LICOM makes one-off machining much easier
LICOM off-line programming systems have made life easier at the Powergen workshops near Birmingham. Virtually all machining work carried out there is of a 'one-off' nature and was all performed on manually operated machine tools. By 1999, the company had acquired four Bridgeport CNC millers and had had one of its large centre lathes rebuilt and interfaced with a NUM CNC system.
Machining Team leader, Bob Darling said, 'I had experience of using the older DOS versions of LICOM milling and turning software at college and said most operators preferred to use it rather than program jobs at the machines.
Now the operators most concerned with CNC are using the LICOM systems, even for quite simple jobs like machining in profiled keyways or detail contouring work.' Powergen is using LICOM's Advanced Mill and Advanced Lathe software, running it on one workstation inside the production engineering office.
The workstation is linked into a host computer and the program files are backed up on a server.
Programs are downloaded onto floppy discs and then a laptop is hooked into the machine tool for the program transfer.
Powergen Workshops, located on the Hams Hall Distribution Park near Birmingham, originally belonged to the Central Electricity Generating Board, Midland Region.
When Powergen acquired it, the workshops were kept busy refurbishing steam generation, turbines and mechanical engineering equipment for 17 coal-fired power stations.
'Powergen now operates three gas turbine stations and two coal fired ones,' explained production engineer David Skinner.
'So today, some 85% of our work is external.
We operate as an autonomous company on a sub-contract basis.
Our customers now include petro-chemical, steel plant, paper mills and general engineering.' The workshops operate a wide range of manually operated, digital read-out assisted machine tools, including horizontal borers, heavy duty milling machines, large diameter faceplate lathes and lathes capable of turning heavy shafts up to 10.3m between centres.
The company operates MIG, TIG, arc and submerged-arc welding, CNC profile cutting and extensive heat treatment facilities.
Much of the more detailed, complex CNC machining work, such as oil seals, blade roots, profiled blade closing assemblies, glands and the like, used to be sub-contracted out.
The company has now established a CNC cell based on four Bridgeport turret millers, including an Interact II, two Interact IVs and a new Interact IV-155 machine.
A Noble and Lund 36in (950mm) X 4m between centres lathe has been refitted with a new saddle and NUM CNC system.
For the Bridgeport Millers, in addition to the work mentioned, the operators use LICOM to program even quite simple jobs such as cutting profiled keyways, pocket-milling or profile milling 'arc segments'.
The latter are part of steam turbine sealing systems, usually split into six segments and individually profile-milled to produce a sealing labyrinth cross-section.
'We have even milled turbine blades on occasions,' said Bob Darling.
'We have machined a complete blade from a high-chrome (Molyvan 448E) steel billet, one side at a time.
We compiled a 2+1 axis CNC program first to Oblock out1 the rough airfoil shape, each side, using a manual indexer to rotate the blade.
We developed the finish-milling program for using a ball-nose cutter.
The blade was then hand-dressed and polished to finish the job.' To establish the CNC programs, an existing blade had been scanned at various sections along the blade profile to draw out the shape in CAD.
From this, LICOM Advanced Mill was used to write the rough- and finish-two milling programs.
'We do not do this on a regular basis,' explained Bob Darling.
'Our scanning facilities are limited, so normally we would sub-contract out blade-milling jobs.
Ideally, we would like to interface our existing Brown and Sharpe digitiser with the LICOM system.' The Noble and Lund lathe is used mostly to re-machine turbine shafts.
To machine these entirely manually used to take two or three set-ups.
For example, to profile turn radiussed journals, skim the parallel sections of the shaft as well as various radii and other features.
'Now, we can program and turn the shafts in one go, it saves us a lot of time,' said Bob Darling.
LICOM Advanced Mill is also used by Powergen to produce templates and profile drawings for an ESAB oxy-fuel gas profiler.
The machine can also be fitted with a plasma-arc torch, which Powergen use to profile brass sheet shapes for use in steam gland boxes.
These are basically half-circles, profiled to the shaft diameter and box internals.
'We used to subcontract out that job, now we can do it in-house and the plates can be used, as cut,' said Bob Darling.
'The CNC and LICOM programming facility has proven to be very useful,' said David Skinner.
'We also use LICOM advanced MILL and Advanced Lathe to produce templates for the copy lathes and copy millers.
The modifications we made to the Noble and Lund lathe were basically a Powergen concept which was engineered by Marrill Engineering Company in Hinckley (Leics).' David Skinner explained that the lathe modification and the LICOM facility helped to win a contract to repair a cement kiln roller shaft, a nine-part welded assembly.
Faulty welds had led to shaft failure, and the shaft components were split, re-machined and re-welded by Powergen.
'Each day, our operators are getting better at off-line programming,' said Bob Darling.
'The LICOM software is first-class, it is not too complicated and it does what you want.
Our operators use it for simple and complex, one-off jobs.
http://www.manufacturingtalk.com/news/lic/lic106.html
Machining Team leader, Bob Darling said, 'I had experience of using the older DOS versions of LICOM milling and turning software at college and said most operators preferred to use it rather than program jobs at the machines.
Now the operators most concerned with CNC are using the LICOM systems, even for quite simple jobs like machining in profiled keyways or detail contouring work.' Powergen is using LICOM's Advanced Mill and Advanced Lathe software, running it on one workstation inside the production engineering office.
The workstation is linked into a host computer and the program files are backed up on a server.
Programs are downloaded onto floppy discs and then a laptop is hooked into the machine tool for the program transfer.
Powergen Workshops, located on the Hams Hall Distribution Park near Birmingham, originally belonged to the Central Electricity Generating Board, Midland Region.
When Powergen acquired it, the workshops were kept busy refurbishing steam generation, turbines and mechanical engineering equipment for 17 coal-fired power stations.
'Powergen now operates three gas turbine stations and two coal fired ones,' explained production engineer David Skinner.
'So today, some 85% of our work is external.
We operate as an autonomous company on a sub-contract basis.
Our customers now include petro-chemical, steel plant, paper mills and general engineering.' The workshops operate a wide range of manually operated, digital read-out assisted machine tools, including horizontal borers, heavy duty milling machines, large diameter faceplate lathes and lathes capable of turning heavy shafts up to 10.3m between centres.
The company operates MIG, TIG, arc and submerged-arc welding, CNC profile cutting and extensive heat treatment facilities.
Much of the more detailed, complex CNC machining work, such as oil seals, blade roots, profiled blade closing assemblies, glands and the like, used to be sub-contracted out.
The company has now established a CNC cell based on four Bridgeport turret millers, including an Interact II, two Interact IVs and a new Interact IV-155 machine.
A Noble and Lund 36in (950mm) X 4m between centres lathe has been refitted with a new saddle and NUM CNC system.
For the Bridgeport Millers, in addition to the work mentioned, the operators use LICOM to program even quite simple jobs such as cutting profiled keyways, pocket-milling or profile milling 'arc segments'.
The latter are part of steam turbine sealing systems, usually split into six segments and individually profile-milled to produce a sealing labyrinth cross-section.
'We have even milled turbine blades on occasions,' said Bob Darling.
'We have machined a complete blade from a high-chrome (Molyvan 448E) steel billet, one side at a time.
We compiled a 2+1 axis CNC program first to Oblock out1 the rough airfoil shape, each side, using a manual indexer to rotate the blade.
We developed the finish-milling program for using a ball-nose cutter.
The blade was then hand-dressed and polished to finish the job.' To establish the CNC programs, an existing blade had been scanned at various sections along the blade profile to draw out the shape in CAD.
From this, LICOM Advanced Mill was used to write the rough- and finish-two milling programs.
'We do not do this on a regular basis,' explained Bob Darling.
'Our scanning facilities are limited, so normally we would sub-contract out blade-milling jobs.
Ideally, we would like to interface our existing Brown and Sharpe digitiser with the LICOM system.' The Noble and Lund lathe is used mostly to re-machine turbine shafts.
To machine these entirely manually used to take two or three set-ups.
For example, to profile turn radiussed journals, skim the parallel sections of the shaft as well as various radii and other features.
'Now, we can program and turn the shafts in one go, it saves us a lot of time,' said Bob Darling.
LICOM Advanced Mill is also used by Powergen to produce templates and profile drawings for an ESAB oxy-fuel gas profiler.
The machine can also be fitted with a plasma-arc torch, which Powergen use to profile brass sheet shapes for use in steam gland boxes.
These are basically half-circles, profiled to the shaft diameter and box internals.
'We used to subcontract out that job, now we can do it in-house and the plates can be used, as cut,' said Bob Darling.
'The CNC and LICOM programming facility has proven to be very useful,' said David Skinner.
'We also use LICOM advanced MILL and Advanced Lathe to produce templates for the copy lathes and copy millers.
The modifications we made to the Noble and Lund lathe were basically a Powergen concept which was engineered by Marrill Engineering Company in Hinckley (Leics).' David Skinner explained that the lathe modification and the LICOM facility helped to win a contract to repair a cement kiln roller shaft, a nine-part welded assembly.
Faulty welds had led to shaft failure, and the shaft components were split, re-machined and re-welded by Powergen.
'Each day, our operators are getting better at off-line programming,' said Bob Darling.
'The LICOM software is first-class, it is not too complicated and it does what you want.
Our operators use it for simple and complex, one-off jobs.
http://www.manufacturingtalk.com/news/lic/lic106.html
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