CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
29 November 2007
Events News
Delcam to Show Latest Mouldmaking Developments in India
Delcam will demonstrate its latest developments for the design, machining and inspection of moulds at the DieMould India exhibition to be held in Bangalore from 15th to 18th February. Delcam was ranked a world's leading supplier of CAM software and services to the mould, tool and die industry in the latest CIMdata report. The company expects to reinforce its leading position with its new software releases.
Delcam is expanding its business in India at a rapid rate, especially since the opening of its new head office in Pune earlier this year. During 2006, software sales in India grew by 18% and further increase is expected this year. The company now operates eight offices in Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Ludhiana in addition to its head office and employs a total of around 50 staff.
Delcam has approximately 400 customers in the country, including automotive majors Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, Force Motors and Maruti Udyog, component suppliers Amtek Group, Varroc and Anurang, the Footwear Design and Development Institute and the National Aerospace Laboratories, as well as leading toolmakers such as CTM India and ASB International.
At DieMould, visitors will have their first opportunity to see the latest release of Delcam's Toolmaker mould design package. The main change to the software is the improved speed of its unique Power Features approach to parametric tool design. Mould components that incorporate Power Features react automatically as they are placed into an assembly, adding all the necessary fit-features to the connecting components. For example, if the designer adds an ejector pin to the mould assembly, the software automatically creates the corresponding hole features in the plates through which it passes. Furthermore, the tolerances between the various components are also defined automatically. Thus, a sealing-fit hole is placed in the die block and the necessary clearance allowance added to the holes in all the other plates through which the pin passes.
Of course, Power Features maintain relationships in a similar way to parametric objects in other CAD systems so that, if the pin moves, all the associated holes move with it. However, the automatic creation of relationships makes the development of the design much quicker than other systems and also makes errors in the design process less likely.
Toolmaker incorporates a high level of intelligence when suggesting appropriate sizes for components defined with Power Features and will recommend standard sizes whenever these are available from the many catalogues within the system. When changes are made to the design, the software recommends the nearest alternative standard size rather than using simple mathematical changes to the component's dimensions. This minimises the need for non-standard components, which take longer and are more expensive to make.
Like other recent versions of Delcam's CAM software software, a major focus of PowerMILL 8 is additional options for five-axis machining. However, the new release also includes enhancements and speed-ups throughout the program. In particular, improved memory management within the software gives significantly faster calculation times, especially for large, complex components, like press tools for automotive bodywork, and for smaller, highly-detailed models, such as moulds for fine-tolerance and high-accuracy parts.
The most significant of the new five-axis options is a tool-axis editing function that allows the user to select any region of a toolpath and redefine the tool-axis vectors within that region. Previously, a single tool-axis specification was applied to a complete toolpath, although this could be adjusted automatically to avoid any collisions. The new ability to use different options in different regions of the toolpath enables users to optimise cutting conditions and avoid any sudden machine tool movements that could result in a poor surface finish.
The latest release of the PowerINSPECT inspection software includes several changes to make it even easier to use. The main improvement is the introduction of a colour-coded scheme for the points to be measured. Under the scheme, all points to be inspected are initially coloured blue, apart from the position for the first measurement which is shown in red. As the inspection proceeds, the next position to be measured is always shown in red, while each point that has already been taken is turned to grey.
The new scheme can be applied either when using teach-and-learn inspection of the first item in a production run or when programming a sequence for a number of parts off-line. In both cases, it will make it easier for any user to reproduce exactly an inspection sequence developed by a different operator. Similarly, it will help when duplicating an inspection last undertaken some time before, when the user cannot remember the complete sequence.
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