CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
November 2005
Implementation Investments
Delcam Looks To Build on Autosport Success at Autosport Engineering
CADCAM developer Delcam will be at the Autosport Engineering exhibition to be held at the NEC, Birmingham, on 12th and 13th January. The company is already well known in racing circles through the use of its PowerINSPECT inspection software by the FIA and through its contribution to the development of the new engine for the A1 Grand Prix series by Zytek Engineering.
Other Delcam's customers in the autosport industry include Proton KR, the only independent motorbike team taking part in the Moto GP series, Centro Ricerche Cagiva, the research centre for the Cagiva, Agusta and Husqvarna motorcycle brands, ATR Group, pioneers of the use of carbon fibre-reinforced plastics in autosport, and Brembo, supplier of braking systems to most prestigious car and motorbike manufacturing companies.
Technical staff from the F édération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) use a combination of Krypton's Rodym optical co-ordinate measuring system and PowerINSPECT for all pre- and post-race inspection of Grand Prix cars to check that the cars meet both safety and technical specifications.
A simplified model of each racing car that defines minimum and maximum dimensions in all critical areas of the design is stored in the PowerINSPECT software. The model is divided into areas where bodywork material must be present and areas where no material is allowed.
After all the qualifying sessions, the leading cars are inspected with the Krypton system. Each measurement is fed into the PowerINSPECT software to determine whether the point is inside or outside the legal limits. The results are displayed instantly, allowing additional measurements to be made in any areas of concern to the inspector.
Delcam's PowerMILL CAM system was chosen by Zytek Engineering, a specialist in automotive control systems, race engine design and development, powertrain development and hybrid-electric vehicles, for the manufacture of all engines for the new A1 Grand Prix series.
The A1 Grand Prix contract demanded a different approach to engine manufacture, according to Zytek Production Manager, Ian Edmonds. "With our previous ZG348 sports car engines, there were regular design changes so each component was produced in small quantities or even as a one-off. For the new A1 Grand Prix series, each team must have exactly the same engine so we had to produce more than 50 identical examples," he explained. "We realized that we would need to speed up our manufacturing techniques, especially the time we were taking to machine the engine ports, in order to produce these increased volumes."
"One change that we wanted to introduce was continuous five-axis machining, instead of using only positional five-axis techniques. We had these capabilities on some of our six Mori Seiki machines. However, our CAM system was unable to produce continuous five-axis toolpaths so we needed to look for an alternative."
Mr. Edmonds investigated a number of different systems but found that "None of the other software could do what PowerMILL could. We were looking to reduce the time for finish machining of the engine ports by two-thirds," said Mr. Edmonds. "Our early results showed that this was an achievable target."
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