QA Technology Chooses To Pair PartMaker SwissCAM With Their Tornos Deco 7a.

CAM software allows New England-based manufacturer to efficiently turn-around small lot sizes on its Tornos Deco 7a machine

To listen to Dave Coe, Vice President of QA Technology, a world-leading manufacturer of printed circuit board test probes, tell it, his customers have a simple view of the benefit his company provides.

“The shorter the better as far as our customers are concerned,” says Mr. Coe.

When he says short, he’s referring to short lead times and small prototype lot sizes of the array of components and connectors his company engineers and manufactures. Historically, QA Technology’s component manufacturing had been outsourced to a number of vendors with a variety of CNC machines. Because of the demand for quick turnaround and small lot sizes, QA Technology decided to add CNC Swiss capacity to his company, in order to fill customer requirements that outside vendors simply could not economically and reliably meet.



As a result, QA decided to purchase a Tornos Deco 7a, a machine used by some of their current vendors and one that offered flexible turning and milling capabilities and superior cycle time-savings potential for longer running jobs. But since speed of every job was critical and the company lacked TB Deco programming skills -- QA turned to PartMaker to help them bridge the gap between CAD and NC program for their Tornos Swiss turning center. They chose PartMaker SwissCAM, , a CAM system specifically designed for programming Swiss-type lathes and one that integrated directly to the TB-Deco operating system that controls the Tornos Deco 7a machine.

PartMaker provides the link between QA’s engineering department, which designs its product using both 2D drafting and 3D solid modeling methods, and the manufacturing department that is tasked with producing the part.

“The really big benefit to having PartMaker is the ability to take the solid model or even the DXF file coming out of our engineering department for the part and immediately import it and be able to view, edit it as necessary and generate accurate tool paths that are not subject to human error as they often are when you are using manual programming methods,” says Coe.

“After programming the part in PartMaker, we are able export to the TB Deco advanced environment.”

How it Works

The SwissCAM module of PartMaker is a CAD/CAM system dedicated to automating the programming of Swiss-type lathes such as the Deco 7a at QA Technology.

PartMaker SwissCAM generates a CNC program by allowing the user to either create or import part geometry into the system, apply tooling to the geometry by choosing a variety of cutting strategies, simulate the part cutting in a virtual 3D environment and then, generate an NC program.

PartMaker SwissCAM is unique in its programming of Swiss-type lathes because its makes use of two patented technologies to do so. The first of these technologies is known as the Divide and Conquer programming strategy. This approach to programming allows the user to look at a multi-axis Swiss lathe for what it really is, a lathe with a main and sub spindle with up to nine different types of milling possibilities, including polar interpolation on the face, cylindrical milling on the diameter, Y-axis milling on the diameter, C-axis indexing and so forth.

The second of PartMaker’s patented technologies focuses on automating process synchronization, or the method by which operations that are running at the same time or simultaneously are handled. This Visual Synchronization approach lets a programmer quickly optimize a program graphically by choosing from a selection of pictorial diagrams that indicate the synchronized state in which he wants his machine to operate. From this, the software produces an optimized time study showing just how long the part will take to manufacture.

Once the tool paths have been defined and the process has been optimized, the user can simulate the process to check for any errors or tool collisions off line. Once the user is happy the part is running well, he chooses a post processor to generate an NC program his machine can understand.
A Unique Combination

This is where the Tornos Deco platform presents a unique challenge. A-line Tornos machines, like the Deco 7a at QA Technology, are not CNC machines, they are PNC machines, which means they do not accept a standard ISO-based G-code program like other machines a system like PartMaker would typically support. (Please note that standard ISO-based G-code programming IS standard on the Tornos Sigma line of machines.)



In 2004, in a unique collaboration between Tornos and the developers of PartMaker, Tornos opened TB-Deco to accept input from PartMaker via the import of a special file format called a TTFT (Tornos Text Format) file. The invention of this file format, which can be automatically generated by PartMaker and directly imported into TB-Deco, allowed PartMaker to be able to directly interface to Deco machines the way it interfaced to other CNC machines previously. To interface PartMaker and TB-Deco, the user must have the TB-Deco ADV software along with the accompanying CAM Interface module. The partnership between Tornos and PartMaker benefits many parts makers.

“If it looks good in the simulation in PartMaker, it should look good when it comes off the machine,” according to Phil Pierce, CNC programmer at QA Technology.
Just Like They Imagined

Even though QA Technology is a first time Swiss user, they have found themselves using the integrated PartMaker SwissCAM-TB-Deco system exactly the way the products’ designers imagined.

The idea behind the partnership between PartMaker (and other CAM developers who followed) and TB Deco was to automate the programming of a part. For shorter running jobs, the user might not even make any adjustments to data imported from PartMaker into TB-Deco. For longer running jobs, where every fraction of a second counts, the programmer can use the unique optimization capabilities of TB-Deco to achieve the fastest possible cycle time.

Since PartMaker does the handle cranking work of creating the program and setting up a working program in TB-Deco, Mr. Pierce can use his expertise to wring additional cycle time out of the job in the TB-Deco environment, all of which is of course done on an off-line PC. On other Swiss-type lathes, additional optimization is typically done on the shop floor at the machine control, while the machine is down and not making parts.

For QA Technology, really it just comes down to how fast they can program and run the part.

“For me, its all about speed,” says Pierce. “It’s easy for me to take a job that's come in, throw it into PartMaker, generate a program with PartMaker, send it right over to Deco and optimize the program in Deco and get parts running within a day. If I had to write the whole program through Deco, it would take a lot more time. With the system we have in place, it's a very quick turnaround to have high quality parts coming off the machine.”

Delcam’s PartMaker SwissCAM selected by Citizen as a preferred CAM system

CADCAM developer Delcam has entered into a strategic partnership with Citizen Machinery, the world-leading builder of Swiss-type lathes, to encourage the use of the company's PartMaker SwissCAM software by Citizen customers. Delcam and Citizen Machinery have entered into a signed agreement to collaborate on both technical and marketing activities in support of Citizen's customers world-wide.

As a Citizen-preferred CAM system, PartMaker SwissCAM will be referred to the company's customers and distributors world-wide as one of a few selected solutions for meeting the wide variety of machining needs of the company and its customers. PartMaker SwissCAM will also be featured on Citizen's machine-tool displays at trade shows and open houses around the world.

PartMaker SwissCAM has been the programming system of choice for many of Citizen's leading users for almost a decade, including such industry leaders as Smith and Nephew, Biomet, Medtronic, ITT and many others. PartMaker SwissCAM supports the full line of Citizen machines with robust, field-proven and well-supported post-processors, including all currently available Citizen models in the A, B, C, K, L, M and R series ranges, as well as older models no longer in production such as the E and F series machines. This comprehensive range allows users with a variety of Citizen machines to quickly switch their PartMaker programs from one machine to the next. Using the software's Full Machine Simulation module, Citizen users can simulate the machining process in 3D on any number of Citizen machines on their computer desktop before generating an accurate program.

"With Delcam's 350 international sales and support offices, we are comfortable in saying that Citizen's own staff, customers and dealers can now enjoy truly global support of their programming needs with PartMaker SwissCAM, a comfort level that has lead to consummation of this agreement," according to Geoff Bryant, Managing Director for Citizen Machinery in the UK.

"PartMaker SwissCAM has been dedicated to the productivity of Citizen users for the better part of decade," says Hanan Fishman, President of the PartMaker Division of Delcam. "The fact that Citizen is acknowledging this contribution by choosing to partner with PartMaker SwissCAM is very gratifying validation of our long standing commitment to the Citizen user community, a commitment we hope to deepen with this agreement."

"Choosing the correct software is more important than ever for Citizen users," claimed Mr. Fishman. "Part complexity is increasing, while manufacturing runs are getting shorter. The increased complexity makes it more difficult for companies to use manual methods to program their machines, while the shorter runs mean that the benefits of PartMaker software in reducing programming times and set-up times are more important than ever."

More on Citizen

Citizen Machinery has become a world leader in CNC Swiss turning through continuous innovations and the superior quality of Citizen machines. Because of its high regard for customers, Citizen focuses on maximizing satisfaction by addressing customer needs (including after-sales services) and increasing the value of collaboration.

Citizen Machinery looks to the future by continuing a reputation that has been built on solid relationships, being an innovative pioneer in the machine tool manufacturing industry and providing a valuable working relationship with customers.

More on PartMaker

PartMaker is a Knowledge Based Machining system, allowing it to provide a substantial gain in programming efficiency by remembering the tools, material and process information necessary to machine individual part features. It thus relieves the user from reentering the same features information for subsequent parts. It also improves productivity by placing the emphasis on tool management functions.

PartMaker pioneered the field of CAM software for Turn-Mills and Swiss-type lathes with its patented Visual Programming Approach for programming multi-axis lathes with live tooling. It assures quicker learning and easier use. It makes an extensive use of pictures to help the user describe tools, part features and machining data. Synchronization of tools working on multiple spindles is achieved by a few mouse clicks.

PartMaker Inc. is a subsidiary of Delcam Plc, the world's leading developer and supplier of complete CAM software solutions. Delcam Plc is publicly traded on the AIM exchange in London. While PartMaker is sold direct in North America by PartMaker Inc. PartMaker is sold overseas through a network of sales partner offices operating in over 80 countries.

28 July 2008