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Product category: Motor sports manufacturing: machining, software, CAM
News Release from: Pathtrace Engineering Systems | Subject: EdgeCAM
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial Team on 26 April 2005

EdgeCAM helps Honda Racing go faster

Honda Racing chose EdgeCAM after carrying out a major research exercise to establish what would be the best CAD/CAM software, together with new CNC machines, for it's requirements.

Fast is the new normal Even so, real, raw, "Wow, that's amazing!" physical speed retains unique power to thrill people every time - and where more so than at a top motorcycle racing event like the British Superbike, Supersport and 125GP Championships

It's not just the speed.

We're awed by the riders' skill and courage, and their trust in their technical team-mates.

Most of us couldn't ride a Superbike at 200 mph - or wouldn't dare.

That's for our heroes to do.

But when we're deciding on our next vehicle purchase, an image of a champion rider and bike may come to mind.

Yes, we could own a road motorcycle or a car with that winning brand.

And some of the magic might come with it.

Honda Racing is there to be first past the chequered flag, to give the Honda brand the best possible action-speaks-louder-than-words type of promotion.

If there's a glamorous feeling around, it's the one that accompanies solid success.

Each victory is a result of a clearly set out process.

The goal is to win the championships.

To achieve that, Honda Racing needs to give its own and its customers' riders the best possible packages - machines, capabilities, backup - with which to 'go compete'.

The same goes for the team of technicians behind the riders.

And to achieve this, the company needs the best possible way of designing, developing and manufacturing its bikes' components - very fast.

Honda Racing is based at Louth, Lincolnshire, positioned for travel in various directions to the championship circuits.

The reception area of the modern facility is filled with glorious, gleaming motorbikes.

As well as the individuality of its specification, each model has its own legends and associated famous names.

Everything promises power.

The development histories of these machines reveal Honda Racing's links within Honda, both Honda UK of which it is part, and beyond, not least Japan; products and expertise are evidently deployed and exchanged in a variety of ways.

Some of the models come from Honda ready for use, others arrive as road bike models, for conversion or modification by the company into racing bikes, and in 2004 Honda Racing began to develop its own new bike starting from a blank page.

The company also maintains its own and customers' racing bikes here.

Customers for Honda Racing are private racing teams who are unable to manufacture their own motorcycles.

Outside the professional racing world are more customers, enthusiasts for whom special track or racing days at various UK circuits make possible full enjoyment of their bikes.

In 2003, Honda Racing decided to expand and improve its small in-house machine shop facility.

Workshop manager Simon Buckmaster explains: "The race team had doubled in size, and we wanted to offset the cost of the machine facility to the team by operating it in a commercial manner, and also using it to service Honda Racing's customers, so it would enable us to make some of the parts we were developing for our own machines available to our customers too." One of his colleagues, head machinist Ian Smith, carried out a major research exercise to establish what would be the best CAD/CAM software, together with new CNC machines, for Honda Racing's requirements.

Two systems reached his shortlist; Windows-based EdgeCAM from Pathtrace Engineering Systems won the day.

Simon Buckmaster recalls: "The quality of the software package met our requirements better than any other that we saw on the market." Equally important for the decision was: "the co-operation and flexibility of Pathtrace as a company for what we needed to do." Honda Racing believed that their needs were somewhat non-standard, and appreciated Pathtrace's understanding of all the relevant issues.

"The co-operative attitude of that company in our negotiations was fantastic." In fact, as Honda Racing talked requirements and Pathtrace listened, there was a growing feeling of potential for synergy between them.

Thanks to an excellent working relationship, what started as a purchase of CAD/CAM software soon segued into a formal partnership between the two companies.

Honda Racing produces small quantities of specialist components in an inexorably fast-paced process of design, development, out to test on the racetrack, then sometimes, if necessary, re-development or further refinement.

"We're not a normal profit making commercial venture.

We are totally about developing new stuff and improving our products all the time," explains Simon Buckmaster.

"Motorcycle racing is a very here-and-now operation." Obviously the commercial world-at-large demands faster and better production; in that sense, Honda Racing's requirements are not unique.

But the certain knowledge that rival racing organisations are also pushing their development forward as fast as they can - with the results translating into action at the next race meeting - is particularly mind-focussing.

It's another good reason for having the best possible design and production facilities in-house.

This way, there is no need for reliance on other organisations, which may be less motivated to meet the critical deadlines.

So by the end of 2003 Ian Smith and his colleagues had the means to cut production time to a fraction of what it had been before, while at the same time create far more complex components: new EdgeCAM software to help them design, model and generate tool paths for their two new Fanuc Robodrill CNC machines.

But because of the 'unbelievably quick turnaround' that Honda Racing works to, going for training days was simply not an option.

How were the team members to learn to use the new software? The answer was, as Ian Smith puts it, "to jump in at the deep end, with complex components", which is exactly what he and his colleagues did, learning on the job with what they commend as "fantastic help from Pathtrace." EdgeCAM made this possible, and they quickly began to find it 'addictive', enjoying the learning curves up to 3D and then on to four-axis work.

They had chosen EdgeCAM Part Modeler for the design stage.

Since EdgeCAM Solid Machinist links seamlessly with all leading CAD packages, the choice had been a totally open one, but the team members, all of whom were relatively new to CAD/CAM, had been keen to benefit from EdgeCAM's easy-to-learn qualities in the design stage too.

The criteria for components in this workshop are function, cosmetic appearance and weight.

The aim is to get something right first time.

"We like to pride ourselves that we consider things correctly - try to look at all the problems, and then make the part," says Simon Buckmaster.

But even with all of Honda Racing's experience, this is the real world, and EdgeCAM's flexibility for fast change, and thus improvement, has proved to be of great value.

"Take this top bridge mount.

We looked at the one on the road bike we were adapting from, decided our design and made it with the help of the Pathtrace technology, took it out and tested it" - as part of the new-for-2005 Fireblade bike ridden to impressive effect by Karl Harris on his debut aboard the machine at an end of season non-championship event in 2004.

The testing went well - and led to an even better idea: "We decided to modify it slightly so we could adjust the ride more easily without taking out the rear shock absorber".

Back to the drawing board..

in this case the model on the PC screen.

Thanks to EdgeCAM's associativity, such changes to complex components can be made in a fraction of the time this would take using traditional methods, or using software without full associative links back to the model.

The machining part-files are associative to any changes made to the 3D model, so that if the model is changed, so automatically are the tool paths.

Honda describes itself as 'pushing the technological envelope', and Honda Racing's activities show this in action.

Commercial constraints apply too, of course, even at this top quality end of the market, and another important aspect of the flexibility provided by the EdgeCAM software is that it can enable the company to make a product more cost effective yet to exactly the same high standard - meaning, greater pricing flexibility without impairing profit margins.

Every team member at Honda Racing seems to have his own reason for enthusing about EdgeCAM.

Ian Smith loves the EdgeCAM-assisted timescales, which he illustrates simply by brandishing a new gear lever and saying "One and a half hours with EdgeCAM versus two weeks without!" Machinist Matthew Perry likes the way they can "try out and preview and change - the advantage of the working model." Chief technician Chris Pike observes: "It's very user friendly.

You can use it without formal engineering training, because the terminology isn't baffling." He discovered this by launching into designing with EdgeCAM Part Modeler after one very short lesson.

Simon Buckmaster sees what EdgeCAM does for the workshop as 'helping us to evolve'.

This is with individual components, where EdgeCAM is demonstrably beefing up the entire design/manufacture/try out/implement feedback process.

It's also in the way Honda Racing works.

In its first year using EdgeCAM, not only has the company been able to develop more complex components than before, much more readily; it has also been able to seriously increase the volume of components produced.

The benefits have come from more than just the product.

"The people representing Pathtrace have been fantastic.

I don't believe anyone could have offered a better service than they have." Conclusion: Pathtrace and EdgeCAM enable organisations such as Honda Racing to raise the stakes enormously for production efficiency and quality - and, of course, speed.

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