R&D Leverage, a specialist manufacturer of bespoke high-end mould tools for injection and stretch-blown plastic bottles, is moving forward in 2021 with a highly automated workflow that integrates three design and CAM solutions from
Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division with its preferred design software to increase efficiency by up to 40% and meet demanding lead times for customers.
Andy Phillips, R&D Leverage manufacturing manager, said: “While the Covid-19 pandemic made 2020 the worst year for the world, continuing to automate as much of our manufacturing process as we could allowed us to generate the manufacturing capacity to support record revenues.”
R&D Leverage is the world’s largest independent solution provider to the single-stage injection stretch blow moulding (ISBM) packaging market sector, offering the global plastic convertors and consumer product brand owners what Andy Phillips calls a “complete solution” for a range of ISBM machines.
The company’s tools are designed and manufactured using the highest quality materials. All tools are made in-house, on a wide variety of high-quality CNC machines; “the tools then go into our dedicated Product Solutions Laboratory (PSL) for testing, before we release them to customers.”
More complex geometriesWith the consumer market evolving, R&D Leverage’s high-end customers were requesting more complex geometries for end-users, incorporating significant undercuts, honeycombs and freeform surfaces. Those evolving requirements and the need to produce more complex five-axis tooling in addition to their long-standing 2-D milling and turning, meant they needed to invest in the latest technology to provide the necessary capability and cost reduction with confidence that its high quality standards would be maintained.
After studying the marketplace to ensure they were investing in the best possible solution for their specific requirements, they now have a highly integrated workflow comprising Designer, Edgecam and WorkNC from Hexagon, and an automated pallet system feeding the machines so operators can be more productive.
That investment needed to address four critical challenges: improving turning cycle times; the need to produce rapid-prototype 3-D moulds and execute five-axis programs with a high level of automation to respond quickly to customers; automating the repeated 2-D milling of back plate variations; and editing models to prepare them for manufacture.
They had already been using Edgecam to program their machine tools for 2-D milling and turning for eight years, and Mr Phillips says when they were looking to upgrade their software to program complex 3-D geometries, they quickly saw WORKNC’s potential.
As Hexagon’s CAM solution for complex models in the mould, die and tooling industries for two- to five-axis CNC programming, the software was ideal for these specific needs. “Many of the bottles for which we produce moulds are extremely complicated. Some have engravings all the way down the sides, and the honey bottles have a lot of honeycombs in the form.
“With our old software, all angles and anything complex, had to be programmed manually, and there was no five-axis capability. This meant we had to carry out a number of twists on the machine, which gave scope for error.” This situatwas not acceptable for R&D Leverage.
Robert Dods, CNC milling programmer, explained: “When we create our toolpaths now, we can do the whole program in one action with WorkNC. Then I check everything out to ensure there are no collisions, or any holder collisions, and that the machine is capable of performing all of the manoeuvres that we are asking of it.
“This means that when we send the program to the shopfloor, the operators can run it with full confidence, knowing it’s going to be 100% accurate.”
Digital environmentThe Hexagon team also gave the company additional peace of mind by building a virtual replica of the machine and its internal kinematics inside WorkNC, so the outputted programme can be fully visualised in a digital environment.
Mr Phillips said: “We didn’t have anything like that with our previous software. We were simply relying on the programmer’s knowledge and experience. But now, with this extra failsafe in WorkNC, we can check there are no collisions in the program before we start machining.”
To enable greater automation, he says their digital workflow begins with importing PTC Creo design files that conform to the templates from their American owners, and R&D Leverage standards, so that the digital workflow can progress seamlessly through the entire manufacturing workflow to cutting metal on the machines.
This includes the automation tools to use 2-D information and vastly reduce programming time in Edgecam and WorkNC. Occasionally, there is the requirement with their 3-D work to modify a model for manufacture, such as capping holes and removing faces.
This is carried out in Hexagon’s specialist CAD-for-CAM product, Designer, which provides one agnostic platform to exchange files with both Edgecam and WorkNC without any translation or data loss, ensuring the data is accurate and the program is right the first time.
In a nutshell, the workflow begins with designing the preform around the original 2-D drawing. This has to be completely accurate as this is later “blown” to create the bottle. The tooling is designed around that in PTC Creo, and the data is exported to the CNC programming team.
The .prt files are then run through Edgecam for plateline work using a complex and customised algorithmic ruleset in Edgecam Strategy Manager, defined by R & D Leverage, to ensure the right tooling and cutting strategies are used depending on the 2-D featuring, improving standardisation, reducing programming time and improving quality.
For any complex 3-D moulds, the .prt is pulled into Designer for model preparation before one-click integration into WORKNC, where the expert programming team undertake complex five-axis work, using their pre-determined templates.
These templates sit within WorkNC and use previously approved and proven strategies and tooling, that are dynamically adapted to the new subject model. Finished programmes are then output in either Heidenhain or Fanuc NC code through proven post processors, depending on which machine will be carrying out the subtractive manufacturing.
The team have also built an accurate tool library inside both WorkNC and Edgecam, detailing a variety of information including feeds, speeds and depth of cut. And everything is fully collision-checked with the cutter holder, shank, machine table, column, and the fixture. This complements the approved templates (or strategies) which govern part of their automation process.
Mr Dods said: “When we need to make a specific plate we bring in the strategy for it, and it fully automates feeds, speeds and tooling.”
As well as the technical capabilities of the products, the key factor in R&D Leverage’s successful deployment has been the human factor, as Mr Phillips pointed out: “With our changing requirements in recent years, we once again surveyed our options to understand the best provider. The real differentiator for Hexagon has been the expertise and commitment of the people.
True turnkey solution“Given the complexity of the project and the internal pressure to make it succeed, ensuring it was managed correctly was a huge factor for us. Phil Smith, Hexagon’s enterprise application engineer, set out a clear project plan with sensible but challenging milestones, and has worked tirelessly to deliver on those objectives. The software makes our lives easier now, but this was only because of Phil’s hard work in understanding our exact needs and providing a true turnkey solution.”
Matt Martin, Hexagon’s enterprise sales manager, suggested the human factor was a two-way deal: “The project was only successful because Andy and his team were so open with us. They were open about their challenges and where they wanted to get to and we plotted a course together.”
The interoperability between all components of their integrated Hexagon workflow gives R&D Leverage the ability to guarantee a quick turnaround of mould tools that are 100% accurate for their packaging customers. One component in particular that was commonly used within all of their mould tool assemblies really challenged the turning capabilities of their previous software, but bringing Edgecam’s innovative Waveform Turning capabilities into the equation now offers game-changing efficiency gains.
Mr Phillips concluded: “This complex component has seen a 40% reduction in run time per unit. We machine around 2,500 of those per year – so it is a massive time saving. In order to continue providing a better solution than our competitors, we needed to continue our investment in new ‘state of the art’ technology.
“Our overall fully integrated, automated solution from Hexagon is absolutely vital in ensuring R&D Leverage is always one step ahead in offering our customers the highest quality solution with 100% reliability on lead times.”