Molding the Future

By Brett Duesing

When Bud Hanna bought SCP Plastics in 1999, the Booneville, MS,injection-molding shop looked like time stopped in 1966, the year the company was founded. The tool making technology at SCP had not changed since the Johnson administration. In fact, 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 CNC (computer numeric control) milling centers backed up by the latest software to automate the engineering and precision machining of molds. After just six months, the ancient SCP shop — along with its staff — had been transformed into one of the more technologically advanced of its kind.

> > The programs from R&B run inside the SolidWorks interface, taking SolidWorks models of the product and quickly generating the mold core and base models, complete with the placement of the split and electrodes.

Hanna adopted SolidWorks as the company’s new CAD format to handle the3D models provided by clients, which also enabled SCP to provide custom design services when needed. In January of 2005, Hanna implemented two automation software packages that work in tandem with SolidWorks modeling tools: a suite of applications from R&B Mold&Die Design Solutions of Petah Tikva, Israel, and the CAM program from SolidCAM of Or-Yehuda, Israel. 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 tool making 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 user’s 3DSolidWorks design into the negative space of a mold cavity, and automatically add electrode points and a mold base to the parting model.

SolidCAM software then receives the mold model and seamlessly translates it to CNC machine language. Not only did these two improvements bring SCP’s customer services into the 21st century, they greatly reduce the time SCP’s customers have to wait to hold an actual part in hand.

< < SolidCAM software behaves as an interior module to the SolidWorks modeler and is integrated into its workspace. The software quickly converts 3D models to g-code language to run horizontal or vertical lathes, or even 5-axis automation.

“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,” says Hanna. “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 completely integrated with SolidWorks. R&B mold-making procedures run within the SolidWorks modeling environment; similarly, SolidCAM’s CNC programming engine displays visuals of the same 3D data, including tool paths and other special instructions, for the machine operator.

“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 John Edwards, the technical manager forAxion3, a CAM consulting and training firm that assisted SCP with deploying the new systems. “A lot of times that doesn’t happen and automation becomes a hodgepodge of formats. Management has to have the vision.”

> >Once the R&B software suite generates the mold design, SolidCAM software receives the mold and seamlessly translates it to CNC machine language ready for the milling machines.

“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 from 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 determine score, cavity, and splitting direction for the parting mold using advanced analysis. ElectrodeWorks similarly 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 CAM engine of SolidCAM takes over.

SolidCAM´s Automatic Feature Recognition and Machining module automates the manufacturing of parts with multiple holes and drill points. 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 program automatically updates and records what is happening to the rest material, so it knows where it is in the process. At any stage, SolidCAM provides functions to display, analyze, and machine the rest material.

< <SCP Plastics now sends 3D mold designs produced with R&B applications in an electronic queue to the shop floor. The automation cut tooling work cycles from weeks to days.

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.

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 is 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 10 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 four weeks.

> >With seamless SolidCAM translations from SolidWorks models to CNC code,workers on the floor get up-to-the-minute updates on design changes.

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. After a period of proper training and testing, his staff is now comfortable with the state-of-the-art workplace and all are trained on R&B and SolidWorks. They’ve become multifunctional, 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 full-time toolmakers,plus a full-time programmer and a full-time designer,” Hanna reports.In fact, he says that some of his apprentices are quickly coming up to the level of his more experienced tool cutters in terms of the types of complex jobs they can handle.

Mold-making automation is more than an equalizer for labor skills inside the shop, it has helped the SCP operation play on par with the competition, even overseas. “When you’re globally competitive,” says hanna., “then the playing field is level.”

SolidCAM and R&B brought SCP from a completely manual operation to a shop with the most advanced technology available on the market. And that has saved tremendous project time. According to Hanna, molds take only a half to a third of the time they used to take to complete.

Hanna now reports he does not charge customers for the tooling,previously the most involved and expensive task. Instead, he simply gives them a price for their final plastic reproductions. “If you can cater to the technologies customers use, and impress upon them that you have all the capabilities,” advises Hanna, “then you’ll start receiving a lot more opportunities in the future.”

Brett Duesing writes about high technology from his base in Colorado. Prior to his career as a writer, Duesing worked extensively with CAD and GIS software. Send your comments about this article through e-mail by clicking here. Please reference “Molding the Future” in your message.

R&B Mold & Die Design Solutions
Petah Tikva, Israel

SCP, Inc.
Booneville, MS

SolidCAM
Or-Yehuda, Israel

SolidWorks Corp.
Concord, MA