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Product category: Motor sports manufacturing: machining, software, CAM
News Release from: Pathtrace Engineering Systems | Subject: EdgeCAM CAM
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial Team on 27 October 2005

CAM adapts milling cutter feed rates

CAM adapts the cutter feed rate to suit the circumstances within the parameters set and reads the surface geometry to determine the optimum feed rates.

Perfect Bore maximises the potential of high-speed machining through EdgeCAM's adaptive feed rate capability To design lightweight pistons that can withstand and transmit the immense forces generated within competition internal combustion engines is one thing

To manufacture them in the short timescales demanded by customers is another.

To do so, profitably, that really is something very special.

That is why Perfect Bore is now using EdgeCAM from Pathtrace to maximise the potential of its considerable investment in high-speed machine tools.

Based in Andover, Hampshire, UK, Perfect Bore is one of seven independently managed companies in the Performance Motorsports division of the Dover Corporation, a multi-billion dollar, NYSE-traded, diversified manufacturer of products and components for industrial and commercial use.

Perfect Bore has strong connections to the whole of the motorsport community and has specialist capabilities in the manufacture and coating of thin walled cylinder liners and high performance pistons.

Alan Baynes is manufacturing manager in the pistons division at Perfect Bore.

He says, "We manufacture in single units up to batches of several hundred, for a wide range of top level series throughout Europe, Japan and the USA." Forged or solid? - that is the question, Perfect Bore manufacture both forged pistons and pistons machined from solid billets.

What are the advantages of the different processes? Baynes says, "There is a volume break point at which it becomes more economical to forge pistons than to machine them from solid.

However, it can take three to four months to deliver forged pistons, taking into account the design and manufacture of the forge tool.

You have to be absolutely certain of your design if you take that route." Baynes continues, "However, solid machined pistons can be made much more quickly when the volumes are modest.

We can draw up a piston in Pro/ENGINEER, analyse it in Pro/MECHANICA, have it approved by the customer and get it into manufacturing within two to three weeks of order.

Then we can quickly and easily embody any changes required by the customer after the piston has been raced." He adds, "Once a customer has run them in his car or race series and is satisfied with the design, he can switch over to forged pistons if the volume warrants it." Paul Daley is Perfect Bore's CNC programmer and has been with the company almost three years.

He says, "EdgeCAM can machine directly from the Pro/ENGINEER model, although we actually modify the model to suit the sequence of machining processes".

" Because the programme for a typical piston undercrown is very complex, especially in the gudgeon pin boss area, it can take up to two days to create a program.

Consequently, because we make a large number of different pistons, programming time is one of the most critical items for us.

We have to reduce the time it takes to write programmes and we have to write programmes that reduce machining time." Daley continues, "However, that is where EdgeCAM is so powerful.

Each successive upgrade is progressively improving our productivity.

Even so, I am fully occupied writing programs and all our CNC machines have had memory upgrades to handle the sheer complexity of our work." It does not stop there." As Daley says, "Machining high performance pistons from solid is very challenging, and it can take over an hour to machine the more complex ones.

That is where EdgeCAM's adaptive feed rate capability comes in." Daley says, "This does exactly what is says.

It adapts the cutter feed rate to suit the circumstances within the parameters you set.

It reads the surface geometry to determine the optimum feed rate, slowing down in tight areas, speeding up in more open areas.

This means that we get a more even cut with reduced risk of cutter damage." He continues, "This would normally involve a lot of extra programming time but with EdgeCAM you do not have to bother.

It is just a click of the button to set it up, turn it on, and enter the parameters." Daley adds, "That is it basically.

You use it as part of your machining strategy.

You would usually do your roughing without it, and then choose the zones where you want it to operate." He continues, "The real benefit is that it saves on cutters.

More importantly, it saves the cost of the resultant downtime.

If the cutter breaks we would normally have to scrap the piston and start again, losing machining time and putting delivery times under pressure.".

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