CAD/CAM order placed

After a long and intensive search for a CAD/CAM software package to operate our coming CNC-machine today we placed a order at Bemet distributer of Delcam software in the Netherlands. Delcam is a specialist in CAD/CAM and the only one with there own tool factory. Delcam is one of the few true tribride CAD/CAM software packages around. Tribirde means it can handle Solids, Surfaces and STL files as equals and that they can be used, modified and milled together in one model. Delcam is as far is I know the only product that is able to mill directly and fast on (large) STL files. Besides these for Solid Shapes™ important features Delcam is the package which can handle the widest variety of file formats. For us this is also an important item because we aspect a lot of different file formats from the designers we ‘ll be working for. As for Ben - our CNC operator - this for him new package is a welcome challenge to get working on the job he loves to do. Both Ben and I have a lot of course days ahead to get things up and running.

First assignment placed at customer

This month we placed our first orders in a modern architectural building by NAD™. Pictures will follow.

Ace delivered from Italy

The 3D Ace we milled with the 5-axis CNC machine as a test to compare the machine to a CNC Robot set-up arrived from Italy. The material we used is a hard plastic like PU block. The design was made by NPD™ who used the logo of our friends from Rustic Products™. On the image above you can see the model the way it came out of the CNC machine. No additional finishing was applied. Read more about the Ace in post 09/12/09.

5-Axis CNC Machine order placed

Today Solid Shapes™ made a deal with CNC Team for a 5-axis CMS milling machine. The machine will be delivered around the middle of march. This machine will give us the possibility to create all kinds of three-dimensional shapes for our customers in a wide range of materials. In a future post I’ll go deeper into the possibilities of the machine.

Solid Shapes™ office interior 1

For our own office we made a wall 2 wall cabin with magazine lay-out on top, finished in bright white. Pictures will follow.

Happy New Year

Robot CNC Versus Traditional 5-Axes CNC

For it's free-form production work Solid Shapes™ is looking for a 3D milling machine. On one side there are the traditional 5-axis CNC machines on the other side there are the upcoming CNC robot solutions with 6 or more axes. But what is the right choice for our work? We know that the traditional CNC machines are a proven concept, they have years of proven production work behind them. There are also some disadvantages that come with these machines. For instance they have a fixed size if you want to go bigger you have to buy a new machine. The object you are milling most likely lays flat because of the limited hight the machine can reach. This can be challenging when you want to cut the object from all sides, you’ll have to turn the object over. A traditional machine can’t undercut like a robot can. A robot has a much more flexible arm that can reach a lot more places compared to a traditional machine. On the other hand flexibility of the arm also gives the robot a less rigid and solid structure which resolves in a less accurate end results compared to a traditional CNC machine. But what kind of accuracy does the end product need? Today robots can reach a point and path repeatability of + and - 0,5mm which for most jobs is sufficient. Besides scalability and flexibility a robot is a real jack-of-all-trades, on a robot-head you can fix a lot of different tools and functions besides milling you can let it pick and place, measure, cut, drill and even let it sand and paint the workpiece. Basically a robot can handle the whole workpiece from start to finish. Finally the price of a robot set-up is cheaper than a comparable traditional CNC set-up especially when you take in consideration that you can grow your robot set-up with your business growth. So this are a lot of favores that speak up for the robot set-up.

0-1 for the Robot. 

To find out if the CNC robot is the best set-up for Solid Shapes™ we have put the two to the test. We defied the test in two parts. One cutting a three dimensional shape out a solid piece of PU block (940) - how well do the machines work with 3D objects and how well can they finish the product and how much time does it take - and one cutting out shapes in Solid Surface material and fit two parts together like a puzzle - how precise does the machine work and how fast can it cut the material -. 

First up was the robot set-up, we hooked up with a robot integrator from the south of the Netherlands. NPD™ modeled a three-dimensional ace like shape with a logo from our friends at Rustic Products™. The IGES file of this model was put through a CAM program and send to the robot. The robot took off with a good start unfortunately when the robot was almost done with roughing one side of the ace we found out that the glue that hold two parts of PU-block together did not hold. Because the model was so well fixed at the bottom the parts stayed together and we could continue the test. It took the robot quite some time to rough the first side so we decided to finish this side first. After a small day milling the one side was finished and it wasn’t as smooth as a I hoped for - this off-course also has to do with the mill-strategy, the tolerance, the step-down, the tool etc. you choose -. More worrying was the fact that everywhere the robot changed direction it left a little bump. By leaving these bumps at turns, bubbles where created at direction points on the model. This was quite a disappointment cause the bubbles where to obviously and could not easily be sand away. The material we used to mill the ace is a hard and unforgivable material and showed us the weakness of the robot, the bumps where probably left because the robot not being ridged enough and having a little movement when moving from direction. 

Test two; nesting out two parts of solid surface material and fitting those together. We started of with fixating the solid plate. Pretty soon after the robot started milling we could smell it wasn’t going as planed. The robot didn’t cut through the material, it was actually more melting into the plate - this explained the smell -. Despite advice from the supplier the robot integrator choose the wrong tool - a ball nosed tool - for this kind of job. We tried a second time with a different tool but this also didn’t give us the result we hoped for. When the plate moved we where done for the day. 

On to Italy. Prior to flying to Italy we sent our hopefully better glued second block PU to the CNC factory in Italy. Late in the evening I arrived in Milan the next morning we went to the factory. We started of with the same 3D ace model as we did with the robot. Much to my surprise around four hours later at lunch time the ace was almost milled. Coming back from a good Italian lunch with the factory workers the model was perfectly smooth finished. I was stunned by the time difference and smoothness of the final piece. 

1 - 1 CNC versus Robot. 

Even more surprising was the speed at which the CNC machine cut through the solid surface material. With the blink of an eye it was done. When we tried to fit the two parts together it was so exact we almost couldn’t. With some more pressure we managed and the line between the two parts was as good as invisible. 

2 - 1 for the CNC. 

With a good feeling of being sure to choose the right machine for our company I flew back to the Netherlands. The guys from the factory promised to send the ace to Solid Shapes™ by post. 

Although in theory the Robot has clearly some advantages in practice the traditional CNC proved to be the beter choice for us. An other important item that came out of our test is the fact that (most) robot integrators have no background and history in milling and therefore lack the knowledge to suport and advice it’s customers on milling issues. 

Although we will choose for a traditional CNC-setup I’ll keep a close eye on the developments on the robot CNC side. I feel that in the future when things get optimized robots will take a significant share of the CNC market especially in the softer materials.

Euromold 2009

The 4th of december I paid a visit to the Euromold in Frankfurt. The Euromold is all about prototyping, mold making and so on. Visit http://www.euromld.com for more info. What makes Euromold interesting for Solid Shapes™ are the machinery and software for making prototypes and one-offs. The number of 3D-printer companies was even bigger then on the previous edition of Euromold. Although very interesting, at the moment Solid Shapes™ is not looking for those types of machines, maybe later on in our existence there ’ll be a business case for it. 

The main reason I went was to see some 5-axes CNC action and talk to some CAD and CAM software companies. Besides these I hoped to see some CNC action with robots. I was actually quite surprised that besides some very small set-ups there where actually none. Although there are some interesting developments on this front there where no integrators selling them, at least not on the Euromold. Luckily there where more then enough CNC-setups to look at - mainly machines working with aluminium for the mold industry -. 

My interest went out to the machines of Maka and CMS. A German and a Italian brand of 5-axis CNC machines. I had a appointment with the people from Maka where they explained the demo machine to me. Later on I paid a visit to the CMS boot which has kind of the same machines. I personally feel both are quite competitive to each other. 

On the software side I had a appointment with the very nice guys of solidThinking which is a very intuitive CAD program http://www.solidthinking.com. I already had e-mail contact with them and the good thing about them is that you get in direct contact with the people who actually built the software. On the booth they presented my with a good demo and explanation. Later on I visited the boots of Delcam, Masterwood, hyperMill, Siemens and others. I also had a demo of Alias Design from Autodesk and had some discussions with them about the interface and the way of working in Alias which to me seems a bit out dated. On the other hand I’ve heard about the integration of Alias Design features into AutoCAD and Inventor. There are some very nice movies of Inventor Fusion on the web http://labs.autodesk.com/technologies/fusion/.

LG-HIMACS® course

The 25th of november we had our first Solid Surface course at Baars & Bloemhoff distributer of LG-HIMACS® for the Netherlands. For those of you who don’t know what Solid Surface materials are please take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid_surface. Solid Surface will be one of our main materials giving us the freedom to create all kinds of free-form jointless products, interiors and objects for our clients. The main producers of Solid Surface are high tech companies like Dupont® and LG®. The material is mainly used for kitchen and bathroom design although we will make custom productions for these markets our main focus is on specialities like freeform elements. Our workshop and machines will be specially suited for taking on these kinds of jobs. Besides the machines the workforce also needs to be specialized. For this purpose we had this first exploration with LG-HIMACS®.

In the morning our instructor Sjaco fed us with all the ins and outs and do’s and don’ts of the material. In the afternoon we had to practice with the material. The main item was to glue pieces jointless together. Ernest turned out to be the best assembler of the pack who after sanding the piece had a perfectly jointless element. This element was polished until it wash perfectly shinning. One of the nice things about Solid Surface is that you can finish it in all kinds of levels from matt or satin to really shiny. If a stain is left on the material you can just sand it lightly and the stain will disappear. LG® gives a 15 year warranty on finished products.

First Machines Delivered

Friday the 6th of november our first woodworking machines where delivered. We had some heavy equipment helping us out with unloading a sliding-table saw, a dust extractor and a band saw. Everything is up and running and last week we made our first production. Later more on this.

I’m glad the workshop is actually producing. On the office side we are still redecorating the place. It takes some time to get it right and to have the security in place. For the time being we use doors as tables, work on laptops and have internet through a mobile internet dongle. It’s a bit of a hassle but it doesn’t spoil the fun.