Machining Allowance Inspection with FreeScan UE Pro Metrology 3D Scanner
PT. Meiwa Mold Indonesia (hereby referred to as Meiwa Mold) is a company engaged in die-casting mold manufacturing. Its customer base is diverse, including prominent names like American Toyota, Astra Daihatsu (ADM), HPPM (Honda Precision Parts Manufacturing), and Yamaha. Meiwa Mold recognizes the importance of delivering high-quality molds to meet their customers’ strict requirements. To ensure accurate machining of castings, machining allowances must be tightly controlled. An excessive allowance will raise the machine’s weight and the use of materials, equipment, and energy. That’s why they invested in SHINING 3D’s FreeScan UE Pro metrology 3D scanner for machining allowance inspection, sourced through PT EVOLUSI KREASI INDONESIA, a trusted partner. What challenges did Meiwa Mold face? Before integrating FreeScan UE Pro into their machining margin inspection and analysis process, Meiwa Mold faced a major challenge: scanning medium to large objects. They already had a CMM for small and precision mold inspection and a structured light scanner, but neither was portable enough. With limited space, it was inconvenient to move large and heavy objects. How does the FreeScan UE Pro help Meiwa Mold be more efficient? To address the challenges, Meiwa Mold implemented the FreeScan UE Pro metrology 3D scanner from SHINING 3D. This industrial 3D [...]
Mastercam Reaches 300,000th Installation Milestone
Italian oil, gas, and advanced automotive supplier Bazzana F.lli highlights the value of working with Mastercam Mastercam recently announced the 300,000th installation of its product, reinforcing its status as the most widely used CAM software in the world. The CAD/CAM software’s noteworthy installation went to Italian manufacturer Bazzana F.lli, expanding their longstanding partnership with Mastercam and their local Mastercam representative, Cadline Srl. Bazzana F. Ili, based in the north of Italy, has specialized in the metalworking industry for over 40 years. Bazzana is a reference partner for many of the most famous Italian manufacturers of mechanical components in the Oil and Gas sectors. Thanks to their expertise, they are more present in the automotive field, with projects such as creating Tesla’s outer shell, structure, and chassis. Bazzana began working with Mastercam in 2014, thanks to Cadline’s consulting and expertise with the CAM software. With the power of the local support of their Reseller, the possibility of customization to Bazzana’s needs was very effective and plays a big role in their success. Marco Bazzana, CEO, confirms “the use of Mastercam in combination with other software (Eureka and Robotmaster) allows us to reduce program test times. This reduction ensures an increase in productivity by up [...]
What is Bound Metal Deposition (BMD)?
Bound Metal Deposition (BMD) is an extrusion-based metal additive manufacturing (AM) process where metal components are constructed by extrusion of a powder-filled thermoplastic media. Bound metal rods—metal powder held together by wax and polymer binder—are heated and extruded onto the build plate, shaping a part layer-by-layer. Once printed, the binder is removed via the debind process, and then sintered—causing the metal particles to densify. Prevalent metal AM technologies involve melting powder or wire feedstock using lasers or electron beams. While viable, these systems have substantial facilities requirements to accommodate power and safety requirements. Additionally, localized melting and rapid solidification create complex stress fields within parts, requiring rigid support structures to aid heat dissipation and resist shrinkage. As a result, support removal often requires machining. The Desktop Metal Studio System leverages BMD to deliver an office-friendly metal 3D printing solution. There are no loose powders or lasers associated with fabrication. In terms of support removal, parts are printed with their supports which are separated by ceramic interface media (or the Ceramic Release Layer™) that does not bond to the metal. This material disintegrates during sintering, making it easy to remove supports by hand. BMD can be applied to virtually any sinter-able powder that can [...]
3D Printing Changing the Game
How TUM Boring Printed Strong Parts for their Tunnel Boring Machine TUM Boring team in Bastrop, Texas in April 2023. TUM Boring is a student organization from the Technische Universität Munchen composed of more than 60 students originating from 16+ countries. The group came together in 2020 to participate in the Not-a-Boring Competition 2021 from Elon Musk’s The Boring Company (TBC). The student-led team is dedicated to the future of mobility and aims to build one of the fastest micro tunnel boring machines (TBMs) in the world to drive innovation in the tunneling industry. The competition provided the perfect place to see how their project compares to innovations from around the world. After winning the competition in 2021, the TUM Boring team got their hands on a Form 3+ stereolithography (SLA) printer and also got to work with Fuse 1+ 30W selective laser sintering (SLS) printed parts. The newly acquired 3D printing technology significantly improved the team’s work processes. From rapid prototyping to end-use parts, the Form 3+ transformed TUM Boring’s day-to-day operations and helped the team win the second edition of the Not-a-Boring Competition in April 2023. Discover how TUM Boring made use of 3D printing to create strong, durable [...]
Five Ways Mastercam 2024 Makes Your Life Easier
Mastercam 2024 is full of new, useful tools that can make your day-to-day easier. Here are the top five you need to know. 1. Increase Productivity with B-Axis Contour Enhancements Three major enhancements have been added to the B-Axis Contour Turning operation: The ability to manually edit tool axis vectors, manually edit usable insert area, and adjust stock function. This allows for much more in-process control and understanding of the motion of the B-axis head from within the toolpath interface. 2. Enhance Performance with Turret Mounted Angled Milling Heads Users can now use turret-mounted angled milling heads in Mill-Turn operations. This lets you create toolpaths on angled planes using turret-mounted tools. Enjoy enhanced productivity and ease of use for both milling and turning operations within the Mill-Turn product. 3. Discover Progress in Process Hole Improvements The Process Hole toolpath applies previously defined processes to a part’s solid hole features, which consist of one or more hole making operations built in an operations library. The ability to import applicable processes into the working part file will save time and money while maintaining consistency with your processes. 4. Improve Toolpath Motion by Detecting Undercut Stock When Machining Introduced in Mastercam 2023 for Dynamic OptiRough and [...]
Introducing Design X Essentials for Mastercam Users
Attention Mastercam Users Who Need To: Design machinable parts from point clouds or mesh files. Have access to incredible sketching, solid and surface modeling CAD tools. Machine parts when no drawing or model exists. Repair broken parts where no CAD model or Drawing exists. Introducing Design X Essentials for Mastercam Users Scan-based Step/Parasolid files vs CAD-Based Step/Parasolid Files – What’s the difference? Some of you may have experienced the nightmare of attempting to create good quality G-Code by programming Step or Parasolid models that originated from “Auto-Surfaced” scanned data. I affectionately term these “Scan-Based Step (or Parasolid) files” and they are functionally useless when trying to produce good quality pocketing, profiling, point-to-point or other simple toolpaths. With these models, circular interpolating a bore with an end mill doesn’t create a single G02 or G03 block but rather, hundreds or even thousands of G01 points are generated, providing a gigantic, inefficient point-to-point G-Code program. But what if there was a way you could create “CAD-based Step (or Parasolid) files” from point clouds or mesh files where the models react as if the were generated by a CAD system? Well now you can! Cimquest Mastercam users can purchase Design X Essentials at a 40% discount [...]