Ingmetal, a member of the Hirsch Servo Group that employs 79 people, including 25 designers and technologists, specialises in the production of moulds for expanded polystyrene and polypropylene components. At its 1,700m² production facility in Petrovany, Slovakia, the company operates six modern machining centres and produces around 200 moulds a year. The ‘technology department’ has a team of 10 technicians who work with three different CAM systems to produce NC code for these machines.

In the past, the machine shop had suffered machine collisions, downtime, and the re-machining of pieces due to the complexity and variety of the parts being produced. Martin Stredňák, a programmer at Ingmetal, said: “So, we started looking for a solution, but wanted an independent NC-code-checking software system.”

After looking to the market and attending presentations and trainings at two software companies, Ingmetal selected the Vericut CNC simulation, verification, and optimisation software from CGTech.

Vericut software detects errors, possible collisions, and potential inefficiencies in CNC machining; and unlike CAM simulation, which only simulates the toolpaths and not the actual NC data, Vericut checks the NC code that is running the machines, giving a true virtual machine and a 3-D machining digital twin. Moreover, this system can simulate any CNC machine, regardless of manufacturer — and integrate seamlessly with all CAM systems. Indeed, the simulation software is completely independent of the controller, CAM system and CNC machine used.

Ingmetal next purchased the Vericut Force module, which analyses the NC code to further optimise machining processes, resulting in ‘significant time savings and improved tool life’. Vericut Force, a physics-based software module for optimising NC programs, analyses the cutting conditions during the entire NC program operation. In particular, the maximum reliable feed rate for a given cutting condition is determined based on the load on the cutting edge, spindle power and the maximum chip thickness.

Mr Stredňák added: “This capability allows us to speed up or smooth the toolpath and thus reduce the machining time. Over a period of two years of using Vericut Force we have seen a saving in machining time of between 15 and 25%, depending on the produced part complexity.”