CAM Software Enables Machining Complex Parts Faster
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Reprinted From PRODUCTION MACHINING Magazine CAM Software Enables Machining Complex Parts Faster, in More Ways Edited by Lori Beckman hen Advance Manufacturing Technology (Salt Lake City, Utah) acquired a multitasking machine in 2012, it licensed GibbsCAM MTM (Multi-Task Machining) software from Gibbs and Associates to enable programming the new machine. Since then, the company has seen cycle time reductions, more machining flexibility and efficiency, as well as the ability to machine more complex jobs. The company attributes these improvements to the software’s ease-of-use and its ability to easily manage multiple turrets. Advance Manufacturing implemented a Mori Seiki NZX2000T3Y3 in its shop—a dual spindle, multitasking machine, with Y axis on all three turrets—to get more parts through the shop for a large order from an X-ray machine manufacturer. The parts were simple, made of core iron (a relatively soft material), but the order was for 10,000 pieces, annually. The company had been making the parts with single-turret Mori-Seiki NL lathes, knowing that a multitasking machine could reduce the 9.5-minute cycle time by a good margin. :: ABOVE: Advance Manufacturing Technology uses GibbsCAM MTM software to program multi-spindle, multi-turret machines, such as this Mori Seiki NZX multitasking machine, which reduces cycle times by as much as 75 percent with all three turrets working simultaneously. Here, the upper turret takes a skin pass, while the lower turret drills a hole and the third turret (not shown) works the back side of a part on the subspindle. Because the local Mori Seiki distributor’s preferred CAM system is GibbsCAM, and because Advance Manufacturing had decades of experience with GibbsCAM, the shop licensed GibbsCAM MTM software to enable programming. Bryce Barton, mill foreman and CNC programmer, says the software was necessary, because otherwise, keeping track of the turrets and their locations in relationship to each other would be a nightmare. Advance Manufacturing is a job shop that serves all industries, typically machining lots of seven to 20 pieces, many prototypes of various complexity, and lots with as many as 10,000 pieces a year. With the exception of three Swiss-type machines, all of the shop’s CNCs are Mori Seiki machines, from two-axis lathes to four-axis machining centers and multi-axis, multitasking machines. All of the mill programming at the company has been done with GibbsCAM for about 25 years. Today, GibbsCAM MTM’s Sync Manager assists in programming and managing multiple tool groups—turrets in this case. To achieve the highest efficiency in production, the part program must be balanced so that the majority of the work doesn’t fall on a single turret while the others wait. Ideally, all tool groups would work simultaneously for exactly the same amount of time. Balancing can be difficult to achieve, especially for parts that require multiple operations with each turret. “GibbsCAM takes care of three turrets very easily—syncs them all up, and it spits out all the wait codes. So we use Sync Manager a lot, every time we program that machine,” Mr. Barton explains. “We have seen cycle ti

CAM Software Machining Parts 50 percent and 75 percent on the machine. The NL lathes also have dual spindles, but a single turret. It was having additional turrets and a good way to manage them that sped up the job.” GibbsCAM MTM’s Sync Manager, like the machine control, treats each tool group individually, generating a different program for each. It shows the operations for each turret side by side, with wait codes (sync codes) to prevent tool interference and collision. It allows the programmer to move operations from one turret to another, and to reorganize operations, to balance the...