Delcam's Brett Hopkins to present Adaptive Machining developments at AeroDef

Delcam's Brett Hopkins will present the company’s latest developments in Adaptive Machining during the AeroDef 2011 Exhibition and Conference to be held in Anaheim from 5th to 7th April. The presentation will be given as part of a session on Advanced Machining Concepts to be held on 7th April.

The presentation will show how Adaptive Machining changes the traditional relationship between machining and inspection and how the industry can adapt both hardware and software to help manufacturing facilities better deal with the demands they are facing. "The traditional relationship between machining and inspection is that machining is completed first and the component is then transferred to a dedicated piece of inspection equipment to be approved or rejected. However, as machining techniques become more sophisticated, and as components become larger and more complex, there are a growing number of cases where closer integration is required to give higher productivity and reduced wastage,” said Mr. Hopkins, North America Manager of Delcam Professional Services.

The programming of most machining operations is based around knowing three things; the position of the workpiece on the machine, the starting shape of the material to be machined, and the final shape to be achieved. Adaptive machining techniques allow successful machining when at least one of these elements is unknown.