Are your manufacturing engineers thinking strategically?

For companies looking to reduce machine programming times and cycle times, increase repeatability of products and encourage their engineers to use standardised manufacturing or machining strategies, then CAM (computer aided manufacturing) software specialist, Pathtrace, has a solution worth looking at. Dubbed ‘Strategy Manager’, the new software (part of the firm’s flagship software, EdgeCam v7) allows engineers to define operational cycles using a flow chart style tool layout and includes EdgeCam’s automatic feature recognition capability, to achieve almost instant programming. The real business benefits come from the fact that your engineers can be equipped with a tool that allows them to standardise on production engineering, programming and machining by applying proven techniques based on the knowledge and experience of the workforce. Raf Labato, technical director at Pathtrace, explained: “Engineers can build up a library of machining strategies incorporating the best practice to allow standardisation of methods and reduce programming times to a push of a button. “This helps eliminate process variables, optimises tooling and minimises much of the mundane work involved in CNC programme generation,” he added. The library of stored best practice machining strategies can be placed in a single, central database (on a local area network or intranet) for all engineers to access. Pathtrace’s UK MD Brian Steatham commented: “You don’t need to be an EdgeCam user to benefit. A production team or methods department within a company can use the software to develop machining strategies.” The CAM simulation capabilities within EdgeCam also enable engineers to ‘test out’ certain machining sequences and scenarios before actual production begins. In fact, production engineers can start by capturing a manufacturing process within EdgeCam, then simply paste it straight into Strategy Manager. This process can then be edited and integrated with rules to build a flow chart of the complete process. Finally, feature can be applied one at a time before rationalising the whole process to make the best part program. When a component is required to be programmed, the solid model is seamlessly drawn into EdgeCam and Strategy Manager initiated. The built-in feature recognition within EdgeCam then interrogates the model, then Strategy Manager automatically applies the most appropriate machining technique to each feature based on the flow chart. Tools are then automatically selected from EdgeCam’s ToolStore module, and the relevant cutting data applied from EdgeCam’s Data Library.