TiNi Aerospace, a specialist manufacturer of aerospace components based in Northern California, has moved into Swiss machining successfully with a Tornos ST-26 machine and Delcam’s PartMaker CAM software.

Located in California’s Silicon Valley, TiNi Aerospace specialises in the manufacture of mechanical-release devices for the aerospace industry, based on the company’s specialist Shape Memory Alloy technology.  Its products have been used on scientific missions flown by NASA, ESA and JAXA.  Underwater applications of the devices include ballast release, buoy detachment, payload separation, instrument recovery and disentanglement manoeuvres on vehicles such as Alvin, the first manned submersible capable of travelling to the deepest regions of the ocean floor.

Historically, TiNi outsourced much of its machining work to shops in the Bay Area.  The company recently decided to bring some of its parts in-house.  It started with components appropriate for Swiss applications, such as titanium bolts, so that it could turn around small batch sizes for its internal R&D and testing efforts.  TiNi made its first Swiss machine a Tornos ST-26, based on the combination of functionality to price that it offered against other machines on the market.  To better harness the power of the Tornos ST-26, TiNi chose PartMaker SwissCAM for its programming.

“The challenge we have is achieving tight tolerances at short volumes.  We don’t have a long production run to optimise our processes, plus everything is slightly different to the previous job,” said TiNi Operations Manager, David Bokaie.  “PartMaker has worked amazingly well in helping us manufacture our designs on the Tornos ST26.  Particularly with being new to Swiss machining, PartMaker really helps us tap into what the Tornos machine can do,” continued Mr. Bokaie.

As the Tornos ST-26 was TiNi’s first Swiss-type lathe, it was imperative that the company chose software suited to the task of programming the machine productively and intuitively.  “PartMaker is really easy to use; the learning curve has been awesome,” said Richard Cosman, TiNi’s CNC programmer responsible for the new machine.

With introduction of the Tornos ST-26 and PartMaker into its manufacturing process, TiNi has been able to program quickly and achieve better cycle times.  “PartMaker helps us produce a good part the first time, which means a lot faster turnaround.  Parts that we previously would have had to do in two set-ups, we are pushing out in half the time,” claimed Mr. Cosman.

Much of the success TiNi has enjoyed with PartMaker can be attributed to the close cooperation between engineers at Delcam and at Tornos.  Tornos provides the developers of PartMaker with a great deal of information that helps them develop robust programming solutions for the machines.  By working together proactively, Tornos and PartMaker engineers were able to ensure that the PartMaker solution for the Tornos ST26 was robust before putting it into customers’ hands.

Additionally, Tornos supplied PartMaker with solid models of the ST26 that were incorporated into the software’s simulation technology.  As a result, PartMaker users are able to achieve almost virtual-reality quality simulation of their parts cutting on the ST26 offline on their PCs before sending the program to the machine.

TiNi has also been impressed with the quality of the technical support provided by PartMaker.  “The support I have received from PartMaker has been incredible.  If I ever have problem, their support team is right there with the solution,” stated Mr. Cosman.  In a business where “failure is not an option” according to Mr. Bokaie, this superior level of responsiveness has been particularly helpful to TiNi in meeting the high demands it has of its products.

Delcam has released PartMaker 2015, the latest version of its PartMaker CAM software for programming CNC mills, lathes, wire EDM equipment, turn-mill centres and Swiss-type lathes. Major highlights of PartMaker 2015 include improved support for today’s latest breed of multi-tasking machine tools, such as vertical mill-turns, more powerful milling and turning functionality, and a unique approach to post processing for multi-axis turn-mill centres and Swiss-type lathes, among other productivity enhancements.

“The innovations in PartMaker 2015 include a unique blend of productivity enhancements that both new and existing users of the software are going to love, along with a host of utterly unique and innovative technology that can’t be found anywhere else,” claimed PartMaker Inc. President, Hanan Fishman. “PartMaker 2015 extends support of the product’s patented approach to programming multi-tasking machine tools to include today’s latest breed of multi-function machines, allowing our customers to stay on the leading edge of multi-task machining.”

PartMaker 2015 includes specialist support for a new breed of machine tools that has been growing steadily in popularity in recent years called vertical mill-turns. These machine tools provide the turning functionality typically found on a vertical-turret lathe with the milling capabilities of a five-axis vertical machining centre.

PartMaker 2015 also offers support for turret-based Swiss lathes with programmable B-axis live-tooling attachments, as well as more intuitive handing of angled live-tooling attachments.

Also headlining in PartMaker 2015 is a unique approach to post-processing for multi-tasking machine tools. This new approach includes a variety of improvements to the software’s post-processing technology, together with new software functionality to help guide users on how to take best advantage of the unique capabilities of their specific multi-tasking machine tools.