Accurate parts, less time

Scottsboro, Alabama-based Avans Machine Inc. prides itself on quality and excellence, serving a broad spectrum of industries including pharmaceutical/medical, aerospace, space, and defense. Founded in 1989, the company quickly gained a reputation for being willing to take on any job, no matter how big or small, and for producing parts to the highest quality standards.

Strict adherence to its principles has fueled Avans’ growth from a three-person shop 30+ years ago to a 50,000ft² facility with 80 employees running three shifts. The company’s reputation has netted a wide variety of customers with a wide variety of parts, materials, and production runs – all with the same demand for high quality and on-time delivery. Avans relies on a stable of nearly 40 CNC machines to get everything done, including multi-axis mills and lathes, wire EDMs, and even a 9-axis machine or two. CNC programming is done by a team of people led by Avans Programmer Trevor Hall.

“We have an array of machines for an array of jobs,” Hall says. “We machine everything from stainless and aluminum to plastic and Inconel. We don’t shy away from anything, really.”

The challenge, says Hall, was the CAM software Avans had been using since the early 2000s was starting to become less capable of keeping up with its cutting-edge customers. The manufacturer needed more robust all-around software for the parts customers were asking them to produce. The programming team looked at a few CAM systems and whittled the list down to those that could do “this and that, instead of this or that.”

“We used the same software for about 20 years,” Hall says. “The issue wasn’t that we weren’t able to complete parts with it, but programming was becoming less and less efficient.”

The team’s search led them to CAD/CAM Solutions Inc. in Huntsville, Alabama, a reseller of Mastercam. CAD/CAM Solutions’ sales and solution expert, Brian Kadow, spent a large amount of time at Avans, getting to know the business and how it operated. Noting the variety of materials and machines used, as well as production runs that range from 10 to 10,000 parts, Kadow recommended Mastercam from Tolland, Connecticut-based CNC Software for its flexibility and robust set of programming tools. He also felt the software’s Verify, Backplot, and Machine Simulation modules would be extremely helpful with Avans’ prototyping work.

Backplot checks toolpaths for collisions and other issues. Verify helps find efficiencies in stock removal and looks for potential tool and toolholder problems. Machine Simulation lets users see the part being machined in real time to find issues before ruining expensive materials or tools.

Changing CAM systems

While this sounded like exactly what they needed, Hall and his programmers hesitated. They had no experience with this CAM solution and were concerned their production schedule would be negatively affected as they learned how to navigate the software.

“We do very difficult work, and we didn’t want to commit to something that would take too much time to learn,” Hall says. “It was a big worry for us.”

Kadow reassured them. The two companies were close enough that someone could be at Avans in under an hour for needed support, which meant in-person training classes were also less than an hour away.

“We never know what kind of work we’re going to get,” Hall says, “so having an expert nearby to help when we need it is a huge win for our business.”

Kadow notes that taking full advantage of the reseller’s support and training programs has been key to Avans’ ability to get up to speed so quickly.

“Not many of our customers have the variety of machines and production run sizes Avans has,” Kadow says. “Their willingness to jump in with both feet and use all of the resources we provide has really helped them ramp up quickly.”

According to Hall, the learning curve was not steep. In addition to the programming experience his team gained from their prior system, he credits Avans’ success to Mastercam’s intuitive platform, ease of use, and its ability to think like a machinist. Especially important for a shop with such a wide variety of jobs is Mastercam’s emphasis on streamlining workflow. Automations such as the ability to import families of operations that can be customized to individual parts, the ability to create standard part and toolpath geometries, or the ability to use batch processing to create several operation flows at once enables Avans to add new parts or part iterations quickly and confidently to its production mix.

Across the board, however, the programming team’s favorite feature is OptiRough – it saves time on the programming side and the machining side of part production. OptiRough, powered by Mastercam’s Dynamic Motion technology, helps users create a more efficient, collision-aware roughing strategy. Using bi-directional cutting motion and deeper cuts to remove material greatly reduces cycle times, along with tooling wear and breakage downtime. Programmer Jacob Golden highlighted the fact that efficiencies gained through OptiRough resonate throughout the part’s entire production.

“We do a lot of complex high-precision parts for pharma and defense, so a lot of parts need a lot of finishing to tight tolerances,” Golden says. “OptiRough helps produce a much more complete part, so finishing operations are also shorter.”

Also, many parts for these industries are made from exotic, very hard alloys. With Dynamic Motion technology, Avans programmers can quickly create toolpaths that take material characteristics into account. For Avans, Dynamic Motion provides several advantages. It ensures the tool moves at a consistent speed based on several factors, including material characteristics. The tool is also kept at a consistent depth, and changes to the stock size and shape automatically result in necessary toolpath changes.

“You don’t have a lot of air moves, because the software knows right where your stock starts,” Hall says. “When you’ve got a tough material and you’re cutting really slow, airtime can eat into production time.”

Before releasing programming to the floor, Hall and his team use the Verify and Backplot functions to catch any issues and ensure what’s programmed runs as expected. While this function is useful for all the parts they program, Programmer Adam Wright calls it especially important for smaller parts.

“There’s not a lot of room for error on small parts,” Wright says. “I like being able to make adjustments as I watch the simulation.”

Just as complex as Avans’ small parts are the large parts produced on 9-axis machines. With cutting tools approaching a part from almost any angle, and multiple axes moving at the same time, there’s real potential for collision. Wright and Hall agree using Verify and Backplot exposes those collisions, allowing them to adjust toolpaths accordingly.

Works on all the machines

Another concern Hall and his team had was finding CAD/CAM software they could use for all their machines. They didn’t want to purchase multiple software systems to accommodate each of their machines. Mastercam met these criteria with solutions for mills, lathes, wire machines, and more. Still, the Avans team was skeptical of its wire EDM module.

“Most CAD/CAM systems aren’t good with EDM, so we thought we’d probably end up getting EDM-specific software at some point,” Hall says. “But we’ve done 2- and 4-axis burns on our EDM using Mastercam, and we’ve been happy with how they turned out.”

Mastercam Wire includes a set of 2- and 4-axis wire paths providing control over both wire motion and angle, while automated lead-in and lead-out strategies shorten programming time. Avans started using the module’s Intelligent NC feature, which lets programmers build a library of machining strategies they can automatically adapt as they build new models. Given time, they can program entire wire paths with only a few clicks.

As the team becomes more adept with the system, Hall is starting to explore other solutions within the CAD/CAM software’s universe, including getting their large inventory of tooling into a library.

“Right now, we’re just uploading tools as we go,” Hall says. “But I can see the benefits of having all of our tools at our fingertips.”

When asked what effect the robust CAD/CAM system will have on the company’s future growth, Hall has a surprising answer.

“Well, the tech school we work with to hire new people switched to Mastercam a couple of years ago,” Hall says. “Graduates will be much more interested in working here now that they don’t have to learn a new system.”

Mastercam (CNC Software)
https://www.mastercam.com

Avans Machine Inc.
http://www.avansmachine.com