High-Speed Edgetek SAM Improves Therm Cycle Times

Precision Technologies Group (PTG) has announced an order from Therm Incorporated for one of its Edgetek five-axis super-abrasive machines (SAM). The high-speed Edgetek CBN machine has been purchased to improve cycle times and increase machinery efficiency in the production of custom-machined critical components for aerospace and industrial gas turbines. This includes turbine components made from exotic alloys, which are difficult to machine.

Therm Incorporated is a supplier of turbine components to all the major OEMs, specialising in LP and HP blades and vanes for aerospace and industrial gas-turbine applications. Steve Benn, regional sales manager for machines at PTG, said: 'We were able to demonstrate how a US-based aerospace subcontractor had used an Edgetek five-axis SAM to slash the cycle time for "shroud segment" production from 150 minutes to 17 minutes. 'The shroud segment is manufactured from extremely hard Hastalloy X and had previously been machined using a vertical turning centre.

'This required time-consuming set-up and involved a configuration that imposed excessive levels of tool wear because of its interrupted cut. 'Using a five-axis Edgetek machine has reduced the overall cycle time for each component, because of its combination of high metal-removal rates and simplified set-up. 'Tooling costs have also been reduced by more than 30 per cent thanks to the elimination of the interrupted cut made necessary by the VTL's set-up limitations,' Benn added. In addition to reduced cycle times, PTG was also able to show Therm Incorporated how, by using an Edgetek, it could reduce the number of machines required - and hence set-up times - for machined blade and vane products.

Benn said: 'We were able to cite an example in the aerospace sector, where a single five-axis Edgetek machine is replacing seven conventional milling and grinding machines, providing a reduction in the machine set-up time for a complex part from eight hours to less than 10 minutes. Another advantage of the Edgetek machines is said to be their use of plated cubic-boron-nitride-coated grinding wheels to achieve good metal removal rates on a range of ultra-hard and exotic materials and carbon-rich metals, unsuitable for high-speed machining with diamond coated grinding wheels.

Benn added: 'Smaller batches and more set-ups mean that many companies no longer have the luxury to amortise the cost of bonded CBN wheels over extended production runs. 'Plated technology fills the need for high metal-removal rates with short set-up times and eliminates the need for dressing. 'Plated wheels also offer high levels of consistency; they grind virtually the same profile, from the first cut to the last, across hundreds or thousands of workpieces. 'As a result, the times associated with set-ups, wheel changing, and wheel dressing are reduced or eliminated. 'Also greatly reduced is the average wheel cost. 'This is because the wheels can be stripped of worn CBN and re-plated several times.

High-Speed Camera Captures Crisp Images

Dalsa has released the Falcon 1.4M100 1.4 megapixel, high-speed camera from Firstsight Vision. The new camera delivers 100 frames a second at full 1400 x 1024 pixel resolution. Even faster frame rates can be achieved through vertical windowing. The dynamic range of 57dB ensures excellent image quality.

Housed in a compact body, the new camera is ideally suited to applications in electronics manufacturing and semiconductor inspection. These include wire and die bonding, flat panel display inspection and pick and place. The high-speed capabilities also make it suitable for use in industrial metrology and general machine vision applications such as print registration and pharmaceutical inspection. The sensor provides global shuttering, global reset and concurrent integration and readout.

True global shuttering is suited to imaging fast-moving objects. It captures crisp images without smear or distortion by electronically shuttering all pixels simultaneously, even at short exposure times. This avoids the distortion of images of moving objects using rolling shutter systems.
Fully programmable via base mini Camera Link (CL), the camera incorporates exposure control, gain and offset adjustment and flat- field correction. The mini Camera Link interface allows data transmission over 10m cable lengths.

Ease of use is enhanced through direct camera control using Dalsa's CamExpert point-and-click graphical user interface. The Falcon 1.4M100 is fully compatible with Dalsa's Xcelera PoCL (Power over Camera Link) series of frame grabbers, as well as Dalsa's X64-CL and Anaconda CL vision processors.