Manufacturing Technology

In the picture: Kiyotaka Ise, Toyota’s Chief Officer of its Research and Development Group. The opportunities to improve every-day living through artificial intelligence supported technologies are boundless. Toyota will invest $US 50 million in the research and development of intelligent vehicle and mobility technologies with an ambitious new collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University, California. Joint research centres will be established at each university with Toyota investing $US50 million over the next five years. Dr. Gill Pratt, former Program Manager at DARPA (the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency) and leader of its recent Robotics Challenge, has joined Toyota to direct and accelerate these research activities and their application to intelligent vehicles and robotics. Toyota believes the opportunities to improve every-day living through artificial intelligence supported technologies are boundless, with significant breakthrough potential for the development of life-saving intelligent vehicles and life-improving robots. “We’re here to mark the beginning of an unprecedented commitment. We will initially focus on the acceleration of intelligent vehicle technology, with the immediate goal of helping eliminate traffic casualties and the ultimate goal of helping improve quality of life through enhanced mobility and robotics,” said Kiyotaka Ise, Toyota’s Chief Officer of its Research and Development Group. Combined research will be targeted at improving the ability of intelligent vehicle technologies to recognise objects around the vehicle, provide elevated judgment of surrounding conditions, and safely collaborate with vehicle occupants, other vehicles, and pedestrians. The joint research will also look at applications of the same technology to human-interactive robotics and information service, said Dr. Pratt. Both Universities already have computer science and artificial intelligence research facilities. Beyond Toyota’s longstanding work on autonomous vehicles and advanced driving support systems, the company has been developing robots for industrial use since the 1970s, and for Partner and Human Support […]

Delcam has launched the 2016 release of its FeatureCAM feature-based CAM software. This includes a range of enhancements, in particular more options for the Vortex high-efficiency area-clearance strategy, support for bar-fed mills, more efficient turning and user-interface improvements to make programming even easier and faster. FeatureCAM was the world’s first feature-based programming software when it was launched in 1995. Constant development since then has ensured that the system has retained its leadership in programming speed and ease of use, while an increased range of strategies has been added to provide more efficient toolpaths that give greater productivity on a wider range of machinery, including mill-turn machines, five-axis mills and wire EDM equipment. The 2016 release includes a number of enhancements to the Vortex area-clearance strategy. Vortex gives the fastest safe metal removal from solid carbide tooling, in particular designs that give deeper cuts by using the full flute length as the cutting surface. It produces toolpaths with a controlled engagement angle and so maintains the optimum cutting conditions for the complete roughing cycle, giving faster machining and longer tool life. The ability has now been added to adjust and fine tune the non-cutting moves of 2.5D and 3D Vortex toolpaths, with options to retract the tool and/or to increase the feedrate. These options can be set individually, or can be combined to achieve an optimum toolpath, with a reduced cycle time. Other roughing improvements include the ability to take into account any remaining stock on the model during holder collision checking, ensuring that Z-level roughing toolpaths are completely free of tool-holder collisions. Milling of inside or outside groove features has been upgraded with a number of improvements. These include support for different types of roughing links, wind-fan approach and retract moves for finishing, better gouge checking for plunges and retracts, […]

By Ian Raper, Regional Vice President, Riverbed Australia & New Zealand Automation and the rise of smart, Internet-connected manufacturing equipment (known as M2M or the Internet of Things depending on the device) stand to deliver previously unimaginable productivity gains and cost-savings. While these new technologies promise to simplify the production process, this influx of connected machines and devices also complicates the network used to deliver these efficiency gains. With each new machine connected to a network, finding faults and troubleshooting application performance issues when they occur could be like finding a needle in an ever-increasing haystack. A major source of delay in the troubleshooting process can be found in the way IT teams are structured; specific parts of the infrastructure (e.g. network operations; server operations; application operations) are run by different groups. Each of these teams has visibility into a different part of infrastructure and, traditionally, has had no way to share information effectively. This siloed approach means that the first step in the troubleshooting process is usually a counterproductive round of finger pointing between groups as none have visibility of the whole. But it doesn’t need to be like this The key to effective, real-time performance optimisation and troubleshooting is visibility. If each of these teams has a deep, end-to-end view within and across the complex networks and applications that make up the modern manufacturing process, any performance issue can be quickly resolved. In fact, these issues can even be fixed before they have an effect on the production line by using the same automation that is becoming prevalent on factory floors. At Riverbed, we’ve developed solutions to minimise downtime in the production environment and avoid potentially devastating disruptions that can reverberate through the supply chain. Clearing the fog of war The first strategy is to have the right […]

In PowerSHAPE 2016, reverse engineering of prismatic parts has been made easier. Delcam has added a series of enhancements to its PowerSHAPE Pro software for modelling and reverse engineering that will help users to complete complex designs more quickly and more easily. In addition, a combination of new, more efficient, code and the extension of multi-threaded calculations to many commonly-used tasks will make the software significantly faster than any previous version. Full details, including video demonstrations, are on the Learning Zone – www.delcam.tv/ps2016/lz/en By offering a combination of solid, surface and direct modelling, together with reverse engineering, PowerSHAPE Pro provides the most comprehensive range of design techniques available in a single CAD program. Having all the different technologies in the same package reduces the need to transfer data between multiple programs and so streamlines any modelling-for-manufacture projects that require both reverse-engineering and CAD functionality. The first enhancement in the 2016 release allows groups of features to be copied between two solids in a single operation. While the features do not need to be of the same type, the most common application is expected to be in copying patterns of holes with a single click from one solid to another, for example from one mould plate to any other plate in the mould stack. Another new option to save modelling time is the ability to edit the axis direction of any number of surface or solid primitives simultaneously. Similarly, the axis direction of a group of primitives that are not aligned can be brought into alignment in one operation. PowerSHAPE Pro already had the ability to edit simultaneously the dimensions of groups of primitives. For customers using PowerSHAPE Pro to capture data for reverse engineering, the software can connect directly to most scanning hardware to capture and display scan data in […]

Nuance Power PDF offers the PDF software features that business users need to be productive at a price that supports deployment across the entire enterprise. Power PDF delivers high performance, an intuitive user experience, and value, freeing users from the compromises of traditional PDF applications. To see a demonstration of the new features and benefits of Power PDF, and learn more about Nuance’s Document Imaging division view the Power PDF on-demand broadcast available now. With Power PDF, business users get all the tools they need to create, manage, share, and secure PDF files plus additional features only available from Nuance for document conversion, search, connectivity and more. Power PDF has powerful features to accurately convert PDFs to editable Microsoft Office documents, combine and assemble documents from many sources into a single PDF, and collaborate on PDF files with a powerful toolset. Before Nuance Power PDF, businesses had to make compromises and choose between the limited capabilities of free PDF reader software, low-end PDF solutions, or an expensive solution designed for graphic designers that isn’t engineered for today’s business environment. With its Microsoft Office-style ribbon user interface, Power PDF minimises the learning curve and maximises productivity by enabling users to transition effortlessly between word processing and PDF publishing. The software makes it easy to share and collaborate on work seamlessly across an organisation as well as externally – all while providing document control and security. Power PDF is priced to be affordably deployed to all business users in an enterprise, enabling all employees to assemble, compare, convert, create, dictate, edit, read, redact, scan, search, secure, sign, print and validate PDF documents and forms with unprecedented ease and speed. Key features in Power PDF include: Combine and assemble documents with ease. Combine files and remove or replace pages in complex documents with […]

In PowerSHAPE 2016, reverse engineering of prismatic parts has been made easier. Delcam has added a series of enhancements to its PowerSHAPE Pro software for modelling and reverse engineering that will help users to complete complex designs more quickly and more easily. In addition, a combination of new, more efficient, code and the extension of multi-threaded calculations to many commonly-used tasks will make the software significantly faster than any previous version. Full details, including video demonstrations, are on the Learning Zone – www.delcam.tv/ps2016/lz/en By offering a combination of solid, surface and direct modelling, together with reverse engineering, PowerSHAPE Pro provides the most comprehensive range of design techniques available in a single CAD program. Having all the different technologies in the same package reduces the need to transfer data between multiple programs and so streamlines any modelling-for-manufacture projects that require both reverse-engineering and CAD functionality. The first enhancement in the 2016 release allows groups of features to be copied between two solids in a single operation. While the features do not need to be of the same type, the most common application is expected to be in copying patterns of holes with a single click from one solid to another, for example from one mould plate to any other plate in the mould stack. Another new option to save modelling time is the ability to edit the axis direction of any number of surface or solid primitives simultaneously. Similarly, the axis direction of a group of primitives that are not aligned can be brought into alignment in one operation. PowerSHAPE Pro already had the ability to edit simultaneously the dimensions of groups of primitives. For customers using PowerSHAPE Pro to capture data for reverse engineering, the software can connect directly to most scanning hardware to capture and display scan data in […]

With solutions suited to a wide range of manufacturing applications, DMG MORI designs and supplies precision machine tools for all market segments from high-level aerospace manufacturers through to entry-level jobbing shops. DMG MORI, the world’s leading machine tool manufacturer, demonstrated its innovative technology with an impressive display of CNC machining centres and multi-axis lathes at Austech 2015 held recently at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre in May. Aerospace was a significant focus of the display at Austech, but DMG MORI also operates in a range of other segments including aftermarket high performance engineering, automotive and medical. Machines cover 95% of all metal cutting applications and in all markets from small parts like the dental industry through to the larger heavy industry. Confidence in the Australian manufacturing market was strong enough to justify bringing a DMC 80 U duoBLOCK® into the country as a stock item. One of these units was sold to Melbourne-based manufacturer, Lovitt Technologies Australia, for use in its advanced aerospace machining work. Among other things, Lovitt is a specialist aerospace and defence manufacturer with the capabilities and operational procedures designed to suit the specification, quality and quantity requirements of the industry providing cost-effective supply of Australian manufactured components and assemblies. DMG MORI sold a total of 10 machines during the event making Austech a very successful show for the steadily growing company. Product specialists were flown in from Germany, Japan, Singapore and China to speak with customers and demonstrate the capabilities of the equipment. Sales engineers can often spend weeks discussing with customers how a machine will be used to ensure that they fully understand the requirements and that the correct device is supplied. Machines on the stand included the NLX 2500SY|700 CNC Universal Lathe, NTX 1000 2nd Generation, NVX 5100 Vertical Machining Centre, DMU 65 monoBLOCK®, DMC […]