Video: Precision machining with Siemens’ NX CAM software
Precision Machining with Siemens NX CAM software
View this new video, “Precision Machining with Siemens’ NX,” to learn how Siemens NX solutions enable Manthorpe Engineering Ltd. to deliver complexity with precision and speed.
The video features statements by Tom Pochciol – Business Director, Manthorpe Engineering Ltd., Steve Lee, Manufacturing Engineer, Manthorpe Engineering Ltd., and Julian Crawley, Project Engineer, TTL Solutions. View the video and the transcript below.
Transcript of video:
We are a manufacturing organization founded in 1978. We carry out a range of machining services and fabrication services. We have operated in a number of industries, trying to focus on some of the more technically challenging industries. The aerospace industry has always been an area of focus and an element of defense work. And, of course, the power generation industry. We try to differentiate ourselves by going for slightly more complex machining. We try to work with difficult materials like titanium and exotic alloys.
We also try to differentiate by trying to develop a capability working with very tight tolerances and we can operate in a range of sizes. So we can achieve very small components in a range of millimeters but we can also go up to very large components. Our largest five axis facility is about 3.4 meters in diameter.
Some of the components that we produce here at Manthorpe are very large, very complex, with geometry that 15 years ago that could not be achieved.
One of the strengths of NX is the speed needs with which we can produce multiple iterations of a particular design. If you can get that collaboration between design and manufacture there may be ways that we can advise on some characteristic of how we are actually going to manufacture that on a machine. A particular feature in this place as opposed to a particular feature in this place might save hours of machining time. And, where NX comes into that is that you can very easily have multiple iterations as you work with the design authority to manipulate the characteristics of the product.
NX does save us a lot of time and money. The most impressive thing about NX is the ability to simulate exactly what you see on the machine. Time on the machine is money. We can be dealing with very expensive components. We would not want to be going straight on to the machine cutting blindly.
I think that we work closely with TTL very collaboratively. They have supported us very well, particularly on things like the development of postprocessors. TTL have customized the postprocessors to suit Manthorpe’s very high-end machining requirements and also to utilize all the latest features of the machine tool controllers.
Quite often what we are doing is associated with very tight tolerances and complex materials but there are certain products that we make that have difficult to achieve five axis profiles on them. And, you need the right tools in a virtual environment to model that effectively and that is one of the things that NX has allowed us to do. NX is central to our business.
Learn more about NX CAM.
