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Product category: CAD/CAM systems (not machine tools)
News Release from: Delcam | Subject: FeatureCAM
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial Team on 08 December 2006

CAM aided machining of aluminium, steel,
wood

The flexibility of Delcam's FeatureCAM proved invaluable to DesignJug's "Team Juggernaut" when it had to machine complex parts in aluminium, steel and even wood to create a self-guided vehicle.

The flexibility of Delcam's FeatureCAM CAM system proved invaluable to DesignJug's "Team Juggernaut" when it had to machine complex parts in aluminium, steel and even wood to create a self-guided vehicle The team consisted of a diverse group of inventors, researchers, design engineers and students who had minimal experience as machinists

Even so, they were able to produce parts with FeatureCAM that would otherwise have required professional-level programming and machining skills.

DesignJug, based in Salt Lake City, Utah, is a developer of embedded, reproducible computing systems from commercial-off-the shelf components that can operate reliably in harsh and space-constrained environments.

The company formed Team Juggernaut to take part in the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Grand Challenge.

This competition was organised following a Congressional mandate that, by 2015, one-third of all military vehicles must be able to operate autonomously.

Team Juggernaut consisted of students from the three Utah research universities as well as business and technology professionals from across the US.

The team's professional diversity reflected DesignJug's focus on doing things differently.

The key to success was translating creative thinking into mechanical reality.

FeatureCAM's intuitive but powerful manufacturing software was one of the tools that enabled the team to realise its ideas.

"You want to have the ability to think of a part and make it in your facility, without a lot of effort.

You want to go from art to part right there in your shop," company founder, Troy Takach, commented.

DesignJug programmed the machining of structural components, enclosures and mounting devices with FeatureCAM.

For example, FeatureCAM identified key features of a mould for a plastic housing and then provided the toolpaths and cutting parameters needed to machine them.

Team members then machined the mould from wood on DesignJug's Haas vertical machining centre.

Team member Neil Johnson, a mechanical engineering student at Brigham Young University, said "FeatureCAM is certainly easy to learn; it's able to quickly transfer from a CAD model into toolpaths that we can put on our machine." He said he had used the software to mill parts of aluminium, steel, and even wood.

"Just the other day, we made a vacuum form mould for plastic out of plywood.

We used the CAM software to export a model that we then carved out of the wood on the mill." DesignJug actually built three vehicles in preparation for the 2005 Grand Challenge, including two All-Terrain Vehicles (ATV) and a four-wheel drive truck.

The ATV chosen for the competition progressed through the preliminary round and qualified for the final competition.

However, an errant hay bale interfered with elements of the guidance system and the vehicle didn't complete the final course. Request a free brochure from Delcam ...

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