Ticking the right boxes

PWS is part of the Nasmyth Group and supplies advanced precision engineering solutions to the global aerospace, defence, medical and specialised automotive markets.

CAD/CAM software from Planit is helping to ensure the company exceeds its customers' expectations. Solutions reports.

Based at Ferndown, Wimborne, PWS was established in 1984 to provide subcontract fabrication and welding services for the aerospace industry. Today, the company has certificated approval from a number of aerospace customers covering the civil and defence sectors and supports numerous programmes, including Eurofighter Typhoon and the Joint Strike Fighter Lightning II. With a turnover of £6 million per year and growing, the company has expanded on its services and offers its customers five principle areas of expertise; project management; assemblies; sheet metalwork; welding and CNC precision machining.

Sheet metalworking combines traditional hand skills with CNC manufacturing technology to produce tight tolerance parts and assemblies from a diverse range of materials, including aluminium, lithium, Inconel, titanium, mild and stainless steel, as well as a full range of plastic sheet material. This area of PWS's expertise was the first to benefit from Planit's CAD/CAM systems, as technical manager, Gary Johnson, recalls: “We replaced an aging punch press, which featured a dual screen controller used for programming at the machine, with a more efficient Pullmax turret punch. To support the gains available from the new machine we invested in an offline CAD/CAM system from Radan, which allows us to quickly apply punch tool paths and to efficiently nest parts to maximise material usage. The punch operator also had previous experience of Radan, which made the software selection even easier.”

Matching up

PWS was well aware of the benefits of using CAD/CAM software, but at the time was using software from another supplier. “This particular piece of software had definite flaws and also the supplier's levels of customer service left a lot to be desired,” Mr Johnson adds. “We conducted an extensive review of the CAM market and also visited a local aerospace company already using Edgecam. We looked at what the company was doing with the software and it matched all the criteria of what we wanted to do so again, it was simple for us to bring that onboard with a long term view of what we could achieve.”

Planit also supplied PWS with Autodesk Inventor, which offers powerful 3D capabilities to match the demands being received from its customers for more complex parts. “Inventor made huge improvements straight away and it has done ever since,” Mr Johnson reports. “We also have Catia V5, but Inventor is a more fluid program. Customers now supply data as solid models and the latest version of Inventor, with expanded import and export capability for Catia 5 files, is invaluable to us.”

While solid models are becoming more frequent, some customers rely on PWS to generate solid models from detailed 2D drawings. “The fluid exchange of files between Inventor, Edgecam and Radan is highly productive,” says Mr Johnson. “Both CAM programs use the native Inventor model so any changes or updates to the model will automatically be reflected in Edgecam or Radan when the file is opened. This means that everyone is always working to the latest design revision.” 

Double act

Customer parts often come from 2D drawings, but are sometimes received as solid models. “We have found that between the abilities of Inventor and Radan, what one program cannot import the other can. If you open a file into Inventor to check it is a good model, it can be imported into Radan to be flattened with the known material thicknesses. It is a very strong sheet metal package,” Mr Johnson enthuses.

He continues: “As a company, the software from Planit has enabled us to make great advances in what we can offer as a service – especially in the demanding aerospace and defence markets. Without this capability we would be out of the equation straightaway.”

Production batch size varies between 1-off up to 1,000 parts, although five to 50-off is more the norm with the machine shop, punch press and fabrication shop operating around the clock. Typical of the complex components produced by PWS is an air vortex filter housing for military aircraft on a monthly call off. This uses all of the skills offered by PWS as it requires a sheetmetal housing with fabricated elements, formed and bent pipework, large precision machined end caps with the 5-axis machined vortex blade welded into the middle. Following a hardening process, finish machining and corrosion treatment it is supplied direct to the customer as a finished item.

“All of the components required for this assembly were programmed from 2D drawings, modelled in Inventor and taken into Edgecam and Radan for the cutting data to be applied,” says Mr Johnson. “We can also reverse engineer replacement parts for older aircraft where a drawing may not exist or may not reflect the finished part due to modifications carried out in service. Our CMM generates cloud data for the part and this data is taken into Inventor to create the solid model.” 

Dedicated to growth

Individual post processors have been written for each of the CNC machine tools on the shopfloor and Edgecam is used to verify the cutting tool path in the CAM file. PWS has three Inventor licenses – one static and two floating, two seats of Radan Sheet Metal and two floating Edgecam licenses.

Around 45 people are employed in three units at the PWS Ferndown facility and a recently opened site in Wimborne has 12 people working in a dedicated cell along with new processes such as section stretch forming and heat treatments. An NDT capability will be coming on stream in 2010. “This dedicated unit will help us grow,” Mr Johnson concludes, “and it is supporting a long term contract to refit the Lockheed Orion P3 with engine nacelles for the aircraft life extension programme, which avoids scrapping perfectly serviceable aircraft.”

Planit
www.planit.com
 

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