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END USER: Superior Drilling Products, (435) 789-0594, www.superiordrillingproducts.com. CHALLENGE: Without prior experience, program a multitask machine. SOLUTION: Using CAM software with online training resources and local support. SOLUTION PROVIDERS: CNC Software Inc., (800) 228-2877, www.mastercam.com; Remote Machine, (801) 942-2792, www.remotemachinecnc.com
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Superior Drilling Products, Vernal, Utah, repairs drill bits for the oil and gas industry. The 3"- to 24"-dia. bits feature tungsten-carbide bodies tipped with PCD. SDP rebuilds the bodies, replaces the cutting edges and regrinds complex bit contours to customer specifications. Founded in 1993 by Troy Meier and his wife, Annette, SDP pioneers new repair techniques that support the global bit rental market.
SDP also seeks ways to help its customers succeed. One of those customers was struggling to machine a complex, approximately 7"-dia., 14"-long, 4145 steel reamer. The machining operations included turning on a lathe, threading on another machine, contour milling on a machining center and pocketing on yet another machine. The lengthy process was expensive and caused production backlogs.
Courtesy of Superior Drilling Products
CAM programmer Jared Spencer (seated) discusses details of a Mastercam CAM program with David Gale, manufacturing manager.
Meier volunteered to find a way to efficiently produce the reamer and reasoned the operations could be consolidated on a multitask machine. With the guidance of Hartwig Inc. representative Lynn Smith, he acquired an Okuma Multus-B400 7-axis multitask machine. Because the machine mills, drills and turns, it produces parts in one chucking. To program the reamer, SDP bought a seat of Mastercam X5 Mill CAD/CAM software from CNC Software Inc., Tolland, Conn.
Meier’s reasoning, however, involved a leap of faith. SDP’s prior machine tool capability was limited to two lathes outfitted as grinders. In addition, the employees assigned to produce the reamer included the company’s IT manager, whose background was in TV broadcasting, and an inspection staffer who is also an experienced pilot and flight instructor.
According to David Gale, the former IT manager and current manufacturing manager, “Troy said this machine is coming, here’s what I want you to make, figure it out.” Jared Spencer, the pilot, was responsible for learning Mastercam to produce toolpaths.
Spencer’s familiarity with CAD/CAM was restricted to some architectural CAD study in high school. However, the discipline and focus a pilot requires helped prepare him for programming a CNC machine. “Both are tremendously challenging,” he said. “A lot of thought processes go into them.”
Spencer received help from Josh Sinykin, who represents Mastercam reseller Remote Machine, Sandy, Utah. Sinykin noted that he frequently works with business startups and is used to dealing with inexperienced programmers. “When we have customers who are inexperienced or even an experienced machinist who gets a new, more capable machine, we go in and help them make sure their code is good and show them how to set up and program their first part.”
The major portion of Spencer’s CAM education came via CNC Software’s online Mastercam University. The video training program offers courses covering programming basics, toolpaths and machining principles. The classes are available 24/7, allowing users to learn at their own pace and at their own locations.
The online training fit Spencer’s approach to learning. “I’m a hands-on kind of guy,” he said. “I would watch and listen to what the instructor said. If I didn’t get the point, I would rewind it and listen again. I didn’t have to feel like I was stopping the class and frustrating people who were picking it up faster than me. I could listen to it 10 times if I needed to.” The classes are application-oriented, Spencer said, noting that each instructor “shows you on the video the exact thing you are going to see in the software.”
With the training, Spencer learned to program toolpaths, import solid models and STL files, work in surfaces and perform various operations, such as engraving. Sinykin pointed out that many colleges employ the online program to enable students to gain Mastercam programming certification as they earn their 4-year degrees.
In October 2010, Spencer accepted responsibility for programming the reamer. November and December were consumed with getting the new multitask machine up and running, and the shop produced a part for customer approval in January 2011. The customer’s satisfaction with the reamer SDP produced immediately resulted in contracts for further work.
Just as there are different flight paths to a selected destination, Spencer found that CAM programming offers many ways to accomplish a given task. He said: “Josh showed his way of doing certain things. The instructor on the Mastercam video had some different approaches that made programming even faster. We also have a manufacturing process consultant on staff, and he has been showing me other ways to speed up and improve my programming. Everybody has their own way to get from point A to point B.”
Related Glossary Terms
- computer numerical control ( CNC)
computer numerical control ( CNC)
Microprocessor-based controller dedicated to a machine tool that permits the creation or modification of parts. Programmed numerical control activates the machine’s servos and spindle drives and controls the various machining operations. See DNC, direct numerical control; NC, numerical control.
- computer-aided design ( CAD)
computer-aided design ( CAD)
Product-design functions performed with the help of computers and special software.
- computer-aided manufacturing ( CAM)
computer-aided manufacturing ( CAM)
Use of computers to control machining and manufacturing processes.
- gang cutting ( milling)
gang cutting ( milling)
Machining with several cutters mounted on a single arbor, generally for simultaneous cutting.
- lathe
lathe
Turning machine capable of sawing, milling, grinding, gear-cutting, drilling, reaming, boring, threading, facing, chamfering, grooving, knurling, spinning, parting, necking, taper-cutting, and cam- and eccentric-cutting, as well as step- and straight-turning. Comes in a variety of forms, ranging from manual to semiautomatic to fully automatic, with major types being engine lathes, turning and contouring lathes, turret lathes and numerical-control lathes. The engine lathe consists of a headstock and spindle, tailstock, bed, carriage (complete with apron) and cross slides. Features include gear- (speed) and feed-selector levers, toolpost, compound rest, lead screw and reversing lead screw, threading dial and rapid-traverse lever. Special lathe types include through-the-spindle, camshaft and crankshaft, brake drum and rotor, spinning and gun-barrel machines. Toolroom and bench lathes are used for precision work; the former for tool-and-die work and similar tasks, the latter for small workpieces (instruments, watches), normally without a power feed. Models are typically designated according to their “swing,” or the largest-diameter workpiece that can be rotated; bed length, or the distance between centers; and horsepower generated. See turning machine.
- machining center
machining center
CNC machine tool capable of drilling, reaming, tapping, milling and boring. Normally comes with an automatic toolchanger. See automatic toolchanger.
- milling
milling
Machining operation in which metal or other material is removed by applying power to a rotating cutter. In vertical milling, the cutting tool is mounted vertically on the spindle. In horizontal milling, the cutting tool is mounted horizontally, either directly on the spindle or on an arbor. Horizontal milling is further broken down into conventional milling, where the cutter rotates opposite the direction of feed, or “up” into the workpiece; and climb milling, where the cutter rotates in the direction of feed, or “down” into the workpiece. Milling operations include plane or surface milling, endmilling, facemilling, angle milling, form milling and profiling.
- milling machine ( mill)
milling machine ( mill)
Runs endmills and arbor-mounted milling cutters. Features include a head with a spindle that drives the cutters; a column, knee and table that provide motion in the three Cartesian axes; and a base that supports the components and houses the cutting-fluid pump and reservoir. The work is mounted on the table and fed into the rotating cutter or endmill to accomplish the milling steps; vertical milling machines also feed endmills into the work by means of a spindle-mounted quill. Models range from small manual machines to big bed-type and duplex mills. All take one of three basic forms: vertical, horizontal or convertible horizontal/vertical. Vertical machines may be knee-type (the table is mounted on a knee that can be elevated) or bed-type (the table is securely supported and only moves horizontally). In general, horizontal machines are bigger and more powerful, while vertical machines are lighter but more versatile and easier to set up and operate.
- polycrystalline diamond ( PCD)
polycrystalline diamond ( PCD)
Cutting tool material consisting of natural or synthetic diamond crystals bonded together under high pressure at elevated temperatures. PCD is available as a tip brazed to a carbide insert carrier. Used for machining nonferrous alloys and nonmetallic materials at high cutting speeds.
- reamer
reamer
Rotating cutting tool used to enlarge a drilled hole to size. Normally removes only a small amount of stock. The workpiece supports the multiple-edge cutting tool. Also for contouring an existing hole.
- threading
threading
Process of both external (e.g., thread milling) and internal (e.g., tapping, thread milling) cutting, turning and rolling of threads into particular material. Standardized specifications are available to determine the desired results of the threading process. Numerous thread-series designations are written for specific applications. Threading often is performed on a lathe. Specifications such as thread height are critical in determining the strength of the threads. The material used is taken into consideration in determining the expected results of any particular application for that threaded piece. In external threading, a calculated depth is required as well as a particular angle to the cut. To perform internal threading, the exact diameter to bore the hole is critical before threading. The threads are distinguished from one another by the amount of tolerance and/or allowance that is specified. See turning.
- turning
turning
Workpiece is held in a chuck, mounted on a face plate or secured between centers and rotated while a cutting tool, normally a single-point tool, is fed into it along its periphery or across its end or face. Takes the form of straight turning (cutting along the periphery of the workpiece); taper turning (creating a taper); step turning (turning different-size diameters on the same work); chamfering (beveling an edge or shoulder); facing (cutting on an end); turning threads (usually external but can be internal); roughing (high-volume metal removal); and finishing (final light cuts). Performed on lathes, turning centers, chucking machines, automatic screw machines and similar machines.
