Bringing work in-house

As one of about a dozen businesses worldwide that manufacture electron beam sources and thermal evaporation equipment, Island e-Beam LLC of Bradenton, Florida, is filling a fruitful niche.

“We have a very diverse customer base that ranges from the low end to the high end,” says David Ferguson, Island e-Beam’s owner. “On the high end, you have our OEMs that build complete PVD (physical vapor deposition) systems, along with military and aerospace applications. On the low end, you have the decorative and art industry.”

Electron beam sources manufactured by Ferguson have been used for coatings on some jet-fighter canopies; head-up displays; infrared (IR) thermography optics in missiles; and night vision equipment and IR imaging for military applications. Additionally, the sources have been used to coat optics and IR devices for space applications.

Having spent his manufacturing career working for businesses that make similar products, Ferguson opted to branch out on his own in 2009, the year Island e-Beam opened its doors.

Having grown tired of outsourcing the parts required to build his electron beam sources, Ferguson began to look at bringing the work in house.

“The quality wasn’t there, the delivery wasn’t there, and the price wasn’t there,” Ferguson says of his outsourcing woes. “Inevitably, the parts would come in and the tolerance would be off, the tapped holes wouldn’t be right. We would usually just fix it here and be done with it because it was just easier that way.”

Furthermore, the electron beam sources are made of materials that some machine shops don’t like to cut, including oxygen-free high thermal conductivity (OFHC) copper, stainless steel, mild steel, molybdenum, tantalum, tungsten, and titanium.

“We only use vacuum-compatible materials to make the parts,” Ferguson says. “Not everyone wants to machine those materials, which is another reason why we wanted to bring the work in house.”

Dimensionally, a small electron beam source is 5" x 6" x 4" and weighs about 6 lb, while a large electron beam source is up to 12" x 8" x 5" and 40 lb.

“The parts we make are generally the same,” Ferguson notes. “The only thing that varies is the size of the pockets, which is where you put the material to be vaporized.

“Still, while the parts are alike, the task of hand programming would be difficult, if not impossible, and subject to human error. We ran one job that probably had 1,000 lines of code, and I can’t imagine trying to program that by hand.”
 

A software solution

To bring the work in house, Ferguson – who had never before worked with CNC machines – purchased a Haas VF-2 milling center. Following a lengthy struggle with his former CAM software, Ferguson also acquired the Edgecam computer-aided-manufacturing (CAM) solution by Vero Software to program the Haas.

“It was a constant battle,” Ferguson says of his former CAM solution. “Every time we would try to generate toolpath, there was always a glitch, and their tech support never fixed the problems.”

When Edgecam representative Silverhawk Solutions showed Ferguson what the software could do, he was pleased with the solution’s functionality and ease of use.

“Steve Harrison of Silverhawk Solutions came in and gave me a demonstration,” Ferguson says. “Some of the parts that we make are complex and, now that we can just drag in a solid, using the Edgecam software has been the easiest solution.”

To create its solid models, the company uses AutoCad by Autodesk and SOLIDWORKS by Dassault Systèmes. Given that Edgecam is CAD-neutral, it offers error-free interoperability with any CAD system. Without the need for data translation, Edgecam toolpath remains associative to the original design, retaining the integrity of the designer’s vision.

Once Jason Boeras, CNC machinist and programmer for Island e-Beam, imports a solid model into Edgecam, he typically uses the system’s automatic feature finder to identify features to be machined – such as faces, bosses, pockets, and holes.

“I usually run feature finder first, just to see what it comes up with, but you can also go in and manually find features,” Boeras says. “The system is very flexible and gives you a broad range of options.”

That flexibility is due to Edgecam’s workflow, which is designed to reduce costs, improve quality, and achieve shorter lead times. Workflow understands the component topology and understands the required manufacturing environment; it therefore accelerates toolpath generation and includes the ability to program in three modes: fully automatic, semi-automatic, and full control.

“The main goal is to eliminate redundant machining,” says Harrison, who assisted Ferguson with implementing Edgecam. “Manually drilling a hole in a CAM system is a thing of the past. Let the system do it your way.”

Because the company machines only up to three axes, Boeras manually selects features to be machined on one side of a milled part, then manually selects features on the other side of the part for completion in a second operation.

Once the features are selected, the system automatically chooses the ideal tools for the job based upon the company’s tool library – although the tool-selection process also can be performed manually.

Edgecam then generates toolpath, and Boeras is free to tweak elements of the program – such as speeds and feeds, and angle of approach – if he prefers settings that differ from the automatically generated program.

“The software is great and, 9 times out of 10, the automatically generated program is exactly how I want it to be,” Boeras says. “Sometimes you have personal preferences that are different from the program and, when you do, it allows you to make those changes. It’s really nice to have all of those options.”
 

Capturing machining knowledge

Boeras is currently in the process of creating a custom tool store for the company, in which tools are linked to specific materials. This practice is intended to make programming easier and more consistent now and in the future.

“Eventually, the time will come when the company expands and, while I might know not to use a particular tool on a particular material, a new person may not know that,” Boeras notes.

That knowledge-based machining approach is the idea behind the system’s Strategy Manager, a feature that automatically saves all of a company’s machining processes.

“We were able to capture the machining processes and apply them from one part to the next,” Harrison says.

The Strategy Manager graphical tool captures process logic and displays it as a flow chart. It also allows programmers to designate specific parameters for operations. For instance, a programmer could designate a tool for a certain type of hole, unless that hole exceeds a specified diameter. Establishing such specifications creates more intelligent, customized automation.

“People program a part in their heads a certain way, whether they realize they’re doing it or not,” Harrison says. “The Strategy Manager captures that logic and allows you to apply your best practices.”

Boeras and Harrison also credit the system with reliable simulation and collision detection based on the actual kinematics of the machine tool.

“It’s a huge time saver that provides a high-consistency, high-quality program that goes out to the floor,” Harrison states. “You can make a pretty picture, but it needs to be able to make parts. Our return on investment is how good that program is when it hits the floor, and how quickly they can make parts.”

For Ferguson, achieving the accuracy he desires – the first time the part is machined – is the most obvious benefit of adopting the new CAM system.

“Just to be able to machine a pocket with an angled wall in Edgecam is a great feature,” Ferguson says. “We’re not a production machine shop by any stretch. While machining with Edgecam is fast, I’m not as concerned with the time involved as I am with the part being correct. With Edgecam, the parts are correct.”

Ferguson was also pleased with the implementation process.

“As soon as we had Edgecam, we were quickly able to machine a part with minimal hiccups,” says Ferguson, who implemented the solution in April 2013. “The results were immediate. I’m very pleased with the Edgecam software, and with the support I have received. Steve Harrison and his team at Silverhawk Solutions have been great, with superb tech support whenever we need it.”

Island eBeam LLC
www.islandebeam.com

Vero Software
www.verosoftware.com

Haas Automation Inc.
www.haascnc.com