Benefits of an Integrated CAD/CAM System
An integrated CAD/CAM system is one that houses both computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing functionalities within one platform. Basic math will tell you that researching, choosing, and installing one software system is half the work of researching, choosing, and installing two – and is usually much more cost-effective, too – but the benefits of doing all of your CAD/CAM programming in one interface go so much further. No loss of information when you export from CAD to CAM If you use an integrated system, both portions (CAD and CAM) will use the same “language,” which makes exporting from one to the other simple. After designing a part with a CAD system that is separate from a CAM system, you will have to follow a multitude of steps, including converting the file to one transferable to CAM, often by using a third-party file converter, and checking the file in the CAM system to make sure everything has transferred correctly. At any stage of this process, there is an opportunity for error. An integrated system like Mastercam has been designed and rigorously tested to ensure that any file transfer from design to manufacture will retain all of its original data. Easily switch back and forth [...]
Is Additive Manufacturing the Same as 3D Printing?
Reprint from Additive Manufacturing Some say yes and we say no! Additive Manufacturing (AM) and 3D printing are overlapping terms but not synonyms. 3D printing is the operation at the heart of additive manufacturing, just as “turning” or “molding” might be the operation at the heart of a conventional manufacturing process. In a nutshell, 3D printing is one step in an overall additive manufacturing workflow that also includes design, build preparation, postprocessing, business considerations, and more. Importantly, “3D printing” does not describe just one type of technology. Per ISO/ASTM, there are seven different “families” of 3D printing processes and a growing number of material and machine options. Read the Full Story Here Our Additive Manufacturing Solutions
3D Printed Electric Dirt Bikes
A reprint from Additive Manufacturing New Electric Dirt Bike Is Designed for Molding but Produced Through 3D Printing Cobra Moto’s new all-electric youth motocross bike could not wait for mold tooling. Parts have been designed so they can be molded eventually, but to get the bike to market, the production method now is additive manufacturing. Sean Hilbert, president of Cobra Moto, says manufacturers make a mistake in the way they justify additive manufacturing capability. “We cost it wrong,” he says. If the expense of a production AM system is amortized across the parts it produces — the typical way to account for production capital equipment — then the unit cost of each 3D printed component is apt to be high. Additive manufacturing is often subject to bursts of activity, producing parts as they are needed. Read the full article More info on 3D Printing
Make Your Life Easier with Mastercam 2023
Mastercam 2023 is full of new, useful tools that can make your day-to-day easier. Here are the top five you need to know. Detecting Undercut Stock When Machining In Mastercam 2023, achieving optimized motion is a matter of turning on a switch. The Dynamic OptiRough and Area Roughing toolpaths can now be aware of undercut stock conditions when rest machining. This results in improvements to the toolpath motion including less air cutting. Consolidating Multiaxis Toolpaths One toolpath now unlocks all Multiaxis operations and surfacing applications. For example, Unified Multiaxis can create a “morph between two curves” toolpath by selecting a curve in two separate cut pattern groups, then selecting the Morph cut pattern style. Unified Multiaxis allows for far more flexibility in cut pattern when programming Multiaxis all within a new advanced feature set and consolidated, easy-to-use interface. New B-Axis Contour Turning Toolpath B-Axis Contour Turning is a new toolpath introduced in Mastercam 2023 that allows for rotation of the B-Axis while the Lathe or turning tool is cutting. This means fewer tool changes and less cycle time. B-Axis turning enables you to dynamically tilt your turning tool on a B-Axis Mill-Turn machine environment as needed to access undercut or difficult-to-reach areas of [...]
3D Printing Provides New Options for Extol
Reprint from Additive Manufacturing Manufacturing technology supplier Extol has always served customers who are producing polymer parts. Now, it's making some of those parts in-house through 3D printing, providing new options ranging from functional prototyping into bridge production and beyond. As the automakers centered in Detroit have been chasing electrification and faster, more agile product development, a manufacturer on the other side of the state of Michigan has felt a shift in the supply chain for polymer parts. In the past, vehicle development was slower, more in line with the lead times expected for injection mold tooling. If new plastic parts couldn’t be sourced in time, automakers often had the option to pull from inventory developed for previous years’ models to get cars into testing and fulfill early purchases. But electric vehicles often don’t have this luxury; whether developed by startups or legacy OEMs, EVs tend to be new vehicle platforms without legacy parts to fall back on — and they are being launched into the market at accelerated rates, creating a demand for faster production. Read the Full Story Here
Bridge Production Is Real Production
Reprint from Additive Manufacturing The chance to launch a product into the world using additive manufacturing as the initial process delivers important new possibilities and even keeps on delivering advantages far into the product’s life. We are watching additive manufacturing find its place as an accepted and established method for making production parts. What will be the ultimate extent of additive’s share of production? One way to think of this is as a percentage: the portion of production performed through 3D printing. However, another way to see AM finding its place is in terms of sequence: the role additive production is finding in the stages of development of manufactured products. Similarly, we are watching additive manufacturing realize new possibilities. One way to see this is in engineered geometries — the elaborate forms, and customized forms, that can only be made through AM. However, another way to see AM realizing new possibilities is in the products that never would have come to market without it, because of the way 3D printing permits both fast speed to market and bringing the product to market without the investment and commitment needed for production tooling. Read the Full Story Here