Rigging Projects, a specialist in marine hardware, is making waves in machining efficiencies as it welcomes its first in-house, five-axis CNC machine
For centuries, the southern coastline of England has been a place where seafaring adventures begin. It’s also an area rich in expertise when it comes to building vessels for the high seas.
Based on the outskirts of Southampton, Rigging Projects is an end-to-end design and consultancy services provider that works alongside designers and builders of race yachts and superyachts to produce a wide array of deck hardware built to handle sails and lines.
Rigging Projects was founded by Tobias Hochreutener in 2014 and has since grown from a tiny home-office operation to a high-tech manufacturing facility. The impressive centrepiece of the company’s machine shop – and a new addition to its kit – is a Matsuura MAM72- 52V, a colossal, high-speed, five-axis vertical machining centre for variable-part/variable-volume production and extended unmanned operation.
Standard features of the Matsuura MAM72-52V include 130 tools on a 330-tool magazine base, a tower pallet system for extended lights-out manufacturing, and a chip-removal system.
“Prior to investing in our new Matsuura five-axis machine, we relied on three-axis machining centres and Y-axis lathes,” explains Ian Foss, CNC programmer and machine shop supervisor at Rigging Projects.
“We could make complex parts, but it would require multiple set-ups, nine or ten in extreme cases. As we make most of our parts in small quantities, set-up was costing us a lot of time.”
The five-axis Matsuura ensures Rigging Projects can make almost all of its components in a single set-up, saving significant time and cost.
“In terms of complexity, the Matsuura is another level entirely,” says Foss. “It was clear in my mind that, with such a high-value [piece of equipment], we needed verification software to provide us with confidence during machining.”
Navigating complexity
Complex parts are par for the course at Rigging Projects. Components that handle a line or sail cannot feature sharp corners, but must also meet the high expectations of yacht owners. Aesthetic appearance is vital. The company’s parts feature many radii, rounded edges, curves and freeform surfaces – so its designers need to be pretty handy with 3D surfacing tools.
Every part is programmed for the Matsuura using Autodesk Fusion. Rigging Projects then uses Vericut to ready the parts for machining, including optimising and verifying multi-axis machining, machine simulation and auto-diff capabilities.
The Fusion cascading post-processor integrates with Vericut to transfer manufacturing data, a capability that allows users to simulate and optimise NC programmes in Vericut while continuing to work in Fusion.
“Fusion offers simulation, but it’s a pre-post process and takes twice the time of Vericut. Moreover, while Fusion will flag up potential collisions, there’s no tolerance-setting option. It won’t send an alert if the tool or spindle gets within 5mm of the table, for example,” says Foss. “In contrast, Vericut will let me know if we get within whatever tolerance I set. I can subsequently refine the gap as confidence grows.”
Foss stresses that his team is much more about ‘rightfirst- time’ machining and safety, rather than saving every second in cycle time. “The Matsuura has driven huge savings in set-up time, so now we just want to stay safe and avoid scrapping expensive workpieces. Vericut is a massive help in that regard.”
Problems avoided
The value of avoided collisions involving expensive machine tools should not be underestimated. Repairs to hardware such as spindles are extremely costly, as is the machine downtime it entails. Furthermore, a company like Rigging Projects would be forced to create new programmes for other machines while waiting for the repair. “We’ve already had an incident where Vericut saved the day,” reveals Foss. “We encountered an isolated issue with the Matsuura post-processor, where it failed to pick up the work coordinates after a homing routine to reorient the table. It used the machine coordinates instead, which means it would have tried to machine itself!” he explains.
Vericut alerted Foss to the situation, enabling him to rectify the issue, saving the company a lot of time and avoiding a potentially dangerous situation.
“With such a large, fast, five-axis machine like our Matsuura, Vericut is an insurance policy. Moreover, with its pallet-change capability, we often leave the machine running overnight,” says Foss.
With CNC simulation, Rigging Projects now has a safety net for its in-house development and production, allowing the company to continue making waves in an industry that consistently demands flawless products for its adventures.
This article first appeared in DEVELOP3D Magazine
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