Posts Tagged ‘manufacturing’
NX 8 for CAM and Tooling
Wednesday, October 19th, 2011
As I mentioned before, NX 8 contains over 400 customer focused projects across the entire product. One of the areas that I’d like to highlight is CAM and Tooling (as we call it, Manufacturing).
Following is an interview with Mirko Bäcker of our European team discussing NX 8 for manufacturing.
Jerry
Quality Driven Process Development: Did your design just do that?
Monday, August 1st, 2011
Heads-up! If you missed the webinar last week; Quality Driven Process Development: Did your design just do that? Then this is your lucky day.
Just follow this link (registration required) to hear a replay of Tom Kalkman, Tecnomatix product manager, and yours truly describing how tolerancing in design can have real-world consequences for production. Unfortunately, these consequences can often lead to higher tooling, metrology and labor costs than you had anticipated.
Hear how Variation Analysis works for manufacturers in Automotive, Aerospace and Defense and Medical Devices and helps them improve dimensional management while focusing on the major contributors to variation, before design release.
That’s not all, find out which customer said, “At the initial design stage, they can analyze whether the structure, positioning and assembly methods meet technical specifications, and ultimately suggest how to optimize these factors to enhance the quality of body design.” Hint!
As I said, this is your lucky day!
Don’t Miss the SAE Webcast on Product and Production Integration on May 26th.
Thursday, May 19th, 2011
Increasing demand for fuel-efficient, environmentally-friendly products and changing demographics are driving significant shifts in automotive technologies and present unique challenges to manufacturing.
I’m presenting with Philip Gott of IHS Automotive Consulting in an SAE webcast next week. Join us as we discuss “The Automotive Industry: Product to Production Integration. Connecting Virtual Product, Manufacturing and Quality Planning to Physical Production”. It’s a long title but we’re covering a lot of ground. Philip will describe the challenges and the need for innovative strategies to meet shifting customer demand in the most flexible and cost effective way.
I’ll share some of our innovative strategies that help automotive manufacturers make smarter decisions faster.
Be sure to register here to reserve your seat for the May 26th at 11:30 AM Eastern DST webcast. (A recording of the webcast should be available after the 26th in case you’re unable to make it.)
I’ll cover some of our Tecnomatix digital manufacturing solutions, but don’t wait for the webcast to explore the full suite!
How PLM Propels Innovation at Mercury Marine
Monday, May 2nd, 2011
Next up on the podium is John Bayless, Director, Strategy & Program Management Mercury Marine Mercury Marine is the world’s leading manufacturer of recreational marine propulsion engines.
John is talking about the way things were at Mercury. They had gone from two engineering sites in the USA to six engineering site globally. The product development process was already complex enough without even adding new engineering sites. The product development process had many manual steps, many different sources of data, and many BOMs that had to be manually reconciled! The engineering change process used multiple systems and it was not automated. Before the Business Process Transformation the product design data and project data was stored and managed in multiple systems which lead to longer lead times in their product development process. Continue reading “How PLM Propels Innovation at Mercury Marine” »
Solid Edge Tips & Tricks: CAM Express Face Milling Associativity
Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011
This week’s show brings back Jim Wright and CAM Express. Find out how tool paths created with ‘face selection’ in CAM Express automatically update after changes to your Solid Edge models, eliminating the need to recreate a new boundary or update it to match the new geometry.
MORE TIPS & TRICKS FROM GTAC
What is the option ‘Use Geometry-based Naming’ for in the Part Copy command when selecting Parasolid files?
Continue reading “Solid Edge Tips & Tricks: CAM Express Face Milling Associativity” »
NX customer showcase: Stork Turbo Blade BV
Thursday, January 20th, 2011
This weeks NX customer showcase is Stork Turbo Blade BV.
Stork Turbo Blading BV specializes in producing turbine blades for which high precision, quality and short delivery times determine the success of an order. Based in Sneek, Netherlands, Turbo Blading is part of the Stork Power Services division of the industrial Stork Group. The company caters to a worldwide blade market, supplying OEMs as well as the service and aftermarket sectors.
Challenges
“Before NX, we would spend on average three days generating NC paths after an adaptation of the design. Thanks to the integration of NX, this is now done in half an hour.” Says Engineering manager, Gerrit Mulder.
“Wear is determined by how they are used. Even water has a destructive effect. The blades of both the stationary and the rotor steps of the turbine sustain damage. This leads to a drop in efficiency while posing a risk that can cause a possible imbalance.”
Work usually begins by recording blade damage. This is done to determine which steps in the turbine blades need to be replaced. In three-quarters of the cases, once this has been established, scanning technology is used to determine the exact shape of the blades. Quite often, no drawings of the blades are available.
Solution
“Before NX, we would spend on average three days generating NC paths after an adaptation of the design. Thanks to the integration of NX, this is now done in half an hour. However, time saving is not the only benefit. The risk of errors is lower because the generation of NC paths is almost an automatic process.” Says Mulder
After seven years, Mulder remains convinced that the company made the right choice. “Without NX, we would not have been able to offer our current level of service and, as a result, today’s business would not be possible. The simplified production process and the fast processing of modifications have led to a faster overall process and higher quality. In short, NX has played a major part in our company’s success and will continue to do so.”
Jerry
Tecnomatix Update – Advancing Productivity
Tuesday, January 18th, 2011
This is a guest post from my colleague Tim Egloff about the latest enhancements of Tecnomatix version 9.
With signs of increasing manufacturing activity across the globe, now is the time to capitalize on technology which can assist in validating critical decisions before they become costly errors on the shop floor.
This means improving productivity, visibility and alignment of multiple engineering disciplines even as shorter timeframes add pressure to make these decisions faster. From early planning where manufacturers must determine which components to make or outsource, to detailed work instructions on the shop floor, each discipline has to work in concert to assure the most effective decisions are made.
Continue reading “Tecnomatix Update – Advancing Productivity” »
NX7 Part 5 – CAM Update
Wednesday, August 11th, 2010
This is the 5th post on the new items in NX7. (my apologies for taking so long to get to the CAM items. In case you’ve forgotten, Part 4 is here)
In today’s post, I will review some of the new applications in NX 7.5 Manufacturing.
NX 7.5 CAM introduces a new application, NX Turbomachinery Milling, for programming complex blisks and impellers
In addition, NX 7.5 CAM offers major enhancements, including feed rate optimization, interactive programming and extended feature based machining.
Turbomachinery Milling
NX Turbomachinery Milling offers a set of automated functions that simplifies the generation of smart 5 axis tool paths for blisks and impellers. Process-specific NC programming functions help you produce safe 5-axis tool paths that result in faster machining times, better surface finish, and longer tool life.
NX7 Impeller Machine Setup
The new application steps you through the process of programming with specially designed operations for 5-axis roughing, rest milling and finishing of blades, splitters and hubs.
Here is a video demonstration: 
Smooth-flowing 5-axis tool paths can be created directly on imported 3D models even though the data may be less than perfect. No need to define geometry, create new surfaces or remodel parts. This capability alone can save hours on a single job.
Other New Technology and Enhancements
NX 7 offers new and effective technology to enhance NC programmer productivity.
- Feed rate optimization, automatic adjustment of feeds and speeds for maximum tool life
- Tool path based simulation, for fast and simple validation
- Extended Feature-based Machining, for greater levels of NC programming automation
- Interactive programming control, for the fastest manually-driven tool axis and tool path control
Have you attended a local NX7 event yet? If so, let me know what you think.
Jerry
Design a Factory using Teamcenter
Wednesday, July 7th, 2010
Well, actually using FactoryCAD and the integration to Teamcenter.
In a previous post I talked about the difficulties once you start designing a factory. In this video Kristy Myers, Product Manager Factory Products, talks about how easy it is to design a factory using FactoryCAD. She focuses especially on the integration to Teamcenter.
Want to know more? Visit the FactoryCAD and Teamcenter Manufacturing homepage.
Realistic Machine Tool Simulation
Thursday, July 1st, 2010
To manufacture a complex part like a cylinder head or a turbine blade, sophisticated machine tools are used. These machine tools require an NC-program also known as G-code. Before the actual production starts these programs are simulated to avoid collisions or damaged parts. By using NX CAM and the VNCK (Mike will explain what it is in the video) it’s now possible to run a much more realistic machine tool simulation than before.
Mike Fair, head of the NX CAM Product Management talks about this very interesting topic which he presented during the PLM Connection Americas 2010.
Want to know more? Visit the NX CAM homepage.
