EdgeCAM opens the door to the world

CAM software helps family-run business produce parts for automotive industry all over the world

If you are trying to manufacture competitive products in today’s mould and die market, you’ve got your work cut out for you. You need more than solid manufacturing experience, you need to innovate and get better products to market faster while reducing costs. Meeting these demands for ever increasing flexibility and productivity has proved difficult for many small and medium sized manufacturing companies. However, as the success of Werkzeugbau Weidemann, Oberaula, Germany illustrates, you don’t have to be big to compete with the big boys. Weidemann meets these challenges with a powerful yet affordable 3D CAD/CAM solution by SolidWorks and EdgeCAM. Seamless integration between the two systems helped the company to automate the manufacturing process and achieve considerable improvements in quality and productivity.

Moving from the garage into the wide world
Founded in the late 80s by master toolmaker Werner Weidemann in his garage, the company began by producing switches for electronic pumps using secondhand milling machines. Working alone, Werner Weidemann initially manufactured short-run or one-off products for local customers. The product range was gradually expanded to meet increasing demand and to help the company stay competitive the business moved to bigger and more functional premises. A couple of CNC machines were purchased, the first members of staff employed.

Today, these premises are dominated by an impressive range of state-of-the-art machine tools. The company has invested heavily, more than a million Euros were spent to build hi-tech, automated manufacturing facilities allowing efficient production of high quality components from one-off parts to production runs of more than 1,000,000 pieces. The company supplies predominantly customers in the automotive and electronics industry and the product range extends from mould and die making to injection moulding, custom-built machines and prototypes. More and more companies are placing work in low cost countries, making it harder for manufacturers in Western Europe to compete.

Investing in modern technologies for both development and production - with room for continued growth - allows Weidemann to stay competitive now and in the future.

EdgeCAM 4-Axis machining
Werner Weidemann is especially proud of the company’s work for the automotive industry. The company’s success in this area perfectly illustrates Weidemann’s transition from traditional engineering workshop on a local level to modern business on a global scale. The company has recently added the Volkswagen group to its list of customers, and supplies the automotive giant with a component that makes the heart of any motoring enthusiast beat faster. Using Pathtrace's EdgeCAM offline programming system, the company manufactures door handles for the top of the range Bugatti Veyron 16.4 .

The handle is cut using 4-Axis machining with a combination of surface machining strategies and index moves; a way of working that would not have been possible using Weidemann’s old CAM system.

Using the datum shift function in EdgeCAM the complete component can be manufactured in one single operation. In EdgeCAM, the solid model – together with solid clamps and fixtures – is graphically shown on the screen, and the whole machining process dynamically simulated. Using a combination of parallel lace and profiling cycles, the component is machined from different angles using surface machining strategies and a single setup! In a manner of speaking, this is advanced surface machining using production machining techniques. A simple way to a sophisticated product.

Staying competitive with the right CAM system
To succeed in the global market place requires innovation, fast reaction times and modern production methods, as well as flexibility and creativity. Customers are demanding ever shorter delivery times – often less than two days for prototypes – and the demand for customisation is high. Although the customer may have very clear ideas about what he wants, he often has no idea about the machining required to achieve this goal. This is where the Weidemann team offers guidance on possible production methods and the range of machining options provided by the company. This flexible and creative approach needs to be mirrored by the software and EdgeCAM’s wide range of milling strategies has proved invaluable.

As in other industries, the mould and die market has been become more and more dynamic over the years. In an environment that demands constant innovation and improvement, a company can no longer solely rely on its machines and staff. Investment is required in quality equipment, quality people and quality software. At Weidemann programmers have been working with CAD and CAM systems since the late 90s, with seamless integration between the two data sets being a key factor. In 2003, after a couple of years of working with Surfcam the company decided to move to another CAM system that would help the company move forward. The search was on for CAM software that would load SolidWorks models – the CAD system used at Weidemann for both design and modification - without translation and provide extensive 3D milling strategies. After careful consideration, EdgeCAM, was chosen. “The decision to select EdgeCAM was based on the seamless integration between SolidWorks and EdgeCAM. Guaranteed data integrity and associativity allow us to load all our SolidWorks models directly and without any data loss into EdgeCAM, something that was not possible with our old CAM system”, explains Timm Weidemann, Administrator CAE Technologies, responsible for all CAD/CAM requirements in the company. Other decision factors included the software’s feature finding capability, realistic simulation, and comprehensive 3D milling functionality. Timm Weidemann was also impressed by the programming flexibility offered by the system, with customised postprocessors providing an answer to all the CNC machining needs.

Productivity improvements all round
As soon as the decision was made, the whole production was switched to the new CAM system with a little help from Camtech, EdgeCAM reseller in Germany. “After you have been working with a system for a couple of years, the first steps with the new software are not always that easy”, explains Timm Weidemann. “Camtech have been really helpful from the outset.” After only a short period of training, CNC programming is done without any problems, and considerably faster than before. Postprocessors are written in-house to match all machining needs, using EdgeCAM’s Code Wizard and its templates.

At Weidemann, the EdgeCAM software is used to program milling applications on three Heidenhain machine tools (TNC 355/407 and 426) and two HAAS machines. A vital part of Weidemann’s production output is machined using 3D machining, and EdgeCAM has given the company the confidence to tackle even the most complex parts. Productivity improvements have been particularly impressive in this area. The roughing process has been improved and EdgeCAM’s rest roughing capabilities have led to considerably shorter programming times. Further productivity improvements have been achieved through the use of trochoidal milling and adaptive feedrates in the roughing cycle. Solids milling means that there is no need for time consuming preparation of surface models, even the most complex 2D geometry can be milled through solids.

Using EdgeCAM Solid Machinist, the company is gaining all-round productivity benefits from the associativity between the EdgeCAM toolpath and the SolidWorks design model. Today’s fast paced manufacturing environment frequently requires Weidemann programmers to modify their work. But even with these inevitable changes, development cycles have been shortened and late changes no longer affect manufacturing lead times.

Multi-plane machining plays an important part at Weidemann and has often proved to be a bottleneck in the production process. With EdgeCAM, the programming of multi-plane parts is now more efficient and Timm Weidemann points out the importance “of programming as close as possible to the NC code and the ability to simulate rotational movements”.

Timm is a highly satisfied user of EdgeCAM; when working with multi-plane parts or a family of parts on a tombstone, the correct orientation is no problem in EdgeCAM. This allows for the optimal use of both prismatic and surface machining strategies. Timm Weidemann generally finds the toolpath simulation capabilities in EdgeCAM a great help when it comes to evaluating the optimum toolpath. EdgeCAM Simulation offers dynamic simulation and verification of toolpaths on the model, including tools, clamps and fixtures. This offers a very realistic representation of the whole machining process and Timm Weidemann greatly appreciates this ‘safety net’, “that I can see the whole process on screen and be sure that everything is as it should be”.

A typical example of how all of these elements work together and the success of the EdgeCAM software is this 4-Axis aluminium milling part. The part was correctly oriented, verified and machined…and everything is as it should be, first time round.

Into the future with EdgeCAM Strategy Manager
In its drive for continued success, Weidemann is committed to increase machine utilisation, aiming for a 20-40% increase in the next couple of years. And the company feels that it is being well supported in these efforts by EdgeCAM. “To set such a high target is quite a challenge for a small company with such a wide product range”, explains Werner Weidemann. “With EdgeCAM we are sure that we have the right CAM system on our side. And we hope that Pathtrace will continue its path of offering innovative and intelligent production solutions while at the same time maintaining speed and reliability”.

Timm Weidemann also sees room for further growth in the company’s use of EdgeCAM. When moving to the new CAM system, the company also purchased EdgeCAM Strategy Manager, one of the modules in the EdgeCAM product range. EdgeCAM Strategy Manager captures, stores and re-uses preferred machining methods and the company’s best practises to streamline the programming process and dramatically cut programming times. Used in conjunction with EdgeCAM Solid Machinist, EdgeCAM Strategy Manager provides automated machining of solids at the touch of a button, something that very much appeals to Timm Weidemann. As the company manufactures a wide range of products sometimes in very small batches, or even one-off products, Timm could be forgiven for having doubts about the suitability of this approach. However, he has been won over by the simple design concept behind EdgeCAM Strategy Manager. EdgeCAM Strategy Manager does not impose rules or working methods, instead it allows companies to utilize the expertise and experience of the workforce with every part that needs to be machined. Because the interactive process is designed around a simple flow chart, the programmer can easily create and modify strategies.” This concept represents the future of CAM machining”, concludes Timm Weidemann. “And it shows that Pathtrace – just like us – is thinking strategically.” Success depends on choosing the right CNC software, and with EdgeCAM Weidemann is well prepared to maximise the company’s potential for years to come.