TOOL, MOULD & DIE CASE STUDY & NEWS UPDATE
Briefs
Steeled to perform
To satisfy the demand for plastic
mould tools made from stainless
steel, Deutsche Edelstahlwerke
(DEW) from the Schmolz +
Bickenbach Group (https://
is.gd/uyibus) has put together a
package of materials: Formadur
2083 Superclean, Formadur PH X
Superclean and Corroplast. All
three are corrosion-resistant, hard
and at the same time easy to
machine. Each material has its
own distinctive properties.
Formadur 2083 Superclean –
excellent wear resistance and
polishability, including textures,
and tough and easy to machine.
Formadur PH X Superclean –
strength and toughness, the first
choice in terms of polishability;
weldable and good in applications
that have to cope with acid
deposition. Corroplast – delivers a
unique balance between very good
machinability and consistently
good corrosion behaviour, with
main applications being base
plates, structural parts and plastic
moulds.
VISI suits hot-runner maker
Italian firm Injection Point employs
VISI Modelling for design, VISI
Flow to simulate plastic injection
flow inside a mould, and VISI
Machining to program complex
metalcutting cycles (VISI, Hexagon
Production Software, https://is.
gd/uciway). Based in Turin, it
specialises in hot-runners,
injectors and filtering systems for
thermoplastics, plus other parts.
The company says that, thanks to
VISI, its customers can obtain
everything for mould construction,
from the design phase through to
the final mould testing. “We
guarantee one of the fastest
support services in the market –
within 24 hours in Italy and 48
hours throughout the rest of
Europe,” says founder Sergio
Pozzan.
3D-printed sand cores capability for AMRC Castings
As one of the first foundries to take advantage of largescale
3D sand-printing technology, the AMRC Castings
Group has enhanced both its capacity and physical
envelope.
Capable of producing complex moulds and cores for
the oil, gas, aerospace and automotive sectors without
the need for dedicated tooling, 3D-printing technology
has been exploited for R&D, pre-production and fullscale
production volumes at the University of Sheffield’s
Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC).
AMRC Castings, which is part of the AMRC and based
on the Advanced Manufacturing Park at Catcliffe, now
has two additive manufacturing machines for the printing
of one-piece 3D sand moulds and complex cores. These
moulds and cores would ordinarily require significant
capital investment in pattern equipment and require
multiple core boxes to be made and assembled.
The ExOne S15 digital mould and core-making system
(https://is.gd/kixewo) has recently been upgraded by
the AMRC Castings Group to incorporate a new,
advanced operating system which increases printing
speed. Boasting a build envelope of 1,500 by 750
by 750 mm, the machine has also been modified to
run on 100% Cerabead, which is suited to higher
temperature alloys. The ExOne S15’s sister printer,
the ExOne SMax, produces complex sand cores and
moulds in silica sand, which is better and more cost-
effective for aluminium and cast iron alloys. This machine
also benefits from a larger build envelope of 1,800 by
1,000 by 700 mm and two ‘palletised’ job boxes,
allowing rapid set-ups outside of the printing process
and hence reduced lead times.
Integrated system has tools that ease programming
JK Machining of Kalamazoo,
Michigan, is designing and
manufacturing mould tools with the
help of Siemens NX software
(https://is.gd/nadoko). The tools
it produces are typically class 101
standard, designed for one million or
more cycles and fast cycle times,
with automotive and medical device
industries its main customers.
Says Henry Kalkman, president of
JK Machining: “We used to have 18
to 22 weeks to build a tool for
automotive. Now that’s down to 10
to 12 weeks. All of our customers
want to get to market faster. Offshore
mouldmakers have an advantage in
cost and are bringing up their level of
quality – they are our main
competitors.”
Formerly, the company had used
separate software systems for mould
design and manufacturing, meaning
additional steps to move data from
one to another. The previous NC
programming software lacked key
capabilities, meaning that when
JK Machining acquired high speed,
5-axis machines, the programming
software proved to be difficult to
operate and to customise to better
address its specific requirements.
Now with an integrated system,
JK Machining uses NX CAM to
program all milling operations. It uses
NX design functions to prepare
models for machining and to design
electrodes.
“There’s a lot of history in the
mould model that we can take
advantage of,” says Rick Van Den
Berg, a senior programmer at JK
Machining: “For example, if we want
to remove all the water lines or bolt
holes, we can do it with a single click.
Synchronous technology in NX is very
easy and intuitive. We use the
optimise face capability to heal
questionable part geometry that we
get from customers, and it’s a lot
easier than going through a multistep
healing process. We can easily
move, replace and offset faces.”
And he also praises the systems’s
open automation and customisation
tools that enable the company to
tailor NX. “I like the way that NX supports
different programming
languages. So if I’m writing a journal
file to automate repeated steps, I can
choose my preferred language.”
Creating machine-specific NC
programs is another important aspect
cited by JK Machining: “When we got
the 5-axis machine, I couldn’t modify
the post-processor with the previous
specialised software. However, the
NX Post Builder is totally open and I
can easily tweak the post. Using the
fine-tuned posts, we can get the right
programs to make machining faster
and better.”
70 September 2019 www.machinery.co.uk @MachineryTweets
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