Mark Summers Talks at the Mastercam Open House

Mark Summers, President of CNC Software kicked off the Mastercam Open House telling us about the past 30 years in business.

A Look Inside the Mastercam Open House

Wednesday we hosted our second Open House at the Mastercam headquarters in Tolland, Connecticut. Thank to all the users, partners, dealers and students who stopped by.

Here's a quick look at yesterday's activities. In the coming weeks, we'll be posting some of the day's presentations including CNC Software President Mark Summers, Grave Digger's Pablo Huffaker, and The Edge Factor's Jeremy Bout. Stay tuned!


 

Reminder - Mastercam Open House!

Want to take a look behind the scenes where Mastercam is created? Want to tour our machine shop, talk to our developers, or see machining projects from other Mastercam users? Then join us on Wednesday June 12th for our second Open House event at the CNC Software, Inc. Corporate Headquarters in Tolland, CT.

The event will feature vehicles from Central Connecticut State University and Nathan Hale High School, battlebots from Miami Lakes in Florida, Pablo Huffaker (the driver and owner of the Gravedigger Monster truck), longtime customer Bob Bechtold from Harbec, and a current Mastercam student from UCONN, Jesus Montalvo. We are offering tracks for industrial and educational customers, plus several technical sessions that focus on our latest features and products. Additionally, we have added an employment area where customers can list job openings.

Want to join us? Then register here!

Hope to see you there!

Upcoming Open House at CNC Software, Inc.

Next Wednesday, June 12, 2013, we will be hosting an Open House event at the CNC Software, Inc. Corporate Headquarters in Tolland, CT. We are well on our way to 100 registered attendees and anticipate as many as 150 by the event. We hope to see you there!

The event will feature vehicles from Central Connecticut State University and Nathan Hale High School, battlebots from Miami Lakes in Florida, Pablo Huffaker (the driver and owner of the Gravedigger Monster truck), longtime customer Bob Bechtold from Harbec, and a current Mastercam student from UCONN, Jesus Montalvo. We are offering tracks for industrial and educational customers, plus several technical sessions that focus on our latest features and products. Additionally, we have added an employment area where customers can list job openings.

You can register for the event here: http://www.cvent.com/d/3cqbt1 

We look forward to seeing you next Wednesday and hope for fantastic weather and a successful event for us all.

Have Mastercam Will Travel

Have you just ordered a new 5-axis machining center and want to get it efficiently integrated into your workflow as soon as possible? Have you just received an order for a complex family of parts and need to create an efficient program, complete with workholding solution, to launch the program expeditiously? Perhaps you have a good programmer who could really take it to another level if he only had the chance to spend some time working along side a veteran Mastercam user?

If the answer to any of these questions is “yes”, you might consider obtaining the services of Ron Branch at 5th Axis Programming (Anaheim, CA). Those are exactly the services he provides. Ron takes pride in working himself out of a job after spending two weeks to several months working with his customers to help improve their manufacturing processes. He said, "My customers wind up operating so much more efficiently that they are actually bringing manufacturing work back to the USA. I get a kick out of that.”

Branch has formulated a number of rules that help him teach customers why they need to more effectively harness the power of CAD/CAM technology for increasing productivity and quality. 

3 For 1: The first of these he calls the "3 for 1 rule.”  For every dollar you seem to be wasting on a scrap part, you are actually wasting 3: The initial loss, the time and money that will be spent replacing the scrapped part, and then the time and money you spend fixing what went wrong in the first place, so you won't do it again. 

Model Based Part Definition: When Branch works with customers he places a heavy emphasis on using Model Based Part Definition throughout the manufacturing process. He said, “With the model as our constant directional focus, we use it to ask questions and receive answers about what we can do to reduce sources of error and improve productivity.” But there is even more to it than that. The model can be used not only as an information set, but also as an intelligence set. In other words, CAM software can take advantage of intelligence embedded in the model so that it can do things like simultaneously adjust cutter feeds and speeds based on the part geometry (as in Mastercam's Dynamic Milling Toolpaths). 

People, Processes, Technology: This aphorism provides Branch’s customers with a handy framework for analyzing manufacturing problems as well as potential opportunities. “People” has to do with the availability of appropriate staffing along with their current skill levels and motivation. Problems in this area can be solved via hiring and training. “Technology” is self-explanatory; it reminds the problem solvers to assess whether or not the equipment and software currently available are up to the job at hand. Companies can have adequate people and technology in place and still miss the boat because their “processes” are incomplete or inappropriate. These simple conceptual tools make it easy to focus on and identify the root cause of almost any manufacturing process dysfunction.

Do You Have A Multi-Axis CNC Launch Plan?

Modern CNC machines cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, but placing that technology on the floor is just the beginning. Utilizing the technology requires a process development team interacting with a series of software technologies including the CAD/CAM system, the post processor, the G-code simulator, G-code program, and machine tool controller. There must be a plan in place that will allow for the launch of a sophisticated new tool into high levels of effective use as quickly as possible.

One way to approach this is to contract a customized process development and training program that accomplishes all of these objectives. Derek Goodwin, founder of eapprentice.com, described one such program his organization recently orchestrated for a high tech manufacturer.

The project centered on developing a turnkey process to produce a family of components complete in one machining cycle. It involved collaborating with internal staff at the customer, the applications engineer from the machine tool distributor, production specialists on the eapprentice team, and a postprocessing expert from CNC Software Inc.

Deliverables of this project included:

1. Machine-specific training in multiaxis Mastercam programming. 
2. Custom post processor to connect CAM with the machine controller. 
3. Machine operation training, including critical controller and postprocessor issues.
4. A proven Mastercam program for one of the company's most representative part families. 
5. A manufacturing process, including workholding solutions for this and similar parts.
6. Instructional materials including videos taken during the classroom sessions dealing with their own manufacturing issues.

The company benefited by immediately obtaining high uptime levels for a powerful manufacturing tool right out of the box. They identified people on their staff and courseware resources for training others in their shop to handle important programming, setup, and operational tasks related to this specific equipment.

Compared to the loss incurred when expensive new CNC machines stand idle until staff engineers can learn how to use them, this approach costs very little and is likely to pay for itself in the first month’s operation by allowing the equipment to be used at much higher than average initial application levels.

Okuma and Haas posts available at no charge in Mastercam X7

We are pleased to announce that our posts install for X7 will include two new posts that will be available for no charge. The new install will be available when X7 is released. These popular and much-requested posts will add significant extra value to the X7 package.

• A generic Haas ST 4-axis mill-turn post (Generic Haas ST 4X MT_Lathe.pst)
• A post for Okuma mills equipped with the OSP-200M control (OKUMA OSP_P200M 4X MILL.pst) 

The Okuma post includes machine definitions for both VMC and HMC models. It is designed to support MA, MB, Millac, and Genos machines. It supports such Okuma features as: 

• G131 Hi-Cut and Super-NURBS machining modes
• WORK output and simulation support 
•  Fixture offset/tracking

A short application guide will be available to explain how to use these features. Please contact your local Mastercam Reseller for more information.