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Adapting to lower batches
With customers wanting smaller batches, precision turned part specialist Qualiturn has cut setup times to keep prices down.
From a low point at the start of 2009, business at Qualiturn has increased month on month throughout the year. But, said managing director, Nick Groom, a typical batch size ordered by customers is currently 1,000-off, which is about 50 percent lower than last year.
It is more expensive to produce smaller quantities, as set-up time becomes a larger proportion of total manufacturing time. It should mean that the unit cost to the customer is higher, but in a recession, it is difficult to pass on the cost increase.
In these circumstances Qualiturn has managed to minimise set-up times through ongoing investment in engineering software and computer-controlled storage systems for raw material and tools. With 70 set-ups per week, the importance of streamlining procedures is evident.
The latest investment, in June 2009, was the purchase of CADCAM software from OneCNC. The Windows-based module has integrated functionality from CAD design though to machine posting. The package allows electronic 3D data supplied by customers to be translated and converted rapidly into NC code for running on the company’s 16 Star sliding-head CNC lathes and two Miyano fixed-head mill-turn centres.
Commented Mr Groom: “Customers are asking us to produce increasingly complicated components to ever higher accuracies. Until recently, we had to program 3D profiles manually, which often delayed the start of production.
“The OneCNC software generates complex tool paths directly from the original CAD data, which is quick and eliminates the risk of human error.
“We still write the remainder of the program at the machine control, as it is faster for simple routines. The two parts are then merged to create the final code much more quickly than previously.
“It is also possible to simulate a cutting cycle on-screen to make sure a program will run as expected.”
Lead-time from receipt of order to first article inspection of complex components is therefore faster than before, helping to reduce set-up time. Assisting further in speeding changeover is rapid delivery of material and tools to the machines, helped by Qualiturn’s investment in a 7.5 m-high tower for storing bar stock and a smaller version for housing tooling and machine attachments.
The latter was installed at the end of 2008, making it faster to access collets, bushes, toolholders and other items than when they were held in chests of drawers on the shop floor. Some boxes of special cutting tools are also housed in the multi-level store along with toolholders for regularly repeating jobs, but most cutters and tips are stored in an Autocrib.
The subcontractor operates the multi-level tool store differently from the bar store. The latter is linked directly into a PSL Datatrack production management system, which automatically calls up the bar and delivers it to an unloading area at floor level as a job starts its progression through the Hertford factory. Within the tool store, the content of each shelf is similarly held within the Datatrack memory, but the operator manually keys in the appropriate shelf number at a control panel to access the tooling.
http://www.engineeringcapacity.com/archive101/2009/august/machined_components/adapting_to_lower_batches
The model making sector provides regular work for Qualiturn’s mill-turn centres
From a low point at the start of 2009, business at Qualiturn has increased month on month throughout the year. But, said managing director, Nick Groom, a typical batch size ordered by customers is currently 1,000-off, which is about 50 percent lower than last year.
It is more expensive to produce smaller quantities, as set-up time becomes a larger proportion of total manufacturing time. It should mean that the unit cost to the customer is higher, but in a recession, it is difficult to pass on the cost increase.
In these circumstances Qualiturn has managed to minimise set-up times through ongoing investment in engineering software and computer-controlled storage systems for raw material and tools. With 70 set-ups per week, the importance of streamlining procedures is evident.
The latest investment, in June 2009, was the purchase of CADCAM software from OneCNC. The Windows-based module has integrated functionality from CAD design though to machine posting. The package allows electronic 3D data supplied by customers to be translated and converted rapidly into NC code for running on the company’s 16 Star sliding-head CNC lathes and two Miyano fixed-head mill-turn centres.
Commented Mr Groom: “Customers are asking us to produce increasingly complicated components to ever higher accuracies. Until recently, we had to program 3D profiles manually, which often delayed the start of production.
“The OneCNC software generates complex tool paths directly from the original CAD data, which is quick and eliminates the risk of human error.
“We still write the remainder of the program at the machine control, as it is faster for simple routines. The two parts are then merged to create the final code much more quickly than previously.
“It is also possible to simulate a cutting cycle on-screen to make sure a program will run as expected.”
Lead-time from receipt of order to first article inspection of complex components is therefore faster than before, helping to reduce set-up time. Assisting further in speeding changeover is rapid delivery of material and tools to the machines, helped by Qualiturn’s investment in a 7.5 m-high tower for storing bar stock and a smaller version for housing tooling and machine attachments.
The latter was installed at the end of 2008, making it faster to access collets, bushes, toolholders and other items than when they were held in chests of drawers on the shop floor. Some boxes of special cutting tools are also housed in the multi-level store along with toolholders for regularly repeating jobs, but most cutters and tips are stored in an Autocrib.
The subcontractor operates the multi-level tool store differently from the bar store. The latter is linked directly into a PSL Datatrack production management system, which automatically calls up the bar and delivers it to an unloading area at floor level as a job starts its progression through the Hertford factory. Within the tool store, the content of each shelf is similarly held within the Datatrack memory, but the operator manually keys in the appropriate shelf number at a control panel to access the tooling.
http://www.engineeringcapacity.com/archive101/2009/august/machined_components/adapting_to_lower_batches
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