Geomagic Design X
With Geomagic Design X software you can easily produce a fully featured, editable, native CAD model, directly from a scan. What is Design X? Design X software is a tool that enables you to recognize geometrical features on a scan, utilize them to create CAD features, then transfer that tree of features directly out to the feature tree of your CAD system. Let’s break this process up into three stages: Auto Segment, Feature Extraction, & LiveTransfer to CAD. Auto Segment Auto Segment in Design X allows you to split the polygonal mesh into regions, created by grouping adjacent polygons with similar curvature. As you hover your mouse over each region, Design X displays the geometric shapes that have been identified, like a plane, cylinder, cone, etc. Feature Extraction Once you have all your geometrical regions mapped out, your next step is to extract and create the CAD sketches and features. To do this, start a mesh sketch either directly on a planar region, or a CAD plane, then offset the plane to the location where you want to extract a slice of the polygonal mesh. At this point you will be creating your 2D Sketch entities. You can use that polygonal mesh profile [...]
CPI Aerostructures Uses FDM 3D Printing for Custom Tooling
Reprint from www.additivemanufacturing Adding an FDM 3D printer enabled a producer of subassemblies for aircraft to bypass traditional tooling solutions on many custom tools and bring much of this work in-house. Cimquest customer, CPI Aerostructures was in a good position in 2013. After years as a small business providing subassemblies almost exclusively for military aircraft, the company was experiencing a massive growth spurt. Sparked by an influx of both commercial and military work, the company had grown from about 20 employees to nearly 300 in just a few years, and recently moved across the street from its original facility to a larger 171,000-square-foot space on New York’s Long Island. But CPI’s ability to meet its custom tooling needs hadn’t kept pace with this growth. The company’s niche is assembly, work that requires jigs, fixtures, check gages and other custom items. Because CPI does not produce discrete parts, its in-house machining capacity is limited to a small tooling department operating manual equipment. Historically, all custom tooling was made by this department or farmed out to local machine shops. Faced with ever-increasing demand for custom tooling on the assembly floor, the company had to make a choice: A) Continue to outsource this machining work, adding [...]
Cimquest Now Selling Desktop Metal 3D Printing Systems
Cimquest is excited to announce that we are now contracted to sell Desktop Metal. This means that in addition to offering, Mastercam, 3D scanning and inspection, as well as traditional 3D printers, we can now offer the New England and Mid-Atlantic territories a Metal 3D Printer at a price point that will allow the manufacturing community to venture into the exciting field of 3D Metal Printing. This will open up new opportunities for current Cimquest customers, from Maine to Maryland, and allow them to get into the metal 3D printing arena. Rob Hassold, CEO of Cimquest says, “I am excited that with Desktop Metal prototyping and production system technology we are the first reseller in the world to be able to leverage 19 years of additive manufacturing experience as well as over 27 years of subtractive (Mastercam) CNC programming technology to provide state-of-art manufacturing solutions for today’s industry leaders. With over 25 technical experts serving the additive and subtractive space, we are well positioned to handle almost any challenge served by those technologies.” Some of the benefits of this new Desktop Metal 3D printing system include: The Desktop Metal Studio System is 10 times less expensive than existing technology today. It eliminates the [...]
SolidWorks 2017 Multiple Start Threads
Today we are going to talk about the enhanced functionality to the Thread feature in SolidWorks 2017, mainly using multiple start threads. There are various reasons why someone might use threads with multiple starts. The main one is that it allows the lead distance of a thread to be increased, without changing its pitch. This proves useful when fine threads are required, but at the same time you want a quick advance, for example like that on camera lenses. In our examples, we have a single thread with a pitch of 1/8”. One full turn gives us a Lead of 1/8”. And in the other, we have a 4-start thread. One full turn here, gives us a Lead of 1/2", allowing for a quick connect and disconnect. In both examples, however, 1/8” pitch is maintained. Another design advantage of a multi-start thread is that more contact surface is engaged in a single thread rotation. A common example is a cap on a plastic water bottle. The cap will screw on in one quick turn but because a multi-start thread was used, there are multiple threads fully engaged to securely hold the cap in place. In addition, because the lead angle is [...]
Employee Spotlight – Russell Jennison
Today we would like to introduce you to Russell Jennison, our Post Processor Manager here at Cimquest. Here are some interesting tidbits of information to get to know him a little better. 1. What are your responsibilities at Cimquest? Post processors are the link between Mastercam and individual machining centers. I customize these to maximize customer productivity and make sure every machine a customer wants to utilize talks effectively with Mastercam. I am building a library of technology and a team to better service our customers as Cimquest expands. 2. What industry do you come from? I have always worked in manufacturing or engineering design in various forms with over 10 years in the CNC realm. 3. Where are you from (hometown)? Brampton Ontario. A suburb of Toronto. I was born in Wales UK, but my family moved to Canada when I was two years old. 4. What is your educational background? University of Waterloo - Bachelor of Applied Science (BASc) in Mechanical Engineering 5. How long have you worked at Cimquest? 2017 will be my 6th year. 6. What are your hobbies? Music performance and recording. Yoga. Being outside. 7. What do you enjoy most about your job? Solving problems all day [...]
Introduction to 3D Metal Printing with Desktop Metal
Join Cimquest and Desktop Metal on Friday, May 19th at 9 AM for an informative webinar on 3D Metal printing, a new and affordable addition to the 3D metal printing industry. This new technology promises to be a game changer in the way products are brought to market in the future. You don’t want to miss this opportunity to learn more about it. In this webinar Ben Arnold from Desktop Metal will provide an introduction to 3D metal printing with Desktop Metal. Both the desktop Studio system and the Production system will be reviewed, including their unique applications. Register today to learn how Desktop Metal plans to reinvent the way engineering and manufacturing teams produce metal parts - from prototyping through mass production. WEBINAR DETAILS Friday, May 19th 9:00 AM EDT Free to attend online Just click the button below to go to the registration page. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. [button link="https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/782081904009711875" color="default" size="" stretch="" type="" shape="" target="_self" title="" gradient_colors="|" gradient_hover_colors="|" accent_color="" accent_hover_color="" bevel_color="" border_width="1px" icon="" icon_divider="yes" icon_position="left" modal="" animation_type="0" animation_direction="down" animation_speed="0.1" animation_offset="" alignment="left" class="" id=""]Register Here[/button]