Delcam: Precision-parts maker shaves programming time with CAM

THE COMPANY: Oakville, Ont.-based Integral Machining Ltd. machines and designs precision parts to the aerospace, medical, alternative fuel, instrumentation and photonics industries.

THE CHALLENGE: President Peter Reypa said the company felt that in order to be more efficient, they needed to get into the Swiss-turn market with machines that are very fast, with multi-axis capability and extreme accuracy requirements. However, programming for these machines can be very complex and time consuming.

THE STRATEGY: When they purchased their Tornos machine, at first they used the software that came with the machine; but when they saw Delcam PartMaker at a trade show, he was amazed at how easy it was to program. “With PartMaker we were able to combine the speed of the machine with PartMaker’s robust postprocessor,” Reypa said, reducing programming time from six to one hour.

The software breaks complicated part surfaces into sets of planes or faces, so machining tasks like turning, plane milling and cylinder milling are carried out separately and for each face in a intuitive manner. All this can be documented so the operator can handle even the most complex part quickly and easily. The software provides the link between the engineering department – which designs its product using both 2D drafting and 3D solid modeling – and the manufacturing department, is tasked with producing the parts.

THE RESULTS: “The really big benefit to having PartMaker is the ability to take the solid model, or even the DXF file, coming out of our engineering department for the part and immediately import it and be able to view it, edit it as necessary, and generate accurate toolpaths,” said CNC programming manager Andrew Sweeting. Thanks to a close collaboration between Tornos and the PartMaker developers, a special data-file format generated by PartMaker can be directly imported into Tornos’ TB-Deco software. This ensures accurate transfer of the SwissCAM toolpaths

“As a business owner, for me, it’s all about speed,” commented Mr Reypa. “With such powerful tools at our disposable, my staff and I can give customers the attention to details needed when producing components.” Whether it is a single part or complete assembly using electronic files or blueprints, with the system IML has in place, they can offer a very quick turnaround.

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