The Challenge: Craft bobsled runner for the men’s and women’s 2010 Olympic Bobsled teams   

The Solution:  Mastercam X4 Mill Level 3, Multiaxis, and Solids

Benefits: Mastercam filtering the toolpath to obtain arcs in the X-Z plane, as opposed to small segmented lines. This resulted in improved surface finish and shorter cycle times. The creation/modification of post processors helping reduce editing at the machine control.

Project Details: Advance Mfg. Co, Inc. was founded in 1961 with the goal of providing superior precision machining in the aerospace industry. During their 40+ year history, through periodic additions and renovations, Advance Mfg‘s facility has grown to more than 100,000 square feet and expanded into the semi-conductor, power generation and defense industries. Today, Advance Mfg. Co.  possesses some of the most sophisticated machinery in the business and continues to specialize in precision manufacturing.  

The cornerstone of Advance Mfg. Co's ongoing success is their commitment to quality. To insure 100% acceptance levels, Advance has implemented a sophisticated system of statistical process controls, designed to meet these requirements. Part of the controls implemented was Mastercam in 2002 to improve quality of toolpath finishes and management of post processors, so that accuracy and consistency was accomplished every time.

To make GOLD achievable, accurate and consistent toolpaths from Mastercam were key to crafting the US Olympic Bobsled runners. The Team at Advance Mfg. faced a problem, getting a superior finish on a part as long as a bobsled runner at almost 50 inches long. Using Mastercam’s surface finish parallel toolpath they achieved just that. The Team blanked out the runners including the holes on a waterjet machine from special material, which was the easy part. Getting enough support along the length of the runner was a problem, vibration and poor surface finish would be a major issue. The Team overcame it by adding another support in the center and extending the supports. A clean part also included using clean toolpaths, “Mastercam’s surface finish toolpaths are great in regards to filtering the path to obtain arcs in the X-Z plane, as opposed to small segmented lines. This resulted in improved surface finish and shorter cycle times, noted the Team.”  The Team’s first step was to create a solid model in Mastercam from their customer’s supplied flat 2d (DXF) drawing file. Some parts of the solid model were then created into drive surfaces for the Surface Finish Parallel toolpath. This toolpath did the best job of blending along the radius for a smooth finish. Finally posting to the machine with post processors from Mastercam, and having a great support resource like Mastercam Reseller Services Four Automation helped reduce editing of code and produced a gold winning part for the Men’s four-man US Olympic Bobsled Team, which had not been achieved since 1948.

Advance Mfg. Co. has provided critical and complex parts for some of the world's finest companies using Mastercam CAD/CAM software. As you can see from the medals won by both Men and Woman, it has been a success.

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