-- Edward Gibbon
The Mechanical Fabrication Department, headed by Carl Rago, is organized into several sub-departments [See Organization Chart - Chapter 4]. CAM efforts have been focused thus far at the Light Machine Shop only.
The Light Machine Shop is closely associated with Production Control and Quality Assurance. Production Control consists of Carl Rago, Nick Vassallo, Rodd Pope, Don Gill, Joe Zink, Martin Byrd, and Jay Venti. Production Control acts as a liaison between the Engineering Department and the Light Machine Shop. The Engineering Department submits a typical work order to the Production Control group. Nick Vassallo processes the work order, orders the required raw material and releases it to the machine shop and QA. Vassallo also takes a first cut at whether the job is to be done manually or by NC. Rodd Pope fills the position in MFD as manufacturing engineer. His duties include interfacing with product designers, improving the CAM process, and acting as an advisor to the student RA's. Jay Venti is the database programmer for Production Control; his responsibility is the development and maintenance of the production control database.
Quality Assurance, headed by Eric Lundahl, consists of Fred Dusel and Scott Everling. QA is responsible for inspection of all parts manufactured by the Light Machine Shop. The QA Department also acts as an internal consulting group, lending their expertise to the NC programmers, machinists and project engineers, who occasionally consult with the QA department during the conceptual design stage of the project. Although the members of QA often help the machinists with problems of set up and machining techniques, the emphasis is on inspection rather than on process improvement.
The Light Machine Shop, headed by Ossie Millican, consists of three groups: the machinists, the NC Programming group and the Tool Crib. The machinists work on a variety of manual and CNC machine tools [See machine tool and machinist lists -- Chapter 4]. There is no formal division of machinists between those who operate the CNC machine tools and those who work on the manual machine tools, although there are a few machinists who work almost exclusively on the manual machine tools. Current needs dictate assignments and there is a fair amount of flexibility in the operator-machine assignments. The machine shop supervisor is responsible for assigning and scheduling jobs.
Noli Jose, the NC programmer, make up the NC Programming group. The NC programmers write all the NC part programs* which are used in the Light Machine Shop. The NC programmer works closely with the machinists on the jobs and with the student R/A's on CAM system maintenance.
5VC
Cincinnati Milacron Cintimatic 5VC - 750 NC vertical machining center
Control: Acramatic 900 version 2
3-axis
Workspace: 30ÓLx15ÓWx20ÓT
10VC
Cincinnati Milacron Cintimatic 10VC - 2000 NC vertical machining center
Control: Acramatic 900
3-axis
Workspace: 80ÓLx26ÓWx20ÓT
20H
Cincinnati Milacron Cintimatic 20H - 2500 NC horizontal machining center
Control: Acramatic 850
4-axis; full contouring B axis
Workspace: 100ÓLx60ÓWx25ÓT
Bridgeport
Bridgeport Series II
Tab Sequential Output
3-axis
Mitsui
Mitsui Seiki HS3A CNC Machining Center
Control: Fanuc Series 15M
21.6ÓWx15.7ÓLx19.7ÓT
Cinturn
Cincinnati Milacron Cinturn 12C - series 1212 CNC chucking center
Control: Acramatic 850
Mitsubishi Wire EDM
Mitsubishi 110 SZ
Control: Mitsubishi 32 bit controller
5-axis
Sinker EDM
Elox - Fanuc Series M EDM center
Journeyman
Tree J425 milling center (3)
Control: Dynapath Delta 30M
4-axis (w/ attachment)
GENERALIZED PROCEDURE / WORKFLOW FOR NC PARTS
Previously, CAD drawings were developed on the uVAX, Intergraph and other miscellaneous computer platforms, and the designs were either 2-dimensional or wire frame models. Manufacturing then received the drawings on blueline print. The NC programmers used these bluelines to generate the G-code* using APT*. This meant that the programmers entered the part data from the bluelines to the mainframe before generating the G-code. The NC part program was punched on paper tape and downloaded to the machine tool via the tape reader. The programmers manually made a tool report that summarized the description of the tools used in the program and an instruction sheet containing machining set up information for the machinist. The machinist loaded the part program onto the controller via the tape reader and edited any part of the program, if required, and machined the part.
The main emphasis in the NC Programming group was to turn out the programs as fast as they could and make sure that the programs did not have any mistakes in them. Stemming from this attitude was a lack of a systematic approach and the culture was analogous to a Ôfire-fighting' approach. There was a lack of adequate documentation that meant that repeating a job, a few months later, would require reprogramming of the part. The system was also heavily dependent on Noli Jose and Don Gill, with few others knowing what had been done.
The job scheduling is heavily dependent on the Ôpriority system'. Every job that comes into the MFD has a priority associated with it. The priorities range from 1 through 99. The jobs with higher priority [lower priority number] displace the jobs with lower priority even though the jobs with the lower priority may come in earlier. The priority system has played havoc with the scheduling and it has been hard for Tony to optimally allocate the jobs to the right machines and machinists.
