In the rolling hills between Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, lies the small town of Fredericktown. The town was founded in 1807 and retains most of its historic center and rural charm. In fact, the main source of income for its citizens is still family farms, some of which have been passed down from generation to generation in the past 100 years. It wasn't until 1994, when Honda Motor Co.'s auto parts supplier Tanaka Seiko Kogyo Co., Ltd. decided to open a store, Fredericktown managed to keep a low profile. The name of the company's US branch, FT Precision Inc., is derived from the "F" in Fredericktown, the town where the company is located, and the "T" in Tanaka, the last name of the company's founder Giichiro Tanaka, and Precision is derived from the Japanese word seimitsu, which means precision.
This 376,500-square-foot (34,978-square-meter) factory began mass production of rocker arm components for Honda in the United States for four-cylinder and six-cylinder engines in 1996, only two years after its establishment. FTP is located north of Columbus, less than one to two hours away from Honda's engine and assembly plant in central Ohio, making it a Tier 1 supplier to the automaker's U.S. production center. Engineer Matt Kline has been working in FTP's manufacturing operations department for the past eight years. Since then, he has seen a lot of growth.
When Klein arrived, there were multiple CNC machine tool production lines, die-casting machines and assembly machines in the workshop. With the continuous expansion of FTP, Kline consulted the management about the equipment he needed to increase the production of parts. He requested the use of several CNC machines for maintenance and part prototyping, including a Haas TL15 dual-spindle lathe with power tools and a Haas VF3 CNC vertical milling machine. In 2016, Kline pursued the idea of producing its own aluminum die-casting mold components and purchased the first of two Mazak Variaxis i-600 5-axis vertical machining centers. In order to make all his machines run smoothly, he needs a powerful CAD/CAM software program to handle rough machining power and fine finishing cycles, so that he can customize the production process.
"I recommend buying Mastercam because of its usability and the features I saw at the trade show," Kline said, referring to software from CNC Software Inc. in Torland, Connecticut. He worked with Mastercam distributor FASTech, Inc., Findlay, Ohio, to get up and running and understand the different functions of the software. Soon, he was able to manufacture alternative die-casting parts in-house, and obtained a considerable return on investment and return on investment.
"I was able to produce a lot of the parts I was manufacturing at an amazing speed. What we used to take months to get from overseas, I can usually finish it in a few weeks. The software really improves our production in this area," Klein said.
In the past, mold insert manufacturing was outsourced—shipping took four to six months, and the cost per piece was about $2,000. By producing them in-house, Klein manufactures them at nearly a third of the cost. "Having the ability to produce in-house will definitely change the rules of the game," Klein said. So, how did they do it?
Kline is the only CNC programmer and operator of the Mazak machine. Through trial and error, he figured out how to best manufacture mold inserts in-house. He first created his own fixture in the software and pushed the machine as hard as possible. When creating these fixtures, he used Mastercam Simulator to identify any collisions or collision points, thereby improving manufacturing capabilities.
In addition to the correct fixture, high-speed machining also requires a tool holder that can withstand strong vibrations inside the machine. Kline likes REGO-FIX powRgrip tool rack.
"I learned that every time you insert a tool into REGO-FIX, the runout is within a few microns. If you use a sturdy, expandable chuck or a hydraulic end mill tool holder, the total indicator reading It may cause the tool to run out," he said. "To generate the correct cavity or insert in Mastercam without using the correct tool to run it, you will have a hard time maintaining the finish and tolerances." The mold insert is made of Japanese matrix tool steel and is selected for processing aluminum Constant abuse in die casting.
Kline first produced mold inserts by programming traditional contour milling tool paths. The FASTech team recommended changing its programming strategy to dynamic OptiRough toolpaths. The tool path utilizes the entire groove length of the tool, but only uses a small part of the tool diameter for the first cut, followed by several successive shorter cuts to make the part into the desired net shape.
These toolpaths only focus on removing the specified material. Like similar products in 2D dynamic milling, the OptiRough toolpath provides constant chip loading. This is due to a proprietary algorithm in the software that detects changes in the material before cutting, so that the tool is always in contact with the material, minimizing the step distance and Extend tool life tools.
By implementing the OptiRest strategy and programming the OptiRough tool path, Kline roughed the part to within 250 μm. The former allows the tool to use the same tool to automatically perform the second roughing, only identifying and removing materials that cannot be removed by the OptiRough tool path.
"I use roughing tools to increase speed and precision, leaving the least inventory for finishing tools. It allows longer tool life and fewer tool changes," he explained. When asked how he determined the shrinkage and expansion rate of Japanese steel, Klein said that he calculated it through trial and error.
"Aluminum die casting is extremely difficult; it's not just machining," Kline said. "FT Precision has spent a lot of time and money developing this precision casting to reduce processing steps."
The additional finishing process also requires some trial and error. Kline tried different heat treatment, nitride and PVD coating suppliers, and finally found a supplier near Indiana with the right technology to help eliminate some of the additional finishing processes of FTP.
Once the fixture is in place and programming is complete, Klein said he can run one on Mazaks and complete the entire part-including completion. By programming the OptiRough toolpath, he reduced production time from 8 hours per part to 1.5 hours per part. Usually, he can produce six blades per day.
However, the milling inserts, end mills and drills are malfunctioning. Kline contacted Sandvik Coromant and he helped solve multiple problems, including which tools to use, the correct feed and speed, and the depth of cut. "The biggest achievement is the use of OptiRough strategy and Sandvik Coromant's CoroMill Plura HD end mill for roughing," Kline said. Each end mill can process about 20 pieces. This saves tool change time, which, according to Kline, is more than paying for the tool cost.
FTP's normal production process, die-casting, machining, and assembly operations usually experience equipment wear and unexpected failures. "If the component is damaged, we usually only receive 2D drawings and need to create a solid model in CAM software. By using CAM software, the process from design to manufacturing is seamless and fast. The turnaround time is about two hours. Then return to the production workshop," Klein said.
A high-precision, ISO-certified environment requires various paper records for quality verification and inspection. To help simplify this process, Kline uses a Mastercam plug-in called Productivity+ for part alignment to collect data for checklists and quality checks. Additional components allow him to run Renishaw measuring probes on the machine tool to update fixture offsets, tool offsets, program directions, and critical dimension and tolerance reports. He is also able to program and simulate probes to improve process control and machine performance reports. In addition, when Kline confirmed that the test piece was ready for mass production, he used additional components to simplify component setup and verification of key features. He worked closely with Kevin Richardson of FASTech to learn about measurement plug-ins. "Kevin got it up and running with me. At first it was a challenge, but now it works perfectly. It does everything I want to do." Kline said the best feature is the ability to pick points from the physical model to check.
FTP's casting team produces nearly 75,000 parts a day, running 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. Kline emphasized that without the support of his manufacturing suppliers, his challenge of localizing mold parts manufacturing to the United States would be impossible to achieve.
Edited by special report editor Bill Koenig based on information provided by Mastercam.