Product category:
CAD/CAM systems (not machine tools)
News Release from: Alphacam | Subject: AlphaCAM CADCAM software
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 20 November 2002
Efficient CADCAM ensures smooth parts
flow
Cutting parts for the biggest airships reqire the largest flatbed profilers, which in turn relies on an efficient CADCAM system as described here.
Inside a colossal building on a disused Soviet airbase near Berlin, a unique engineering project is in process that will transform the heavy civil engineering industry, enabling the transportation of heavy components/machines to isolated sites all over the world Everything about the CargoLifter CL160 airship project is larger than life, including the concept itself
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 30 Oct 2000 at 8.00am (UK)
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Bigger than any previously built, the giant low-flying airships will deliver massive payloads up to 160 tonnes.
The construction of the airship however relies heavily on the expertise of leading UK flatbed cutter manufacturer Blackman and White, who have built the largest flatbed cutting machine ever in their factory in Maldon, Essex.
"The importance of cutting the airships 72 full length cigar-shaped 5mm thick 3-ply laminate scrim reinforced panels to a high degree of accuracy over the full length, was a key factor in us securing the contract to design, build and install the MasterCut 2100," stated Blackman and White software engineer, Alex White.
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Complex and accurate CNC machining of a variety of features requires a fast off-line programming system, which is why Strachan and Henshaw chose LICOM's AlphaCAM.
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LICOM off-line programming systems have made life easier at the Powergen workshops near Birmingham.
"With a 4-tool multihead, the Mastercut 2100 is designed with an 'on-board' computer, which greatly simplifying the transfer of data 'down the wire'.
Siemens PCs have been specified with 1.2 gigabyte processors linked to touch screen displays on the end of the multi-tasking cutting heads to drive the machines.
The cutting heads, capable of operating up to 2 metres per second, enable a continuous software-driven cycle of plotting, cu tting and drilling operations on the same material without any mechanical tool-changing operation.
The 200m long helium filled airships will be constructed in a state-of-the-art lightweight structure hangar, 360m x 210m x 107m, completed at the end of 2000.
However, the MasterCut 2100 was prefabricated here in the UK and shipped to the site where our engineers completed the installation." "Both here and at the site, Licom's AlphaCAM is a an important facet of our operation." added White.
"The completed MasterCut 2100, consists of 215 individual hollow aluminium tables, each 3.2 metres wide by 1.22 metres long covering 809m2.
Each table section has 6063 holes of 2mm diameter in its upper surface with 2 larger holes in the underside which are connected through a series of pipes to the 27 x 5.5kW vacuum pumps, positioned under the bed to hold the material down during the drawing and cutting operations.
The table sections also have 6 adjusting points to enable the level of the 262 metre long 5mm thick felt covered cutting surface to be set to a tolerance of +/-0.25mm." The four cutting gantries are mounted on running rails fixed to each side of the bed.
These are aligned to a tolerance of +/-0.5mm using a high tensile wire stretched from end to end of the hangar, ensuring straightness of cut.
"We recommend AlphaCAM as the package to run with our machines and is instrumental in simplifying our manufacturing procedures here in Maldon." continued White.
"Time is not the essence here, we are using AlphaCAM to both take the manual keying error out of the job and to produce complex side plates with a myriad of holes that are not circular, but complicated shape profiles that would take up to two weeks to key in by hand.
Right first time manufacture and eliminating scrap rates is as important here as in the Formula One industry.
Minimising the production costs allows us to be price competitive in a Global market.
The use of AlphaCAM has also freed up critical staff for the assembly of the machines.
Before we used 3-axis AlphaCAM, all the drawings were done on 2D Auto CAD for the design of the machines and taken downstairs where the data was manually loaded into a Talent lathe, a Yang 3-axis machining centre and number of Bridgeport turret mills.
So in effect we were working out the coordinate end point and so on, at the machines.
Now we simply, draw everything up the same way but produce all our NC cutting paths in AlphaCAM and DNC link the data down to the relevant machine.
We have now eliminated keying errors and eradicated scraped parts." "We now have three seats of AlphaCAM, one for manufacture and two for demonstration purposes both here and on a laptop PC. Request a free brochure from Alphacam ...
In fact, we recommend AlphaCAM as the package to run with all our machines, whether it's a double cutting line for a major swimming pool lining or huge contracts such as the CargoLifter airship project." conclude Alex White.
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