EXAIR’s family of Air Nozzles — from the tiny new Model 1108SS Atto Super Air Nozzle at 2.0 ounces (56.7 grams) of blowing force to the high power Model 1120 Large Super Air Nozzle at 23 pounds (10.4 kg) of strong blowoff force — have always provided safe, economical performance. Independent laboratory tests now certify that EXAIR’s entire Air Nozzle family has also met the rigorous safety, health, and environmental standards of the European Union in order to attain the CE mark.

By entraining high volumes of room air, EXAIR’s Super Air Nozzles use less compressed air and less energy to provide superior performance to other blowoff products. Unlike open pipe and nozzles that haven’t been optimized, none of EXAIR’s large selection of Super Air Nozzles can be blocked, meeting OSHA’s standard for dead-end pressure 29 CFR 1910.242(b). All of EXAIR’s Super Air Nozzles also fall within OSHA’s noise requirement 29 CFR 1910.95(a). Prices start at $21.

Fort Washington, PA – PartMaker Inc., a division of Delcam Plc, will unveil its latest version of PartMaker Software for programming CNC Mills, Lathes, WireEDM, Turn-Mill Centers and Swiss-type lathes at IMTS 2012 in Chicago, IL. Among a number of other enhancements, this new version will feature a totally revamped surface machining module offering PartMaker users some of the most powerful CAM machining algorithms on the market today for 3, 4 and 5 axis simultaneous milling operations on a variety of machining platforms including CNC Mills, Turn-Mill Centers, Bar-Fed Mills and Swiss-type lathes.

PartMaker Version 2013 will be previewed at IMTS 2012.

PartMaker will be exhibited in the booth of its parent company, Delcam Plc, at IMTS 2012. PartMaker will be demonstrated along side Delcam’s other leading edge manufacturing software products including the PowerMILL, PowerSHAPE, FeatureCAM, ArtCAM and PowerInspect range. The Delcam booth will be the largest CAM booth at IMTS 2012, where the most comprehensive range of CAM products at the show will be on display.

PartMaker’s has pioneered the field of CAM software for multi-axis Turn-Mill Centers and Swiss-type lathes. The software has a vast array of robust post processors and machine simulation files for virtually every machine model ever built from such leading builders as Citizen, Mazak, Star, Mori-Seiki, Tsugami, Okuma, Tornos, Doosan, Hanwha, Nakamura and many, many others. PartMaker’s technology for automating the programming of multi-axis Turn-Mill Centers and Swiss-type lathes is protected by two U.S. patents.

“PartMaker Version 2013 proves that power and ease of use don’t have to be trade-offs users have to make with their CAM system,” says PartMaker Inc. division President Hanan Fishman. “With a host of new, advanced milling strategies, PartMaker Version 2013 offers its users perhaps the most comprehensive and powerful CAM system on the market today for the full spectrum of production machining applications, all while maintaining the software’s hallmark, industry-leading ease of use.”

“PartMaker’s new Advanced Surface Machining (ASM) functionality is based on the same technology and algorithms underpinning Delcam’s PowerMILL, the leading CAM system on the market for the manufacture of complex shapes,” says Fishman. “The new functionality being offered in PartMaker’s ASM answers the needs of our customers making ever increasingly more complicated parts, particularly for those in the medical device and aerospace arena. Also, machine tools are becoming more complex, with 5-axis simultaneous milling now even becoming available on a number of Swiss-type lathes.”

Introducing the Advanced Surface Machining (ASM) Module
The new high-end milling functionality available in PartMaker Version 2013 will be known as the Advanced Surface Machining module, or ASM for short. ASM will replace PartMaker’s Surface Machining Wizard (SMW) module for three, four and five axis machining. For existing PartMaker users, the upgrade to ASM will be provided free of cost and the transition will be very easy to make.

The benefits of the ASM module for PartMaker users are numerous. The will allow for faster tool path calculation, greater tool control and improved surface finishes, among other benefits.

The ASM module will feature a wide variety of high-end milling strategies that can be applied across the entire suite of PartMaker CAM applications including PartMaker Mill, PartMaker Turn-Mill and PartMaker SwissCAM. The powerful surface machining strategies in ASM are the same as those found in PowerMILL, Delcam’s industry leading CAM system for the manufacture of complex shapes. Each strategy provides for full tool control enabling them to be used in either traditional 3-axis methods or up to 5-axis simultaneous machining methods, depending on a machine tool’s capability.

The advent of ASM extends PartMaker’s 5-axis simultaneous milling functionality to CNC milling centers, making PartMaker an unsurpassed solution for production oriented manufacturers to solve all of their CNC programming challenges, Milling, Turning, Wire EDM, Turn-Mill and Swiss with one, unified programming platform.
Vortex Technology for High Speed Machining

PartMaker 2013 will feature Delcam’s new Vortex High Speed Machining Strategies (as part of ASM). The Vortex area-clearance strategy, for which Delcam has a patent pending, has been developed by Delcam specifically to gain the maximum benefit from solid carbide tooling, in particular those designs that can give deeper cuts by using the full flute length as the cutting surface. It can be used for 2.5 and 3-axis roughing, 3+2-axis area clearance and for rest machining.

Like other Delcam roughing strategies, Vortex toolpaths are calculated to give more efficient machining by following the shape of the part and by keeping air moves to a minimum. This is particularly important for rest machining operations. One fundamental problem with conventional area-clearance strategies is that the optimum cutting conditions only occur during a straight-line cut. Any internal corners within the model significantly increase the engagement angle of the cutter. To protect the cutter, this increase needs to be balanced by setting a lower feed rate. The user then has the choice of using this lower rate over the whole toolpath, which increases the machining time, or varying the feeds and speeds as the cutter moves around the model and so increasing wear on the cutter.

Unlike other high-speed roughing techniques that aim to maintain a constant theoretical metal-removal rate, the Vortex strategy produces toolpaths with a controlled engagement angle for the complete operation. This maintains the optimum cutting conditions for the entire toolpath that would normally be possible only for the straight-line moves. As a result, the cutting time will be shorter, while cutting will be undertaken at a more consistent volume-removal rate and feed rate, so protecting the machine.

Because Vortex toolpaths have a controlled engagement angle, tools will never be overloaded and so will achieve the maximum tool life. Shock loading caused by changes in the contact angle is minimized, preventing chipping of the flutes. In addition, the stability of the cutting conditions gives more consistent edge temperatures, so prolonging the life of the tool coating and removing heat damage to the surface of the part. Finally, the ability to use stepdowns of up to two, or even three times, the tool diameter spreads the tool wear evenly over the cutting surface of the tool, again contributing to longer tool life.

The Crowne Plaza-Novi has extended our room block until tomorrow, Wednesday, May 23. You must act quickly to reserve a room at the group rate of $89 single/double occupancy. Just click on the link below to go directly to the Crowne Plaza’s online reservation page.

Crowne Plaza-Novi Reservations
The Purchasing Fair will provide you with an outstanding opportunity to meet face-to-face with potential new customers. The following companies have already confirmed their participation:

AREOFLEX/ INMET
BELL HELICOPTER
CAMERON
CATERPILLAR (PEORIA, IL)
CATERPILLAR (SOUTH MILWAUKEE, WI)
DANFOSS A/S
DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY
DUCOMMUN INC.
EBERT MACHINE CO.
ESPAR PRODUCTS INC.
FASCO FASTENERS
FULTON INDUSTRIES
KAPCO TOOL & DIE LIMITED
KIMBERLY-CLARK CORP.
KRUSE PROPERTIES GROUP LLC
NAVISTAR INC.
NORTH STAR IMAGING
PEERLESS PUMP COMPANY
PV LABS
RG BOENSCH COMPANY
SWECO
TOPP LESS TRASH CAN
US ARMY AMCOM
US ARMY TACOM
ZF–HEBRON

We are continuing to recruit customers for the Purchasing Fair and will add their names to the list as they are confirmed. If there is a customer company that you would like to see at the Purchasing Fair, please email the company name, address and phone number to jgrosmann@ntma.org. It would also be helpful if you could provide the name of a purchasing agent or buyer within the company. We will contact them with a personal invitation to attend.

You can register for the Purchasing Fair at www.purchasingfair.org (click on Vendors>Register) – you will need to log in to complete the event registration.

For more information please contact Michelle or Rich at 800-248-6862 or visit www.purchasingfair.com

A Georgia Tech research team has developed a novel technology that could change how industry designs and casts complex, costly metal parts. This new casting method makes possible faster prototype development times, as well as more efficient and cost-effective manufacturing procedures after a part moves to mass production.

Suman Das, a professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, has developed an all-digital approach that allows a part to be made directly from its computer-aided design (CAD). The project, sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), has received $4.65 million in funding.

“We have developed a proof-of-concept system which is already turning out complex metal parts, and which fundamentally transforms the way that very high-value castings are made,” said Das, who directs the Direct Digital Manufacturing Laboratory in Georgia Tech’s Manufacturing Research Center (MaRC). “We’re confident that our approach can lower costs by at least 25 percent and reduce the number of unusable waste parts by more than 90 percent, while eliminating 100 percent of the tooling.”

The approach being utilized by Das and his team focuses on a technique called investment casting, also known as lost-wax casting. In this process, which dates back thousands of years, molten metal is poured into an expendable ceramic mold to form a part.

The mold is made by creating a wax replica of the part to be cast, surrounding or “investing” the replica with a ceramic slurry, and then drying the slurry and hardening it to form the mold. The wax is then melted out – or lost – to form a mold cavity into which metal can be poured and solidified to produce the casting.

Investment casting is used to create precision parts across diverse industries including aerospace, energy, biomedical and electronics. Das’s current efforts are focused on parts used in aircraft engines. He is working with turbine-engine airfoils – complex parts used in jet engines – in collaboration with the University of Michigan, and PCC Airfoils.

Today, Das explained, most precision metal castings are designed on computers, using computer-aided design software. But the next step – creating the ceramic mold with which the part is cast – currently involves a sequence of six major operations requiring expensive precision-machined dies and hundreds of tooling pieces.

“The result is a costly process that typically produces many defective molds and waste parts before a useable prototype is achieved,” Das said. “This trial-and-error development phase often requires many months to cast a part that is accurate enough to enter the next stage, which involves testing and evaluation.”

By contrast, Das’s approach involves a device that builds ceramic molds directly from a CAD design, completing the task much faster and producing far fewer unusable parts. Called Large Area Maskless Photopolymerization (LAMP), this high-resolution digital process accretes the mold layer by layer by projecting bitmaps of ultraviolet light onto a mixture of photosensitive resin and ceramic particles, and then selectively curing the mixture to a solid.

The technique places one 100-micron layer on top of another until the structure is complete. After the mold is formed, the cured resin is removed through binder burnout and the remaining ceramic is sintered in a furnace. The result is a fully ceramic structure into which molten metal – such as nickel-based superalloys or titanium-based alloys – are poured, producing a highly accurate casting.

“The LAMP process lowers the time required to turn a CAD design into a test-worthy part from a year to about a week,” Das said. “We eliminate the scrap and the tooling, and each digitally manufactured mold is identical to the others.”

A prototype LAMP alpha machine is currently building six typical turbine-engine airfoil molds in six hours. Das predicts that a larger beta machine – currently being built at Georgia Tech and scheduled for installation at a PCC Airfoils facility in Ohio in 2012 – will produce 100 molds at a time in about 24 hours.

Although the current work focuses on turbine-engine airfoils, Das believes the LAMP technique will be effective in the production of many types of intricate metal parts. He envisions a scenario in which companies could send out part designs to digital foundries and receive test castings within a short time, much as integrated-circuit designers send CAD plans to chip foundries today.

Moreover, he said, direct digital manufacturing enabled by LAMP should allow designers to create increasingly sophisticated pieces capable of achieving greater efficiency in jet engines and other systems.

“This process can produce parts of a complexity that designers could only dream of before,” he said. “The digital technique takes advantage of high-resolution optics and precision motion systems to achieve extremely sharp, small features – on the order of 100 microns.”

Das also noted that the new process not only creates testable prototypes but could also be used in the actual manufacturing process. That would allow more rapid production of complex metal parts, in both low and high volumes, at lower costs in a variety of industries.

“When you can produce desired volumes in a short period without tooling,” he said, “you have gone beyond rapid prototyping to true rapid manufacturing.”

The project depicted in this article is sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; the content of this article does not necessarily reflect the position or the policy of the government, and no official endorsement should be inferred.

Research News & Publications Office
Georgia Institute of Technology
75 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 314
Atlanta, Georgia 30308 USA

Grimsby, Ontario, Canada (May 21, 2012) – RMT Robotics® (www.rmtrobotics.com), a Cimcorp Oy company and the manufacturer and integrator of ADAMTM autonomous mobile robots (AMR) (www.adamrobot.com), has entered into a sales representative agreement with eepos Japan for the promotion and sale of its ADAM mobile robots in Japan.

Eepos Japan will work with RMT to promote and sell the AMR fleets to end users throughout Japan with a strategic focus on the automotive manufacturing and service industries. Eepos Japan’s sales and distributor network will promote ADAM through its Japanese channels.

“We are thrilled to partner with eepos Japan to extend our global sales reach and introduce ADAM’s unique lean manufacturing capabilities to the Japanese market,” said Bill Torrens, director of sales and marketing, RMT Robotics. “Eepos Japan shares RMT’s commitment to innovative material handling logistics and will be an ideal partner to promote ADAM systems.”

“We look forward to a successful introduction of ADAM into the Japanese market,” said Mr. Akihito Niwa, CEO, eepos Japan. “We are confident that the ADAM AMR is the ideal solution to enable automated materials handling in the manufacturing sectors of Japan.”

ADAM AMR

ADAM is an AMR that independently performs random origin to random destination transport of work-in-process materials and finished goods in lean manufacturing and assembly applications. ADAM is designed to perform missions autonomously, navigating around fixed and moving objects, free of guide wires, reflectors or transponders.

To download an image of ADAM, please click here.

For more information, please contact Lori Vaughan, Marketing Coordinator, RMT Robotics, at lorivaughan@rmtrobotics.com.

For media information, please contact Kim Zdanowicz, Public Relations, Koroberi, Inc. (http://www.koroberi.com), by phone at +1 919-945-0548 or by email at kim@koroberi.com.

About RMT Robotics
RMT Robotics (www.rmtrobotics.com), a Cimcorp Oy Company, is a global company that manufactures and integrates turnkey robotic gantry-based order fulfillment and tire handling solutions designed to reduce operating costs and streamline operations.

To extend the flexibility of robotics beyond a fixed workspace, RMT Robotics also manufactures and integrates ADAM™, the category-defining autonomous mobile robot. The ADAM system redefines the purpose and function of industrial AGVs by performing intelligent robotic transport of materials in complex, random origin to random destination industrial environments.

Since 1981, RMT Robotics has been recognized around the globe as an innovator in robotics materials handling. RMT helps our customers compete in an increasingly aggressive and price-sensitive global marketplace by providing best-in-class robotic handling solutions.
About eepos Japan

Operating from Osaka, eepos Japan (http://eepos.asia/) is a member of the eepos group which includes eepos GmbH, eepos Shenzhen Inc and eepos USA. Eepos Japan has extensive experience in the import and sale of aluminum light crane solutions and lifting devices.