Perched on her side on a street in industrial Seattle is Miss Elam, one of the fastest hydroplane boats in the world. She owes her existence in large part to some top-notch software and engineers, and a very lucky event in March of 1960.
That year, Sven Ellstrom and his bride were on their way from Sweden to Alaska. They ran out of money in Seattle and decided to stay. Sven started making laminate panels. He made the first laminate flooring in the United States. Ellstrom Manufacturing still makes laminate wall panels used in airports all over the world, as well as host of other products, from insulated glass to parts for the trucking, marine and aerospace industries. ‘We produce a half million parts a month every month,” notes Vice President Erick Ellstrom.
It’s the company’s proximity to water, however, that led Sven’s son Erick to build his first hydroplane boat out of wood when he was 12. Eventually, Erick and his brother Tom built a prototype that would become Miss Elam. As work on the boat progressed, the two brothers found they couldn’t find anyone to make many of the parts they wanted, nor could they find anyone to make them at the exacting standards that would translate into the speed they wanted. The answer was to build the parts themselves. Ellstrom Manufacturing had considerable talent to draw from. They employ 175 people and already used Mastercam® software to machine parts. Ellstrom continued to use Mastercam to create the part programs for Miss Elam. The results were stunning. ‘The second time it was in the water, it won a race,” says Erick. Needless to say, Ellstrom employees love the opportunity to work on the boat projects!
Two of their proudest innovations are their propeller and their T53 and T55 case halves used to house gas turbine compressors. ‘We like to make high precision stuff anyway,” says Erick. Still, they needed some help getting to the 10th of a thousandth. They turned to Steve Kidd and his staff at Cimtech, their Mastercam dealer. Cimtech helped reverse engineer and design programs with the tight tolerances the brothers were looking for. ‘The better the tolerance, the better the miles per hour,” says Erick. ‘We draw it all in Mastercam and we cut it in Mastercam using a 5-axis Mazak Variaxis 630 to machine the parts. When we made the move to more complex 5-axis programming we also invested in VERICUT® CNC simulation software to verify that the programs were accurate and protect the machine,” says Greg Thayer, a programmer at Cimtech.
After creating the NC programs in Mastercam, they began simulating the machining process in VERICUT by simulating the G-code data. ‘There often can be a difference between the motion as programmed and the code after it’s run through the post processor. Especially on a 5-axis machine.” says Greg, ‘The smart way, and the real power of VERICUT is to simulate the post-processed G-code.” Ellstrom verifies G-codes on everything they run.
The combination of Mastercam and VERICUT has been very successful to the bottom line, both in terms of speed on the water and time and money saved in the shop. When they tried out a new propeller a few months ago, the speed improved by six m.p.h.. That’s phenomenal when you’re talking racing. Last year, Miss Elam was second in national high points and set records in five of the six courses she raced with speeds exceeding 150 m.p.h.
‘We looked at all the CAM software out there,” says Erick. ‘We stayed with Mastercam because it does everything and it’s easy. Some people say if it’s easy to use, it must not be very sophisticated. That’s not true. Mastercam Version 9 does everything we want. Some people say no software could do all that we demand. I say the proof is the pudding. What we chose is the best.”
And VERICUT has saved Ellstom a lot of time on the machine. ‘Before investing in VERICUT,” says Greg, ‘a new propeller part would take about a week on the machine. We’d run the machine at around 10% and watch carefully to be sure there were no incorrect moves. With VERICUT we can see the piece and how it will be cut, a big benefit in 5-axis machining. After running it through VERICUT we just load and go and it’s off the machine in a day. It also offers high-end part measurement tools and the ability to simulate the entire machine which helps us avoid problems like overtravel or interferences with the table or fixtures.”
Their latest innovation is an improved propeller strut. ‘When you blow a propeller, that’s usually the end of the strut too. Our new strut has survived four propeller breaks. It has less drag and it’s more efficient,” says Erick. Now Ellstrom is building the same strut for six other hydroplane boat teams — his own competitors. ‘If they beat us and they have the same equipment, we’re not good enough.” And Erick and his employees will never settle for that.
Airbus is selling so well that the demand to increase build rate has never been higher. BAE Systems (Filton, UK) needed a simple way to improve throughput - it found the answer in VERICUT.
With VERICUT, engineers at Stellex Monitor modeled the Sidewinder and Spar Mill machines.
Tell Tool of Westfield, Mass., has integrated VERICUT CNC simulation software into its numerical control program prove-out process.
VERICUT enabled us to start ordinary production after a minimum of time. Since this product is new for Volvo Aero Norge and our company had never before had parts with similar machining complexity, it is difficult to estimate the amount of cost saving.
Before implementing VERICUT, the company experienced the usual time-consuming and expensive manufacturing problems related to NC program prove-outs such as scrap loss, broken tooling, and a danger of occasional machine crash.
Over the last two years, GE Aviation (formerly Aerostructures Hamble) has used Machine Simulation to speed the implementation of several new 5-axis machine tools.
VERICUT showed the NC programmers leftover or heavy stock." And the software detected a couple of places where the depth of cut was too large and tools were shanking out," said Collings. They then went back and corrected the errors in the tool path before
Dassault, Seclin initially purchased VERICUT in order to reduce the number of manual prove-outs using polystyrene material, which represented a significant expense in terms of time and money.
VERICUT enabled the designers and programmers see exactly what they were building as and in-process model in different stages of the machining cycle.
We utilized VERICUT to verify the CNC programs for cutting the tooling before they were sent to the machine control,
To protect their investment, they have been using VERICUT since 1996. They have two people to verify the accuracy of their G-code files.
"When we first started using OptiPath we concentrated on the feed rate option; now we use the constant chip thickness capability. With jobs up to 200 hours long, 50% saving is significant like having another machine tool."
The entire process took less than two hours and no manpower was required, whereas, creating the same pattern manually (the old way), would have taken one of our designers several days.
The verification process stays ahead of the actual machine position in the NC code being verified. Opera-tors can see errors before they occur.
The bottom line? Using VERICUT has made Supreme's existing machine tools more productive. Enthusiasm is up, delivery times have been reduced, and pricing is more competitive.delivery times have been reduced, and pricing is more competitive.
Using VERICUT to compare the electrode burn with the mold cavity ensures that we have all the correct clearances in the electrodes and that we have 100% clean-up." says Allen.
If I was using VERICUT at the time I would've caught the problem, and had a chance to fix it before it damaged the part.
Now I rarely see the potential crashes because the students find and correct them before I review the work. Catching those costly problems is a non-event now!
VERICUT can change speeds and feeds according to cutting conditions including difference in material and tooling. It is done automatically; the programmer does not have to make even one manual insert into the code."
Flying shrapnel from shattered cutting tools and components is avoided by using VERICUT to test student programs before they are run on NC machines.
The NC programmers at Ingersoll also rely on the simulation software to prevent mistakes when programming complex, five-axis parts.
After creating the NC programs in Mastercam, they began simulating the machining process in VERICUT by simulating the G-code data. There often can be a difference between the motion as programmed and the code after it's run through the post processor
After selecting VERICUT for third-party verification, each NC programmer attended two days of basic training where they experienced first-hand the type of results they could expect to achieve.
The program simulates milling, drilling, turning, wire EDM, and mill/turn machining operations using both G-codes and CAM output.
VERICUT provides simulation capabilities for the all the 3-5 axis and wire EDM parts, with focused control over the orientation of our 5-axis machine tool including the cutters used on that machine.
The inspection probe is created as a tool in VERICUT so the complete in- cycle gauging sequence is checked for collisions.
The bottom was machined first. This effort took about 24 hours from start to finish. By using VERICUT software from CGTech, Elliot was able to test the NC program for any problems before it was ever cut on the machine.
Cosworth Racing Integrates Walter TDM Tool Management into Manufacturing Systems
With data exported from NX, Vericut simulates the cutting process on the shop floor utilizing the machine G-code to detect any issues prior to NC Program release.
VERICUT software removes this potentially hazardous stage by allowing ReedHycalog to do all of their prove-outs on a computer.
Two of their proudest innovations are their propeller and their T53 and T55 case halves used to house gas turbine compressors. ‘We like to make high precision stuff anyway,” says Erick. Still, they needed some help getting to the 10th of a thousandth. They turned to Steve Kidd and his staff at Cimtech, their Mastercam dealer. Cimtech helped reverse engineer and design programs with the tight tolerances the brothers were looking for. ‘The better the tolerance, the better the miles per hour,” says Erick. 