VISI and WorkNC
software helped Fenton
Precision Engineering
design and make a
mould tool for RBR
Active’s DVT-preventing
invention
CADCAM/PRODUCTION IT SUPPLEMENT
PLOTTING A PATH FOR PRODUCTION
Better toolpaths
Mould tool maker supports medical device maker, using VISI and WorkNC; energy sector seismic data
acquisition product maker installs Esprit, cuts programming & cycle times, plus industry & product news
and cut from P20 tool steel on a Dugard
(https://is.gd/ixuhad) CNC machine
programmed with WorkNC (WorkNC readily
reads native VISI les) – both software
solutions are from Hexagon Manufacturing
Intelligence’s Production Software business
(https://is.gd/uciway).
Initially considering an over-moulded
concept for the part, Fenton advised
otherwise, explains the company’s technical
director, Richard Brown: “We suggested it
would be better to mould it as a one-piece
product. VISI’s reverse engineering capability
was essential, to take the point data from
our CMM and combine surfaces and solids,
and seamlessly work between the two.”
The wall section at the top of two dome
structures on the product, which contains 38
nodules, had to be particularly thin to allow
exibility. “But there’s obviously a limit as to
how thin we could make the wall. We got the
optimum thickness through VISI Flow Lite,
which simulates the lling phase of the
injection moulding process. Design engineer
Martin Edwards dened all the initial
moulding criteria and gating positions with it
to achieve a well-balanced lling of the
cavities under optimum manufacturing
conditions.
“Once he was happy with that, we had 3D
prints of the product made, and after a few
minor design changes, Paul Westerman
RBR Active managing director signed it off,
and we constructed the tool around it, using
VISI Mould with, for the native parts, its
built-in Meusburger catalogue.”
Brown says that because of the radius
shape, it was decided that holes for the
eight ejector pins should be produced using
the company’s wire eroder after the main
surface had been machined on the Dugard
machine. Both sets of toolpaths were
Atoolmaker and injection moulder was
tasked with developing a potentially
life-saving medical device, and then
designing and machining a complex steel
mould tool with around 30 components to
produce it.
Wellingborough, Northamptonshire-based
Fenton Precision Engineering worked with
Catworth, Cambridgeshire-headquartered
RBR Active on a device to reduce the
possibility of suffering a deep vein
thrombosis (DVT). Carrying out three simple
foot exercises with it leads to an 11-fold
increase in blood ow to the lower limbs.
Injection moulded from polypropylene on a
120-tonne Yizumi press, the RBR Legow
device is said to be effective anywhere during
long periods of inactivity, such as air travel,
working in an ofce, being in hospital, or just
through prolonged sitting.
The mould tool for it was designed in VISI
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