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VERICUT User: University of Oklahoma

 
Cruising on Solar Power
 
What does it take to build a car that is powered by nothing but the sun’s rays? Well, besides a lot of high tech solar collection and storage equipment, it takes a well-built frame and quality designed parts. At the University of Oklahoma, the solar car team made use of modern manufacturing technologies to build the "Spirit of Oklahoma" which placed first in the Engine Innovation category and 16th overall in the 1999 Sunrayce competition this summer.
 
Sunrayce is a biennial intercollegiate competition to design, build and race solar-powered cars in a challenging long-distance course. The event debuted in 1990. This year’s course went from Washington D.C. to Epcot Center in Florida. In addition to promoting educational excellence, Sunrayce contributes to America’s awareness about a host of important issues: renewable energy sources and technology; clean energy option; environmental protection; cost savings through energy efficiency; improvements in transportation; and creation of new, fast-growing, energy-related fields.
 
The research used in building and racing the solar vehicles is directly applicable to the consumer electronic vehicles of today and tomorrow. "We’re using the most advanced solar collection and storage technology available in these cars," says Dr. John Fagan of the University of Oklahoma’s Electric Vehicle Research Institute. "The solar car is a ‘scale’ car, where the energy needs are scaled down from those of a consumer vehicle. The Spirit of Oklahoma requires five kilowatts to run versus the 25 kilowatts required by a consumer car. This enables us to test prototype technology, new designs, and different energy management systems. If they are successful, they can be scaled up for use on commercial fleets."
 
Technology developed for the 1999 car will be utilized in future consumer electric vehicles. The research also benefits stationary solar panel technology. Because the solar collection panels on the cars can only be so big, they need to be as efficient as possible. This helps in the development of new technologies to design smaller, lighter, more efficient solar collection systems.
 
Manufacturing the parts to build the cars presents its own challenge. Because teams are trying to get as much as they can from every last bit of solar energy, all the parts used to build a solar car must be lightweight and strong. "This means that all non-essential material must be removed," said Barry Bergeron, an instrument maker in the school’s Physics & Astronomy department. In order to do so, they machine away unnecessary metal from the different components of the car. "It involves a lot of pocketing with constantly varying cutter engagement and tool pressure. For conditions like this, we rely on VERICUT to dramatically increase cutting efficiency."
 
Prior to implementing VERICUT into the manufacturing process, the shop did have some trouble with occasional gouges or scrapped parts. "We would read through the NC code for obvious errors, but that does little to help with gouge detection. As the parts become more elaborate, reading the code for crash detection becomes less effective," said Bergeron. Simulating the machining process on the computer has enabled us to create parts more quickly and efficiently, without wasting metal to scrap. "VERICUT’s abilities are advantageous to us because we almost never cut more than one of a part. For prototyping, program verification and part fabrication happen simultaneously. Also, a margin of safety that is always absent on first run parts is to some degree restored by using VERICUT," said Bergeron. They never discard drop off material; it is kept and reused for future projects. VERICUT allows them to easily model the stock pieces and position the work offset within the stock for efficient use of that material.
 
They also found an unexpected benefit. They use VERICUT to avoid having their CAMAND CAM software handle the machining speeds and feeds. VERICUT can read a tool path file (G-code or CAM output) and optimize the feed rates. The program first breaks individual cutting motions into smaller segments. Then, based on the amount of material removed in each segment, VERICUT then assigns the best feed rate for the cutting conditions in that particular segment of the tool path.
 
CAMAND can generate many separate tool path sections for any one part. When programming for one material and then changing materials, every ITP (Intermediate Tool Path) section must be edited with considerable effort – it could be hundreds of changes per tool path file! VERICUT can change speeds and feeds according to cutting conditions including difference in material and tooling. It is done automatically; the programmer does not have to make even one manual insert into the code. "This is an easy and effective method that is also logical and intuitive. Our non-programmers say this is how programming should be," said Bergeron. "Using CAD/CAM software gives our shop a dramatic improvement of part and mechanism design and functionality. That’s extremely important when machining parts for projects such as the Spirit of Oklahoma solar car – and VERICUT is an integral part of the process. And more than just cutting parts more quickly, which it often does, VERICUT preserves our tooling and machinery."
 
Airbus is selling so well that the demand to increase build rate has never been higher. BAE Systems (Filton, UK) needed a simple way to improve throughput - it found the answer in VERICUT.
With VERICUT, engineers at Stellex Monitor modeled the Sidewinder and Spar Mill machines.
Tell Tool of Westfield, Mass., has integrated VERICUT CNC simulation software into its numerical control program prove-out process.
VERICUT enabled us to start ordinary production after a minimum of time. Since this product is new for Volvo Aero Norge and our company had never before had parts with similar machining complexity, it is difficult to estimate the amount of cost saving.
Before implementing VERICUT, the company experienced the usual time-consuming and expensive manufacturing problems related to NC program prove-outs such as scrap loss, broken tooling, and a danger of occasional machine crash.
Over the last two years, AH has used Machine Simulation to speed the implementation of several new 5-axis machine tools.
VERICUT showed the NC programmers leftover or heavy stock." And the software detected a couple of places where the depth of cut was too large and tools were shanking out," said Collings. They then went back and corrected the errors in the tool path before
Dassault, Seclin initially purchased VERICUT in order to reduce the number of manual prove-outs using polystyrene material, which represented a significant expense in terms of time and money.
VERICUT enabled the designers and programmers see exactly what they were building as and in-process model in different stages of the machining cycle.
We utilized VERICUT to verify the CNC programs for cutting the tooling before they were sent to the machine control,
To protect their investment, they have been using VERICUT since 1996. They have two people to verify the accuracy of their G-code files.
"When we first started using OptiPath we concentrated on the feed rate option; now we use the constant chip thickness capability. With jobs up to 200 hours long, 50% saving is significant like having another machine tool."
The entire process took less than two hours and no manpower was required, whereas, creating the same pattern manually (the old way), would have taken one of our designers several days.
The verification process stays ahead of the actual machine position in the NC code being verified. Opera-tors can see errors before they occur.
The bottom line? Using VERICUT has made Supreme's existing machine tools more productive. Enthusiasm is up, delivery times have been reduced, and pricing is more competitive.delivery times have been reduced, and pricing is more competitive.
Using VERICUT to compare the electrode burn with the mold cavity ensures that we have all the correct clearances in the electrodes and that we have 100% clean-up." says Allen.
If I was using VERICUT at the time I would've caught the problem, and had a chance to fix it before it damaged the part.
Now I rarely see the potential crashes because the students find and correct them before I review the work. Catching those costly problems is a non-event now!
VERICUT can change speeds and feeds according to cutting conditions including difference in material and tooling. It is done automatically; the programmer does not have to make even one manual insert into the code."
Flying shrapnel from shattered cutting tools and components is avoided by using VERICUT to test student programs before they are run on NC machines.
The NC programmers at Ingersoll also rely on the simulation software to prevent mistakes when programming complex, five-axis parts.
After creating the NC programs in Mastercam, they began simulating the machining process in VERICUT by simulating the G-code data. There often can be a difference between the motion as programmed and the code after it's run through the post processor
After selecting VERICUT for third-party verification, each NC programmer attended two days of basic training where they experienced first-hand the type of results they could expect to achieve.
The program simulates milling, drilling, turning, wire EDM, and mill/turn machining operations using both G-codes and CAM output.
VERICUT provides simulation capabilities for the all the 3-5 axis and wire EDM parts, with focused control over the orientation of our 5-axis machine tool including the cutters used on that machine.
The inspection probe is created as a tool in VERICUT so the complete in- cycle gauging sequence is checked for collisions.
The bottom was machined first. This effort took about 24 hours from start to finish. By using VERICUT software from CGTech, Elliot was able to test the NC program for any problems before it was ever cut on the machine.
Cosworth Racing Integrates Walter TDM Tool Management into Manufacturing Systems
With data exported from NX, Vericut simulates the cutting process on the shop floor utilizing the machine G-code to detect any issues prior to NC Program release.
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