CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive

October 2004

Company News

Delcam to Hold Free Seminar on Integration of Machining and Inspection

Delcam is to host a free seminar showing how closer integration of machining and inspection operations can improve quality and boost productivity as part of the Productivity Partnerships 04 event to be hosted by the 600 Centre at its Shepshed site from 19th to 21st October. The seminar, titled Innovation and Integration in Machining and Inspection, will take place on the afternoon of 19th October. At the seminar, the latest developments in adaptive machining and on-machine verification will be presented.

The programming of most machining operations is based around knowing three things: the position of the workpiece on the machine, the starting shape of the material to be machined, and the final shape that needs to be achieved at the end of the operation. Adaptive machining techniques allow successful machining operations to be completed when at least one of those elements is unknown, by using in-process measurement to close the information gaps in the process chain.

The most common case is that where the exact position of the workpiece is unknown. With larger components, such as aerospace structures, moulds for bigger parts like automotive dashboards, or press tools for car body panels, achieving the correct position and orientation of the stock on the machine is a major challenge, taking many hours of checking and adjustment. It is often easier to adjust the datum for the toolpaths to match the position of the workpiece, than it is to align the stock in exactly the desired position. This approach has been used in the machining of geometric features for some time. Delcam now offers an equivalent solution for the manufacture of complex shapes and surfaces that gives the same benefits of shorter set-up times and improved accuracy.

The Delcam process in these cases uses PowerINSPECT, together with a new program, PS-Fixture. First, a probing sequence is created for PowerINSPECT using the software's off-line programming capabilities. This sequence is used to collect a series of points from the workpiece, which can be used by a range of best-fit routines to determine its exact position. Any mis-match between the nominal position used in PowerMILL to generate the toolpaths and the actual position of the workpiece can be calculated in PS-Fixture. The software can then feed the results to the machine tool control as a datum shift or rotation to compensate for the alignment differences.

The version of PowerINSPECT used for on-machine verification allows off-line programming of the inspection sequence for the machine tool, with fully-integrated simulation and collision checking, and so minimizes the time needed for the verification operation on the machine. The most obvious benefit of on-machine verification is to those companies that do not have existing inspection capabilities. Most modern machine tools either come with, or can be retrofitted with, probing capabilities to assist in the set-up of the job. This same equipment can now be used for verification at little extra cost.

On-machine verification can give huge time savings by enabling the quality of the component being machined to be monitored at all stages in the manufacturing process. This will allow any errors to be detected earlier, and so corrected more quickly and at lower cost. For example, it will be possible to check that the correct amount of stock has been left on the component after a roughing operation, rather than having to wait until all machining operations have been completed before discovering that an error has been made.

Similarly, the extent of any damage caused, for example, by a tool breakage, can be assessed accurately and a decision made immediately to determine whether the part can still be completed within tolerance or whether it will have to be scrapped.

On-machine verification will also benefit companies with customers that insist on independent inspection of their work. By carrying out an initial verification on the machine, errors can be detected, and corrected, that might otherwise not be found until after the component had been shipped to the inspector.

 

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