for more than 20 years TNC contouring controls have been proving themselves in daily use on milling, drilling and boring machines and machining centres.

The iTNC 530 is the latest version and features a more powerful processor architecture.

However, like its predecessors, the iTNC 530 is both easy to use and flexible as it can be programmed remotely on a CAD/CAM system or on the shopfloor, with complex programs verified quickly and simply by way of the control’s optimised graphics build-up.
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Plasma cutting is a process used to cut steel and other metals (or sometimes other materials) using a plasma torch. In this process, an inert gas (in some units, compressed air) is blown at high speed out of a nozzle; at the same time an electrical arc is formed through that gas from the nozzle to the surface being cut, turning some of that gas to plasma. This plasma is sufficiently hot to melt the metal and moving sufficiently fast to blow molten metal away from the cut. The result is very much like cutting butter with a hot jet of air.

A Computer: The computer is used to draw the design. However, the design is only a picture and the CNC machine cannot use this to manufacture the product. The computer software must also convert the drawing into numbers (coordinates) that the CNC machine can use when it starts to cut and shape the material. The computer is used to input the design. Technical software such as CAD software is used to draw the design. The computer connects to the interface.

An Interface: A computer can’t be directly connected to a CNC machine. It’s connected to an interface. This converts the signals from the computer to a form the CNC machine understands. The signals are in the form of digital signals when they are sent to the CNC machine.

CNC Machine: (A lathe, mill, cutter, drill system). The signals from the interface control the motors on the CNC machine. The signals determine the way the vice moves. The vice moves in three directions X, Y and Z. (Horizontally, vertically and depth). The signals also control the speed of the cutting tool.

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Expanding 3D milling functionality, SolidCAM2007 R11 includes high-speed machining module for molds, tools, dies, and complex 3D parts. Module offers machining and linking strategies for generating optimum roughing and finishing CNC high-speed tool paths. Program smoothes paths of both cutting moves and retracts wherever possible to keep continuous machine tool motion. All machining passes operations support point reduction and arc fitting for gouge-free tool path.

Powerful and market-proven HSM Module fully integrated in SolidWorks

August 29, 2006 - SolidCAM, the Gold-certified Integrated CAM-Engine for SolidWorks, today announced that it will present SolidCAM2007 R11 to American and European audiences at the IMTS (Chicago/USA) and AMB (Stuttgart/Germany) tradeshows. With this release, SolidCAM is further expanding its 3D Milling functionality by providing a very powerful and market-proven high-speed machining module (HSM) for molds, tools and dies, and complex 3D Parts. The HSM module offers unique machining and linking strategies for generating optimum roughing and finishing CNC high-speed toolpaths. With demands for ever-shorter lead and production times, lower costs and improved quality, High Speed Machining (HSM) is a must in today’s machine shops.

SolidCAM’s HSM Module smooths the paths of both cutting moves and retracts wherever possible to keep a more continuous machine tool motion - an essential requirement for maintaining higher feedrates and eliminating dwelling. Retracts to high Z levels are kept to a minimum; angled where possible, smoothed by arcs, retracts do not go any higher than necessary - thus minimizing aircutting and reducing machining time. All machining passes operations support enhanced point reduction and arc fitting. The result is an efficient, high quality and gouge-free tool path. This translates to increased surface quality, less wear on your cutters, and a longer life for your machine tools.

Rest machining can be calculated even in areas where the final cutter is smaller than the curvature of the part. A succession of rest finishing toolpaths from a series of successively smaller cutters can be easily created, even on very large jobs. All operations feature tool holder collision checking and work with tapered tools.

According to SolidCAM’s managing director, Dr. Emil Somekh, the new HSM module expands the 3D machining capabilities of SolidCAM, allowing users to generate complex NC programs for different types of High-Speed cutting machines. “Efficient machine utilization and excellent surface quality will be the benefits for our users. Being fully integrated into the SolidWorks platform, we can now offer a complete CAD/CAM solution for the Mold, Tool and Die market and other high-end applications.” The new SolidCAM2007 R11 will be available to SolidCAM customers at the end of the third quarter.

About SolidCAM

Founded 1984 by its Managing director Dr. Emil Somekh, SolidCAM provides manufacturing customers with a full suite of CAM software modules for 2.5D and 3D Milling, Multi-sided Indexial 4/5 axes Milling, Simultaneous 5 axes Milling, Turning, Turn-Mill up to 5-axes and WireEDM. SolidCAM has the Certified Gold-product status from SolidWorks and provides seamless, single-window integration and full associativity to the SolidWorks design model including parts, assemblies and configurations. SolidCAM has today more than 10,000 seats installed in industry and education. SolidCAM is sold by a worldwide reseller network in 40 countries. SolidCAM has been on a very rapid growth path since it implemented the SolidWorks integration strategy. In the CIMdata NC Software Market Assessment Report, CIMdata named SolidCAM as the worldwide fastest growing CAM vendor in 2003, 2004 and 2005 with revenue growth rates of +39.4 percent, +51.1 percent and +40%.

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Currently, a large variety of software is available to the manufacturing industry. The software helps the industry to improve a multitude of manufacturing as well as organizational functions.

Firstly, software has been developed to control and monitor machines used in manufacture of products. Each type of machinery works in a different way and therefore requires a specifically designed software program.

Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) is software used to generate the codes to give instruction to CNC machines to enable them to form shapes designed in a computer-aided (CAD) system. This helps the modern manufacturing plants to meet their high volume high accuracy production requirements.This also simplifies the job of the person who is watching over the machines and makes it significantly less strainous.

The second important function of a software programs is to facilitate better control on financial and personnel management. The software for this purpose is usually applicable to all types of industries and institutions. Nevertheless, minor changes may be necessary to tailor the general software for a particular industry or institution.

Thirdly software programs are able to streamline and improve management functions within the manufacturing industry. Because computers control the machines, time and motion studies of various manufacturing operations, and stages can be more easily undertaken. It is possible to stay up-dated and effectively control the status of critical items, such as raw materials, inventory and order status, goods in-process status, finished goods inventory, and delivery status. Planning and scheduling software enables the industry to monitor manufacturing activity, through time and action calendars that track key milestone events and create alerts. Activities such as packing and labeling can be controlled, by getting real time status on exact quantity of pieces packed for different orders, per quantity, per color, and per size, to reduce possible back charges.

Manufacturing Software provides detailed information on Manufacturing Software, Manufacturing Inventory Software, Manufacturing Business Software, Manufacturing Management Software and more. Manufacturing Software is affiliated with Free CAD Software.

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Vericut 6.2 CNC machine simulation and optimization software features enhancements that increase the ability of manufacturing engineers to develop, analyze, inspect, and document the CNC programming and machining process, according to the manufacturer. It is CNC machine simulation, verification, and optimization software that lets users eliminate manually proving-out NC programs. The program also optimizes NC programs, and simulates all types of CNC machine tools, including those from leading manufacturers such as Mazak, Makino, Matsuura, Hermle, DMG, DIXI, Mori Seiki, and Chiron. The software runs standalone, but can also be integrated with leading CAM systems such as Catia V5, Unigraphics, Pro/E, MasterCAM, EdgeCAM, and GibbsCAM. The “NCProgram Preview” offers an option to process an NC program without simulating material being removed. This “quick check” uses much less memory. When in preview mode, the software displays a tool trace of the NC program over the design model. The Preview checks for collisions, gouges, minimum excess, and instances where axis limits are exceeded. CGTech, Booth D-3035

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The Hyper Quadrex 150 MSY is targeted at production of turned and machined workpieces from bar stock up to 2.56″ in diameter. It features two horizontally-opposed spindles for turning and C-axis control, plus two full-function tool turrets with X-, Y-, and Z-axis motions. It can be fitted with an automatic bar feeder and a robotic part unloader to create an integrated work cell for unattended machining of an industrial component. Each turret offers a full complement of 12 VDI-type tools, including 7.5 hp, 6,000-rpm live spindles for milling, drilling, and tapping operations. The twin turrets can operate independently or simultaneously on the same part for simultaneous machining of two features on the same part, or balanced machining strategies. In balanced cutting, two tools work together on the same feature such as rough and finish turning, rough and finish milling, or opposed feature drilling, tapping, or boring using the Y-axes. The Voice Advisor works in manual mode to verbally remind the operator through the Mazatrol Matrix CNC about selected switch settings and cautionary considerations. The Virtual Machining capability creates and executes an accurate 3D simulation of the cutting program to minimize test cuts and check for tool interferences right at the machine control. It features a 12.6″ swing, 11.4″ maximum machining diameter, and 24.4″ machining length. The main spindle is equipped with a 6″ chuck and C-axis control. Mazak Corp.

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Vericut, from CGTech, is CNC (computer numerical control) machine simulation and verification software that enables elimination of the process of manually proving out NC (numerical control) programs. It reduces scrap loss and rework, according to the company. The program also boosts NC programs in order to save time and produce a higher-quality surface finish. Vericut simulates all types of CNC machine tools. It runs standalone, or can be integrated with CAM systems such as Catia V5, Unigraphics, PTC, Master CAM, and EdgeCAM.

In Vericut 6.1, the NC “Program Review” is now integrated in Vericut’s main desktop. An icon button in the NC program window switches modes between the info display and the review display. When in review mode, the user can navigate backwards from the last NC program line simulated. Error messages and NC program text are highlighted when a collision on the stock or fixture is selected. Entering review mode adds step-backward and play-backward options to Vericut’s other VCR buttons. The existing step, play, rewind, and reset buttons also change to interact in review mode, providing easy navigation through the NC program, notes the company.

CGTech reports that Vericut’s CAD/CAM interfaces simplify the verification of NC programs from within the CAD/CAM system. Individual operations, a series of operations, or a set of complete NC programs can be verified. All stock, fixture, and design geometry is automatically transferred to VeriCut in the correct orientation, along with the NC program, tooling, machine and control data, and other simulation parameters.

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