2018cnc4-5.2

CNC WEST April/May 2018 www.CNC-West.com 41 on Mars, among them Descent Stage and the wheels for Mars Rover Curiosity. The company, which is ISO certified for aerospace work, also manufactured parts for Stratolaunch Systems, a subsidiary of Vulcan Aerospace. The Stratolaunch system makes it pos- sible to launch spacecraft from the bottom of aircraft at high altitude; Tapemation manufactured prototypes for gear used to attach the two vehicles. “The stuff that comes through here is amazing, and I very rarely get bored,” Hobbs says. “I’m amazed at the changes that have taken place in programming since I started.” To manufacture its diverse array of precision parts, Tape- mation has used the Surfcam Traditional computer-aided- manufacturing (CAM) solution, by Vero Software, for the past 20 years. “Prior to Surfcam, they used to have to prove everything out on a piece of foam before cutting metal,” Hobbs says. “It used to take us at least 10 times as long to program and verify a project as it does now.” One of the challenges to manufacturing large parts is the acquisition and handling of massive pieces of material. While scrap is a negative in any shop, great pains are taken at Tape- mation to avoid scrapping what would ultimately amount to thousands of pounds — and sometimes tens of thousands of dollars — of waste. “Sometimes the material has a two or three-month lead time because it’s a custom casting, and a single forging can be 15,000 pounds,” Hobbs says. “When you have a $50,000 piece of material that took months to get here, scrap is not an op- tion.” Hobbs credits the strength of Surfcam Traditional toolpath verification with helping to ensure that error-free code is sent to the machine. Verification allows programmers to simulate whole programs, or to run verification on individual toolpaths and, or, setup. “Verification in Surfcam is amazing because being able to verify toolpath and compare it to the model is extremely help- ful in making sure that we’re on the right track,” he says. “I almost never get to complete a program before the part goes to the machine, so I have to be able to verify toolpath as I go, against the as machined SCMOD file. It’s not the ideal way to do things, but it often happens, and Surfcam helps us to make sure that mistakes aren’t being made.” The ability to color code various elements of programs as verification is run helps Hobbs to quickly and easily identify any problem areas. Curiosity Descent Panel 5 axis bridge mill with 20’ of travel