Central CAD/CAM platform Process acceleration through virtual manufacturing

Virtual manufacturing in terms of securing results, preventing errors, and accelerating processes: Mayer steel and apparatus construction relies on the Coscom ECO-System based on a central manufacturing and tool database and networks CAD/CAM, simulation, and shop floor.

Mayer Steel and Apparatus Construction also thinks in large dimensions when it comes to digitizing their shop floors. The contract manufacturer of large components utilizes the possibilities of a comprehensive virtual manufacturing based on the open Coscom ECO system. This ensures 1:1 result security with real NC programs in the simulation. A comprehensive setup optimization through digital workbooks in a completely networked shop floor also contributes to overall process acceleration.

50 tons weight, 18 meters length—precision in the manufacture of large components is a special kind of challenge. Besides a highly technologized machine park and a comprehensive digital tool infrastructure, craftsmanship and technical expertise of the employees are required. Because a dimensional stability over an enormous distance has to be maintained. We are talking about 0.03 to 0.05 millimeters with a processing length of up to 18 meters. For the contract manufacturer Mayer Steel and Apparatus Construction from Heidenheim, such values are daily routine. For more than a hundred years, the company has been manufacturing large components and steel constructions of high quality, in a trustful cooperation with the customer and with the utmost flexibility.

Digital straight into the future

In single-part large component manufacturing, one can only survive in a fiercely competitive market if there are no collisions or other errors during machining. The safeguarding of the entire process must therefore be 100 percent seamless—there is only one component being processed and there is only one attempt. It's about the 1:1 simulation of sub-processes such as very complex setup, time-consuming clamping and re-clamping, as well as tool changes during actual machining. "Failure is not an option", this famous quote from the film about the Apollo 13 moon landing mission has a special significance for CEO Martin Gentner, Master Machinist Dietmar Koch, and CNC Programmer Marijan Lokner. Their maxim is: maximum result assurance, 100 percent error avoidance, setup optimization and, understandably, maximum acceleration of the entire work process.

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But how can these ambitious goals be achieved? Clearly, a professional CAM system is an important solution component for this. But that alone is not enough. The bridge from the idealized world of CAM simulation to the harsh reality of machining centers must be crossed. That's why Mayer Maschinenbau chose Profi CAM Virtual Machining (VM) from Coscom for CAM programming and Vericut from CG Tech with its NC code simulation. Both tools are coupled to the Coscom ECO system, which consists of Factory Director VM and Tool Director VM, supplying the CAM programming and machine simulation with all relevant, digital manufacturing and tool information. The traveling column milling and drilling centers FR 12000, FR 14000 and FS 18000 as well as the bed milling machines SL 8000 and SP 10000 from Soraluce are fed with NC programs during mechanical machining.

100 percent assurance of CAM programming

The project was started a few years ago with the aim of parallel main-time 3D programming by introducing Profi CAM VM for multi-sided machining milling machines. Shortly thereafter, the tool management Tool Director VM was added, which supplies the CAM system with tool data and thus allows programming with realistic geometries of the tools. The Tool Director VM was gradually enriched with data about tool components and complete tools. There are now around 4,200 complete tools stored in the system. Dietmar Koch is firmly convinced: "No more CAM system without tool management!" and adds: "For the machine simulation of the complete processing cycle, we decided on Vericut to secure the result 100 percent based on the NC code after the post-processing run in Profi CAM VM: We were aware even then that the NC data sets absolutely had to be tested again after the post-processor export, i.e. those NC sets that are actually used in the machine. Even though Coscom delivers very good NC codes via machine-optimized postprocessors in its CAM system, we really want to go 100 percent safe with the collision check."

Economic large component manufacturing requires this kind of reassurance. The Soraluce machines do not have a fixed tool change point, but rather take the tool magazine along during machining in the sense of parallel main-time setup in order to maximize spindle running time. This is taken into account in the NC set-based simulation by Vericut. "This is very important because one cannot precisely envision whether a tool with a length of, for example, 300 mm might not nevertheless bump into the workpiece somewhere at a height of 5 m or more during the replacement," explains Marijan Lokner. Through the Profi CAM-Vericut coupling, complete control with real NC programs after the postprocessor export is ensured—the open Coscom system architecture with the universal CAM and simulation interface Coscom TCI (Tooldata Cooperation Interface) makes it possible.

Seamless data process up to the machine

The introduction of Tool Director VM raised CAM programming to a new quality level and simultaneously ensured a seamless end-to-end process in terms of passing through digital tool information to tool pre-setting and to the machine: Tool lists, assembly instructions for complete tools, measured actual tool data were now immediately available in the entire process. "The provision of current data is extremely important because we are dealing with setup and processing times of sometimes several hundred hours. No mistakes can be made. But despite all the digitization, the skilled worker at the machine is still needed because it is individual part production. Each component must finally be individually run in," emphasizes Dietmar Koch.

Before the introduction of the Coscom ECO-System, a typical component machining took three weeks, today it is no longer ten days. We have achieved a good 25 percent of the savings through digitization.

Martin Gentner

The details are recorded in the digitally captured clamping plans, for example. Alone, the exact positioning of a blank on the machine bed weighing several tons is the first but particularly important prerequisite for a quick order processing. And it has to be quick, that's why work is done in parallel: "For example, a workpiece is being processed on the left side of the machine table, while on the right side, protected by a mechanical and electronic separation, the next workpiece is being clamped and prepared for the next processing process—provided, of course, the situation allows this," Dietmar Koch illustrates a typical task of machining on large machines.

The dimensioning (based on the zero point) and clamping plans were previously only available in paper form at the machine. But there was always the fear that not all necessary information or outdated data would reach the machine. Over the years, Mayer Steel and Apparatus Construction took further steps towards virtual manufacturing and introduced the Factory Director VM to digitize all paper documents and visualize them at Info Points. From Dietmar Koch's point of view, it was a big step forward when each machine was equipped with a PC and a monitor and thus the paperwork was put to an end: "All provided data are now visualized directly in front of the machine with the Coscom Info Point VM. Even the simulation can be called up there and one can have the concrete setup situation displayed in 3D and inspect it from all sides."

Everything that is needed on site is now 100 percent digitally retrievable via the Info Point VM: Tool lists, clamping plans, NC programs and simulations, which leads to a significant reduction in errors and an increase in precision in machining. Now, one should not imagine the data flow at the Info Point VM as a one-way street, because in the expansion stage with a communication module, the worker can give feedback to the work preparation or the master via the Info Point VM, for example if something is not in stock. This increases productivity, as missing information is synonymous with machine downtime. The worker documents his work steps via the Info Point VM directly in the PDF drawings, which guarantees the immediate traceability of the individual activities. This digital marking is a particularity of Mayer, as the responsible Coscom sales representative Peter Schrumpf emphasizes. The workers operate in a three-shift system. Each colleague is assigned a color which they use to mark those areas of the component that they work on.

Digitization thought through to the end—goodbye paper!

At Mayer Steel and Apparatus Manufacturing, the Factory Director VM serves as a central data base for all manufacturing data and digital manufacturing documents. All technology data related to a workpiece, such as NC programs, production drawings, set-up lists and fixturing plans, are now centrally managed in a database and provided from this to all process participants according to the upcoming task in work preparation and in the shop floor. The Factory Director VM also works in both directions: The optimized NC codes, for example in terms of adjusted feeds or milling path corrections, are fed back into the database during the production process. "In the case of repeat part production, this production documentation means that the Coscom ECO system is a button-press solution due to sophisticated know-how security from the previous production," says CEO Martin Gentner enthusiastically. All manufacturing information is consistently digitized.

In sum, there are about 12,000 technology data sets related to orders to date—that's the result of an average of 250 orders per year, with an average of 4 to 5 NC programs being created for each order. The CEO calculates: "Whereas a typical component machining used to take around 15 working days, today it is less than ten. We achieved more than 25 percent of the time savings through digitization with Coscom!" Marijan Lokner expresses it no less succinctly: "Today, 70 percent of all parts would not be viable to produce efficiently and competitively without digitization." Put differently, to the point: Virtual production secures Mayer Steel and Apparatus Manufacturing's existence as a large parts contract manufacturer, whereby competitiveness should not only be understood in terms of minimal processing times, but also as the ability to continue meeting the increasing quality requirements of customers.

This article originally appeared on our partner portal MM Maschinenmarkt.