Affordable NCSIMUL cuts hours from first piece production

January 8, 2013 - Richard Childress Racing (RCR), one of the predominant names in NASCAR Sprint CUP racing, knows a little bit about the value of getting on track and up to speed quickly. It is part of the organization’s culture. So when its machine shop, where custom parts are manufactured for RCR race cars, was losing four to eight hours of machine cycle on critical “first piece” parts, it was a detriment to that culture of speed.

Rick Grimes, Manufacturing Manager for RCR, said, "We have to turn parts quickly in this business. We are a week-to-week operation. Our shop is frequently asked to program a part from scratch and get it out to the machine, then get the parts made and out to the track before the next race. Naturally, we are eager to do whatever it takes to reduce the time between creating the model and having the completed first piece in our hands."

Giant Step
First piece manufacturing took a giant step forward at RCR in 2010 when its CAD software reseller, 3HTI, suggested that they take a look at a new simulation software package called NCSIMUL, developed by Spring Technologies, a French company that had just established a North American subsidiary organization headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. NCSIMUL is an affordable yet comprehensive software solution for simulating, verifying, optimizing, and reviewing CNC machining programs. It can be used in conjunction with CAD/CAM software. In the case of RCR, it was PTC Pro/Engineer.

Lost Time Recaptured
Kiziah said that performing a complete simulation with NCSIMUL takes about 15 minutes. Before the company installed NCSIMUL, many hours of machining time were lost while painstakingly slogging through the code. This lost time has now been recaptured.

In the past, without NCSIMUL, RCR would have had to blindly proof the program out on the machine. If some surfaces didn’t clean up, the operator and machine would have had to wait around until the programmer re-worked the program. This would in turn waste several hours of machine time.  Without NCSIMUL, the original Rev. A 1st piece part took 8 hours to proof out.  This time around, with the power of NCSIMUL, the Rev. B 1st piece part was proofed in only 4 hours.

Get the complete article on: www.springplm.com

Philippe Solignac
SPRING Technologies HQ
Corporate Marketing Director
Tel: + 33 (0)1 43 60 25 00
Mail : Email Contact