Custom Fluidpower has achieved 25% more machining time through PEPS CadCam in the design and manufacture of hydraulic manifolds. Custom Fluidpower, based in Australia, uses the latest in Cartridge Valve Technology including SUN Hydraulics and Waterman Hydraulics, to design and manufacture hydraulic manifolds covering industrial, mobile, agricultural, marine and aerospace applications. Until recently, however, they were still programming their Okuma horizontal machining centre using an internally created database of machine code for individual features. Bob Nolan, Manifold Manager commented: “All features were hand-written in G-code, which was time-consuming when features changed. Also, we had no way to simulate the cutting cycle. This process required a great deal of technical expertise.” They decided to investigate CadCam solutions, but no single system offered the end-to-end solution they desired. After speaking with Camtek Pacific they decided to purchase PEPS SolidCut Mill, with Camtek Pacific developing a parametric manifold generation application – CAM Expert – using the PEPS open structure and customisation facilities. Machine efficiency increased by 25% to 80% through optimised code routines, which yielded greater capacity. Through PEPS and the integrated parametric module written by Camtek Pacific tool changes were reduced by 75%, which also constituted to a half hour saving on an average manifold. For every parametric feature CAM Expert has rules for its machining, configured by the company’s personnel. CAM Expert uses these rules and the tool cut database to resolve all required machining operations to produce all features and to cut the manifold.
