shop solutions s problem solving on the shop floor€¦ · using vericut, ultra machining co. is...

November 2015 | AdvancedManufacturing.org 45

Cutting Oil Saves Shop $250K Plus Annually

Many metalworking shops buy their cutting oils based

strictly on price. While this might appear initially attractive

on the procurement side, it often leads to a false economy when

the total increased costs of tooling, downtime, and scrap, not

Read more, P46

Software Heads Off Costly Code Rework, Crashes

C omputape (Monticello, MN) was founded in 1976 by Ed

Popp, an NC Specialist working for General Electric, in

a time when most machine tools still had hand cranks and

levers. There was no C in CNC back then.

Read more, P50

CNC Makes Grinder Rebuild Look Easy

“When ASB Industries called us with a rebuild applica-

tion for a Mesta Roll Grinder with a 60" [1.5-m] swing

and 288" [7.3 m] between centers, we knew we were going to

be stepping it up a notch or two on this job,” said Jim Leigh.

Read more, P95

sSHOP SOLUTIONSProblem Solving on the ShoP Floor

Wes Skinner Jr. (left) and Bob Sherman examine screw machine

parts manufactured at Manth Brownell using Qualichem’s

chlorine-free premium straight oil.

Rebuilding a Mesta Roll Grinder with a 60" (1.5-m) swing and

288" (7.3 m) between centers for ASB Industries was a real chal-

lenge for Pyramid Rebuild & Machine LLC (Tallmadge, OH).

Using Vericut, Ultra Machining Co. is able to watch everything working

together while proving out the G-code, tool projections, and travel limits,

while simultaneously checking for collisions.

46 AdvancedManufacturing.org | November 2015

to mention unhappy operators, are considered.

Spending more to use a higher-quality cutting oil

can produce a dramatic return on investment, and

lower over-all cost per part.

That is the experience of Manth Brownell

(Kirkville, NY), one of the largest job shops in the

northeastern US. The company has realized more

than a quarter million dollars in tool savings this past

year, after switching about one-third of its machines

over to Xtreme Cut 764CF, a chlorine-free premium

straight oil from QualiChem (Salem, VA). As Manth

Brownell completes the factory-wide transition to

the new oil, management expects to see further

gains in productivity and cost saving.

Wes Skinner Jr., former president of the

company who still works as a consultant, said,

“While we spend 47% more per gallon for the

Xtreme Cut 764CF than we did for the previous oil, our tool-

ing costs have gone down by 35%. This doesn’t take into

account productivity improvements, quality improvements,

and better looking parts that internally improve morale and

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Davenport screw machine line at Manth Brownell achieves maximum

productivity and quality with substantial annual savings using Qualichem’s

XTREME CUT 764 CF cutting oil.

Continued from P45


pride in our work and externally enhance our reputation as

a quality manufacturer.”

Based just a few miles east of Syracuse, the 60-year-old

company has more than 100 skilled craftsmen, quality, tool-

ing and manufacturing engineers. Manth Brownell’s campus

is located on 20 acres (8 hectares) of land occupied by

two plants totaling 135,000 ft2 (12,541 m2) of manufactur-

ing and office space. The company has over 150 multiple

and single-spindle machines, 38 CNC

machines, and 52 Davenports with

eight chuckers. Primary markets served

are home/housing, telecommunications

and transportation, but the company

also serves other segments including

firearms, aerospace, industrial, utilities

and emerging markets like microwave

and recreation. As a multifaceted job

shop, Manth Brownell works with a

variety of materials, including aluminum,

brass, low-lead brass, stainless steel,

and steel.

Bob Sherman, a manufacturing

engineer for screw machines with more

than 35 years of experience in the

industry who was deeply involved in the

decision to switch to QualiChem, said:

“We were having a lot of problems with

the straight oils we were using, running

through drills at a very rapid rate, and

that meant more downtime for chang-

ing tools several times each shift. It was

a nightmare. I couldn’t order tools fast

enough,” said Sherman.

“In addition, we were using four or

five different oils for aluminum, brass,

stainless, and other metals, plus another

for machine lubrication. This made life

much more complicated. Sometimes

the oils would get mixed causing an

increase in viscosity. This becomes a

problem when your 20 [Centistoke]

viscosity oil becomes 43 in eight months

and you are cutting aluminum. When the

viscosity goes up, the aluminum chips

plug up the filters and pretty soon it

stops or restricts the flow of oil, severely

reducing the life of the tool and reducing

surface finish. We had lube oil leaking

into the cutting oil daily, sometimes as

much as 10 gallons [37.8 L] per shift.

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This included hydraulic oil that was being used in the lube

tanks,” said Sherman.

“After years of this we had enough,” said Sherman. “We

wanted to standardize on a single oil for cutting all materials as

well as the lube side.” About a year and a half ago, Sherman

started researching alternatives. One of them was QualiChem

Xtreme Cut 764CF, a high-performance straight oil with a

medium viscosity, designed primarily for use in screw machines

and other automatics. The product is formulated specifically for

machining stainless steel, difficult-to-machine high alloy steels,

nickel, titanium and specialty high-strength alloys, as well as

mild steels, brass, aluminum, and copper alloys, according to

Glenn Frank, president of QualiChem.

QualiChem’s Xtreme Cut 764CF is 100% chlorine-free.

Chlorinated paraffins have been widely used for many years

as an extreme-pressure additive in metalcutting fluids, due to

their ability to produce high-quality finishes and preserve tool

life. The future use is uncertain due to pending EPA actions

to restrict the manufacturing and use of chlorinated paraffin.

“We have invested heavily in formulating chlorine-replace-

ment technology to meet the needs of customers with chlo-

rine restrictions and to be prepared in case the EPA takes

action to limit the use of chlorinated paraffin,” Frank said.

“When researching options I wanted to get a first-hand

look for myself, so I visited another shop that was using the

Xtreme Cut 764CF,” Manth Brownell’s Sherman said. “I didn’t

talk to the supervisor or president. I went to the floor and

talked to the operators. They said nothing but positive things,

and told me it was all they ever use. That’s what convinced

me to bring it in for a test.”

Over the past year, Sherman has been tracking tool life for

different oils and additives with Xtreme Cut 764CF, and has col-

lected an extensive amount of data. “QualiChem continues to

develop cutting edge technology and has allowed us to test the

next generation chlorine-free additives. With every adjustment

we keep getting better tool life improvements,” said Sherman.

“We started out with tools that were getting 20 or 30

hours at most in tool life cutting 303 stainless, and now those


same tools with current additives we are getting 400 hours or

better,” said Skinner.

Cuong Nguyen, CNC programmer and setup at Manth

Brownell, said: “Since we switched to Xtreme Cut 764CF,

my CNC department has seen many improvements. We

have Citizen bar feed machines, and primarily machine 304,

316 and 416 stainless, and 8640 steel alloy. As soon as

we started changing over the machines we saw immediate

surface finish improvements. So far we have a 30% increase

in tool life, and the operators really like this oil much better.”

“Some of our Citizens utilize high-pressure pumps that

deliver the oil at 2500 psi [17 MPa] to the cutting edge, and

we struggled to control the foam with the previous cutting

oil,” Nguyen said. “Since we changed over to QualiChem’s

Xtreme Cut 764CF the foam issues have gone away.”

“I saw instant results in the finished products,” said Sherman.

“I don’t think there’s any company around that’s doing steel with

the finishes we’re getting right now with the QualiChem straight

oil. Our customers have noticed the difference, too.”

Skinner agreed. “We don’t have any firm data on the

impact of finish improvements, but you can see it. Parts look

nicer. This helps internal morale, because people feel better

about the parts they make. It’s also making a difference in

customer satisfaction. We’re getting more re-orders. While

it’s impossible to quantify, we can say with confidence that

it’s helping our business.”

“The oil can be reused over and over without losing any

properties,” Sherman said. “We will pump out a brass job,

filter it and put it right back in. We are able to filter the oil

back to what a brand new oil would be, removing all of the

particles but none of the additives.”

“The shop is also cleaner and mist-free,” said Sherman.

“We feel the oil hasn’t yet reached its peak with us and we

see more opportunities to improve tool life even more.”

For more information from QualiChem, go to www.quali-

chem.com, or phone 540-375-6700.

Continued from P45

Software Heads Off Costly Code Rework, Crashes

Computape (Monticello, MN) was founded in 1976 by Ed

Popp, an NC Specialist working for General Electric,

in a time when most machine tools still had hand cranks

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and levers. There was no C in CNC back then—automated

lathes and mills took instructions from long rolls of paper

tape, and programs were created using APT (Automatically

Programmed Tool) on time-share computers fed by stacks of

punch cards. Despite this, Computape quickly earned a rep-

utation as the go-to place for complex, error-free toolpaths,

and the company eventually came to specialize in five-axis

programming of aerospace and defense components such

as airfoils, blades, and stringers.

In 1994, Popp’s son, Mike, who had

earned a degree in computer program-

ming from the University of Minnesota,

came to work for the family business.

Popp decided this would be a good

time to purchase machine simulation

software from CGTech, a then fledgling

company in Irvine, CA. Not many in

the industry had heard of CGTech at

that time, let alone its flagship product

Vericut, yet the Popps, strong believers

in technology, knew G-code simula-

tion would allow them to provide better

service to their customers.

The company reins have since

been passed to Mike Popp, who still

has the original user guide for Vericut

version 2.0, released the year before he

started with Computape. Both Popp

and the software have evolved over the

years, but one thing remains con-

stant: his high opinion of Vericut. “It’s

a must-have product for anyone doing

business in CNC manufacturing,” Popp

said. “Vericut’s a life saver.”

Computape does its CAD modeling

and CNC programming using a variety

of software suites, including NX from

Siemens PLM Software, Catia V5 from

Dassault Systèmes, and VoluMill by

Celeritive Technologies. Postprocess-

ing is accomplished via Austin NC’s

G-Post, with whom Computape is an

authorized partner. With high-end tools

like these at his disposal, some might

question why Computape bothers with

code verification. Popp’s reply to those

people is they don’t understand the

power of Vericut.

Vericut provides much more than

accurate toolpaths and crash avoid-

SHOP SOLUTIONS


ance. Most of Computape’s projects are fixed bid, which

means Popp must be as efficient as possible if he’s to avoid

costly code rework. “I don’t have time to mess around with

changes to the program, and neither do my customers.

Once I review a project in Vericut, I

know it’s good.”

So strongly does he believe in

Vericut’s capabilities for process im-

provement—both his and his custom-

ers’—that it has become a permanent

part of the Boeing-compliant Digital

Product Definition (DPD) procedure at

Computape, a process that’s adhered

to whether the part is a $50 mount-

ing bracket or a $50,000 airfoil. At the

end, Vericut results are delivered to his

customer along with the drawing and

NC-file package. For those that don’t

own Vericut—an increasingly smaller

percentage, said Popp—a free viewer

is available from the CGTech website.

According to Popp, Vericut is also a

great communication tool. Tool libraries

with speed and feed information are

clearly defined in Vericut, as well as

machine tool construction and travel

limits. This allows for easy collabora-

tion with the customer during process

definition and Q&A sessions, providing

confidence on both sides of the phone

that the delivered product is error free

and clear of any tool reach or potential

interference problems.

His competition might think he’s crazy

for sharing the technology. After all, most

businesses that latch on to a competitive

edge like to keep it close to the vest. Not

so, Popp. He’s been spreading the good

word of toolpath verification almost as

long as he has had it, leading a num-

ber of his customers to bring their own

verification in-house, sometimes cutting

Computape out of the action.

One of these is Ultra Machining Co.

(UMC; Monticello, MN), an aerospace

and medical machine shop just down

the road from Popp. UMC’s first project with Computape

was in 2005. The company purchased a seat of Vericut one

year later after buying the company’s first three-channel

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decided the crash potential was too high without verifica-

tion. Since that time, UMC has added several similar ma-

chines, and has also established itself in the five-axis, wire

EDM, and Swiss-style machining arena. As a result, Vericut

toolpath verification is now an internal requirement on most

new part programs.

Mike Triplett, CNC programmer, can think of several

instances where Vericut has saved the day, but said that its

original intent of crash prevention is somewhat secondary at

this point. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said, ‘What

you see on the screen isn’t always what you get on the ma-

chine.’ The reason is because the CAM system’s simulation

uses its own internal calculations, whereas Vericut reads the

actual G-code, the same as the machine tool,” said Triplett.

Don Lahr, CNC programmer, agreed. “You can see so

much more in Vericut. We can watch everything working

together while proving out the G-code, tool projections, and

travel limits, while simultaneously checking for collisions.

Quite often we’ll review the code in Vericut and identify a

particular part feature that doesn’t look right, or a cutting tool

that could be programmed more efficiently. It lets us identify

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Continued on P95

At his company, Computape, Mike Popp has made Vericut a

permanent part of the Boeing-compliant Digital Product Defini-

tion (DPD) procedure, a process that’s adhered to whether the

part is a $50 mounting bracket or a $50,000 airfoil.


these issues before they get out to the machine, and deliver

a better product to the shop floor.”

As a certified ISO 13485:2003 and FDA-compliant sup-

plier, UMC must adhere to rigid quality requirements. One

of these is the need to submit a PPAP (Production Part

Approval Process) on any new projects, and adhere to that

process thereafter. Gone are the days of taking on a job and

continuously tweaking it to improve part profitability and tool

life. Because there’s only one shot to make it right, it’s impor-

tant to lead with your best machining foot forward, some-

thing Vericut has helped UMC with time and again.

“We have some customers where, once the process is

bought off, that’s it. No more changes,” Lahr said. “The AUTO-

DIFF feature in Vericut checks for various conditions by compar-

ing the design model against the actual cut stock model. Did

we hit all the features? Is there any gouging of the workpiece, or

leftover material that shouldn’t be there? Most importantly, did

we violate the customer model? If so, what can we do about it?”

UMC also uses CGTech’s OptiPath module, which as its

name implies looks at toolpaths and optimizes them using

pre-defined volume and chipload parameters, speeding up

where possible and slowing down when necessary to avoid

chatter, broken tools, and bad parts. Together with AUTO-

DIFF, UMC can be confident the initial part process is a good

one, and there won’t be embarrassing post-PPAP calls to the

customer to request a deviation.

As with Computape, UMC also uses the Vericut Reviewer,

except in UMC’s case it’s for the company’s internal custom-

ers: the machinists and engineers. “Our machinists review the

Vericut file when they’re setting up a job,” said Lahr. “It helps

them visualize the machining process and identify which tool is

cutting each part feature. They can measure the part in Vericut

for comparison against the actual workpiece and quickly iden-

tify which offsets need adjusting. It really narrows down what

steps have to be taken when troubleshooting a problem.”

Looking back over the past nine years, about the only

thing Lahr and Triplett would change is the implementation.

“We probably should have started on a simpler machine,”

Triplett said. “The NTX has two spindles, two turrets, a B-axis

milling head and live tooling. There’s just a lot going on at

one time. Learning Vericut on a machining center or two-axis

lathe would have given us a better understanding of its capa-

bilities earlier on, and made for fewer sleepless nights. Even

so, we got through it just fine. It’s an awesome product.”

For more information from CGTech, go to www.cgtech.

com, or phone 949-753-1050.

Continued from P45

CNC Makes Grinder Rebuild Look Easy

“When ASB Industries called us with a rebuild ap-

plication for a Mesta Roll Grinder with a 60" [1.5-m]

swing and 288" [7.3 m] between centers, we knew we were

going to be stepping it up a notch or two on this job,” said

Jim Leigh, Pyramid Rebuild & Machine LLC (Tallmadge, OH).

As it turns out Barberton, Ohio-based ASB Industries, a lead-

ing single-source provider of cold spray and thermal spray

industrial coating services, needed the machine for preci-

sion pre- and post-machining preparation work for a thermal

spray coating process. ASB required more than just accu-

racy, it requires proof of accuracy.

One of the many industries ASB Industries serves requires

precision grinding with complex crowns to achieve a very high

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SHOP SOLUTIONSContinued from P54


product quality with consistent production. ASB Industries’

goal is to offer surfacing technologies where projects become

integrated at one location, to provide surfaces that provide

long wearing life working in a continuous production environ-

ment including high temperatures, oxidizing atmospheres,

severe abrasion, high tensions, and steam—just to name a

few. Once components are coated then unique surfaces such

as tungsten carbide may require diamond grinding and, if

needed, chatter-free polishing to low surface finishes.

The decision came down to a simple question: “What

CNC control system do we incorporate for the project?”

Leigh said: “We have installed Fagor CNC controls for a wide

variety of customers, including those serving the aerospace

and defense sector, plastic injection molds, mining and en-

ergy sectors. In each instance, the controls have worked well

and increased production for the customer.”

It was with a great deal of confidence that Pyramid speci-

fied the high-performance 8065 T CNC control system from

Fagor Automation Corp. (Elk Grove Village, IL). Specifically

configured for two-axis grinding operations, the 8065 utilizes

auto-tuning software that allows for fine-tuned grinding

processes thus ensuring smooth machine operation, while

the utilization of Fagor precision linear encoders help ensure

accuracy and repeatability, so expectations are realized.

The machine configuration consists of two linear axes

on both spindles for complex roll crown profiles that are

programmed via G-code programming and CAD/CAM soft-

ware. The Fagor 8065 on-board profile editor allows for easy

blueprint programming of profile in which the editor automati-

cally creates the G-code and inserts into the part-program. In

addition, the 8065 T CNC utilizes a high resolution color 15"

(381-mm) touch screen monitor and Sercos Digital Commu-

nication, Ethernet and USB within an Industrialized Windows

platform for communication.

“The remanufactured Mesta Roll Grinder swings 60" [1.5

m] and will handle parts up to 288" [7.3-m] long. The new

Fagor 8065 with tandem servos on the Z-axis, high-precision

ballscrew and Fagor GOP linear encoder on the X axis pro-

vides a level of accuracy that simply wasn’t attainable with

the original acme screw and mechanical crowning mecha-

nism,” said Jim Leigh. “The new control system coupled with

a custom data collection software that captures part geom-

etry information from the workpiece with a new Renishaw

touch probe that is integrated with the CNC.”

Justin Leigh, Pyramid’s engineer said, “The process of

collecting the probed data was interesting in the fact that the

probe collects data via a combination of the standard Fagor

probing cycles, a custom M-code and custom VBScript

files added to the HMI. Then the process is as follows, the

custom M-code is inserted into the part program prior to

probing the part. This M-code initializes control variables and

instructs the PLC to store the data gathered by the probe

into known control registers. The Fagor probing cycles are

then used as required to gather part geometry data.”

One of the most important requirements for ASB Indus-

tries was that the CNC had to be user-friendly. John Linde-

man, vice president-manufacturing with ASB Industries said:

“The combination of CNC ease of use and the excellent sup-

port by Pyramid Rebuild and Fagor has been tremendous.

The operator interface has definitely improved efficiency.”

Lindeman said further, “The installation of Fagor Products

and integration was expertly done by Pyramid Rebuild. We

are very happy with the result.”

For more information from Fagor Automation Corp., go to

www.fagorautomation.com, or phone 800-423-2467.

SHOP SOLUTIONS

shop solutions s problem solving on the shop floor€¦ · using vericut, ultra machining co. is...

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