Parametric assembly modelling cuts tool design times at Stellram

Creating and producing families of tools and specials just got much faster, much easier and much more efficient for Stellram – to the extent that the firm now offers same day design to production. Brian Tinham reports Key benefits Company can now react faster to customer demands Cost slashed for developing and maintaining the widest possible range of metal cutting tools Much easier and faster (minutes, rather than hours) creation of families of parts following modelling of the first tool Overall tool geometry automatically adjusts as the designer works up through the range of sizes Changes made to the insert and pocket are automatically and globally updated in the tool assembly model Portfolio engineering means custom design of tools and so forth fast and efficiently, straight from a master model Supports customers specifying and ordering their own tools online – ready for shop-floor production on the same day Stellram, the metal cutting tools, inserts and holders designer and manufacturer, serving industries from aerospace to automotive to Formula 1, has reorganised to enable tool design and production to be channelled to whichever of its facilities has the capacity or appropriate expertise, anywhere in the world. The firm, which is part of the $2.5 billion ATI (Allegheny Technologies) group and employs 76 at Stellram’s UK Bath HQ, says that, with global and local customers, as well as huge variety and fluctuating regional demand, it had to make best use of its engineering resources. So in 1998, it standardised on Unigraphics CAD/CAM/CAE software, and in 2000 and 2001 started using the Internet so that design data could be moved rapidly and inexpensively around the organisation. Bath now has five seats – all providing integrated 3D solids, surfaces and assemblies modelling and management, together with associative, semi-automatic 2D detail drafting. Two of the seats also provide integrated NC tool-path programming. Engineering manager Des Burnett says that the most significant aspect is that his system includes Unigraphics’ WAVE technology for top-down assembly-level parametric modelling. It’s about enabling the design team to work concurrently yet independently on a product’s sub-systems, and to selectively substitute sub-systems in the master model without negatively impacting the process. He also notes other key links, including to Vericut for manufacturing engineering and simulation, and on the drafting side, to Stellram’s QA data. The latter is about providing set-up sheets, dimensions and the rest, and making it all model-driven, so that operators on the shopfloor get a better idea of what they’re making. Returning to WAVE, Burnett says it’s good for evaluating multiple design concepts fast, and for identifying the impact on downstream detailed design, manufacturing and assembly. Stellram’s tool designers also use the WAVE Geometry Linker facility, which means one master part can be used in a variety of forms within various assemblies without the need to re-model or re-draw anything. Before Stellram started to use the Linker, each tool within a specific range had to be designed individually: today, once the first tool has been modelled, the others can be created very quickly. Burnett says that drilling tools, for example, can be created in a matter of minutes, rather than the hours it used to take, due to additional bespoke software routines. Milling tools now take a couple of hours, including drawings and programs to make them usable, rather than a couple of days. In fact now, using software developed by Stellram’s own engineers, together with its on-line tool design library, customers are able to specify their own tool dimensions and cutting angles and to then lodge their completed order and tool specification online. This information is then used in the Linker to modify a standard tool design, with the new design being ready for the shop-floor on the same day! Burnett says it’s now able to react much faster to customer demands, and has hugely cut the cost of developing and maintaining the widest possible range of metal cutting tools. And he adds that Stellram is currently looking to extend its use of Unigraphics to accommodate the needs of users for high speed parts.