When Bud Hanna bought SCP Plastics in 1999, the Booneville, Miss., injection molding shop looked more like 1966, the year the company was founded. The toolmaking technology at SCP had not changed from what it was during the Johnson administration. In 1999, SCP did not even have a computer on the premises.
Hanna quickly started to invest in new technology, including two sets of vertical and horizontal milling centers with Computer Numeric Controls (CNC), along with the latest software to automate the engineering and precision machining of molds. After just six months, the automation transformed the ancient SCP shop into one of the most technologically advanced of its kind anywhere.
Hanna adopted Solidworks as the company’s new CAD format to handle the 3D models provided by clients, which also enabled SCP to provide custom design services when needed. In January 2005, Hanna implemented two automation software packages that work in tandem with SolidWorks modeling tools: R&B and SolidCAM. Used in conjunction, the programs now guide the entire process of mold building at SCP.
“R&B and SolidCAM have made us competitive globally in tool building,” says Hanna. “I honestly feel like I can compete with offshore toolmaking operations as a result of this software.”
R&B provides a suite of applications, consisting of SplitWorks, ElectroWorks, and MoldWorks. The software modules invert a customers’ 3D SolidWorks design into the negative space of a mold cavity, and automatically adds electrode points and a mold base to the parting model. SolidCAM software then receives the mold model and translates it to CNC machine language seamlessly.
Not only did these two improvements bring SCP’s customer services into the 21st century, they greatly reduced the time customers had to wait to have an actual part in hand.
“In injection molding, the mold tooling is the big expense,” explains Hanna. “To design, to tool a mold and then make all the adjustments – each step used to take us several weeks to complete. With the automation we have from R&B and SolidCAM, now each step is completed in a matter of days.”
Three translations, one format
The unique advantage of the new shop (and the reason for the considerable increase in tooling productivity) is that the mold engineering and the CNC programming are both completely integrated with SolidWorks. R&B mold-making procedures actually run within the SolidWorks modeling screen; similarly, SolidCAM’s CNC programming engine displays visuals for the toolcutter on the very same 3D data.
“The biggest reason SCP’s modernization was so successful was Bud Hanna’s dedication and commitment to one platform and then implementing it start to finish,” says Axion3 Technical Manager John Edwards, who assisted SCP with deploying the new systems. “A lot of times that doesn’t happen and automation becomes a hodge-podge of formats. Management has to have the vision.”
“Some shops have data translation between the part and the mold design, between the mold design to the electrode design, and another translation between that and the CNC machine,” explains Edwards. “At every step there is a chance for error or misinterpretation.”
Both R&B and SolidCAM developers are gold-certified partners with SolidWorks. The integration of all procedures under the umbrella of one format allows not only a standardized and consistent technological environment for the workers but also eliminates the downtime for data translation. Since the plastic component model, the derived mold model, and the CNC machine programs all operate upon the same 3D data, they can all be synchronized with corrections simultaneously at any point in the project.
R&B software intelligently infers the core and cavity of a model directly from a customer’s 3D model. The SplitWorks module determines core, cavity, and splitting direction for the parting mold using advanced analysis. ElectrodeWorks similarly then adjusts the mold design to include the placement of electrodes. MoldWorks then fits the project with the appropriate size and type of mold base. All R&B software processes are parametric, meaning that corrections to the original SolidWorks model, or the resulting 3D mold model, are immediately updated and propagated to all versions upstream and downstream of the production process.
When the 3D mold model is finalized and steel cutting begins, the computer-aided machining engine SolidCAM takes over.
SolidCAM´s Automatic Feature Recognition and Machining module automates the manufacturing of parts with multiple hole and drills. Stock models for machining can be defined using any 2D contour, a 3D model can be automatically derived from the target model. SolidCAM uses the difference between the stock and the target model to calculate the roughing operations on the 3D model. After each successive machining step, the rest material will be automatically updated. At any stage of the manufacturing process, SolidCAM provides functions to display, analyze and machine the rest material.
SolidCAM also gives flexible and clear planning for the layout and direction of cuts.“From SolidCAM, we can decide where the parting lines and shut-offs were going to be,” says Hanna.The software automatically suggests different options on the milling center screen on how best to run the steel block through the mill.“It will show where the danger points were and where there was something not right.”SolidCAM supports milling from 2.5 axes to 5 simultaneous axes. In the upcoming version SolidCAM2007 R11, SolidCAM will add additional functions for High Speed Milling (HSM).
Quick changes, faster production
Both R&B and SolidCAM solutions allow for quick changes during production. If an improvement is suggested or a problem in the part noticed during fabrication, the original SolidWorks model can be immediately changed by the designer.
“The updated SolidWorks model is simply imported into the system, and the software highlights the changes on the mold model for the toolmakers,” explains Hanna. For SCP, the process saves hours of machine re-programming and production delays on every mold.
Hanna fulfilled a large customer order consisting of ten molds for household window blinds during the first test of the new automated system. Hanna’s six toolmakers were able to complete the tooling and begin plastic production in about one-third the time, Hanna estimates, with the 10 final molds completed in just 4 weeks.
The simplification of the process, and the usability of the application interfaces, is telling when one realizes none of SCP shop staff had any previous computing experience, other than “pointing and clicking,” says Hanna.All his shop workers are trained in the R&B and SolidWorks software and are now multi-functional, trading off the tasks of mold model setup and design with machine operation and cutting.“The output we’re getting is like having a dozen fulltime toolmakers, plus a fulltime programmer and a fulltime designer,” Hanna reports.