Hi, I work with Makino, one of the other big machine tool builders in
Cincinnati (Makino, Mazak, and Milacron are all based in the area).
Your visitor was not too far off base until he got to the cost part.
The folks at SABCO in Charlotte are one of our customers who port and polish
by hand until the dyno tells them that they got lucky. Then they scan or
digitize the "trophy" head into a solid model. They can generate a program
from the solid model which will allow them to machine as many duplicates as
they need with exactly the same flow characteristics.
To the best of my knowledge all of our customers apply the process to their
own products. I do not know of any one doing it on a contract basis, or
anyone who could afford it. The CNC machining centers required are going to
cost $600,000 to $900,000 each, and access by the hour will be in excess of
$100. To achieve the accuracy required the scan time will be many hours,
and with the programming and machining you can probably expect the first
head to cost around $10,000!
It is a bit more difficult to extend the process to foundry tooling. For
example the tooling would be radically different for evaporative pattern
(lost foam) castings than sand castings, or permanent mold. Even if we
restrict ourselves to sand cast, the programming system must be told many
specifics of the equipment used by the particular foundry you want to use
(such as variations in flask size). No one has developed a flexible system
that can select the ideal casting process (which is not only dependent on
the material, geometry of the part, sensitivity to porosity, but also on the
production volume), select a foundry with suitable equipment, and machine
patterns, molds, etc., around the details of that foundry's tooling. But it
can be done, if anyone wants to spend the money.
Greg Hyatt
----- Original Message -----
From: <ardunbill@webtv.net>
To: <land-speed@autox.team.net>
Sent: Friday, December 31, 1999 8:43 AM
Subject: "CAD-CAM"
> Hi Folks. Had a visitor to look at my car the other day who was a
> retired civilian Army aviation logistics specialist. Told me something
> I was curious about. He said there exist today in industry cad-cam
> devices even incorporating x-rays that could focus on an object like an
> Ardun head, completely analyze it in three dimensions inside and out,
> computer model it, arrange for all necessary pattern and mold making,
> instruct the foundry to make it, heat treat it, machine it, and roll out
> the finished product as an exact duplicate of your original. All this
> without human hands having touched it. And since this is all automatic,
> without paying hourly personnel, the cost would be very low.
>
> I was impressed. Anybody out there know if these wonders are true?
> Getting pretty close to the computer that creates food on command out of
> nothing on the Star Trek shows.
>
> ArdunBill in the Great Dismal Swamp, Chesapeake, VA
>
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