Industry Watch: Business

Recent activities and events going on in the business of fabricating and metalworking.

THE LINCOLN ELECTRIC COMPANY (CLEVELAND, OH) . . .
reported that its VRTEX^® 360 pioneering virtual reality welding system was recognized by the International Institute of Welding (IIW) with its 2011 Heinz Sossenheimer Award, an accolade conferred every two years to innovative software solutions making a decisive contribution to improving the long-term quality and/or safety of applications in the fields of joining, cutting or coating. The awards ceremony is scheduled for June 2011 in Chennai, India. Sponsored by the German Delegation to the IIW, the award honors the late Dr.-Ing. e.h. Heinz Sossenheimer, former director of the DVS (German Welding Society) and long-time stalwart of the IIW. The prize, first introduced in 2001, is open to modeling and simulation software covering any aspect of joining and allied processes. It recognizes that which has significantly contributed to the improvement of both the quality and safety of joining, cutting or surfacing operations.

The VRTEX 360 is a virtual reality arc welding training system and educational tool that allows students to practice their welding technique in a simulated environment. It promotes the efficient transfer of welding skills to the actual welding training booth while reducing material waste associated with traditional welding training. The combination of realistic welding puddle simulation and arc welding sound tied to the welder’s movement provides a realistic and exciting, hands-on training experience.

“In today’s global economy, an educated, high-tech workforce is required to help companies stay competitive. The education of these employees has been enhanced with the introduction of virtual training,” said George Blankenship, the president of Lincoln Electric North America. “Studies are already pointing to faster certification and higher scores for students exposed to virtual training. This is combined with the benefits it offers to a company’s bottom line of reduced electric and raw material costs. We’re honored to be recognized by the IIW and privileged to have an outstanding team in our Automation Division who created a system that is helping attract new students, already familiar with virtual environments, to a career in welding.” www.lincolnelectric.com

HOLE SPECIALISTS, INC. (TOMBALL, TX) . . .
is nearly doubling the size of its plant and adding equipment and staff in a $3.5 million expansion that president Larry Robinson sees as the price of success. Although the company experienced a dip during the recession, its business has rebounded up 125 percent over last year, and new equipment, new capabilities and nearly a dozen new staff are attracting business from all over the U.S. in industries beyond energy. According to Robinson, the company already added four 10-ton cranes, seven new lathes for OD/ID turning, and three heavy duty Sunnen GH210 honing machines. Work on the 25,000 sq ft addition is ready to start. A fourth tube hone, a new HTG model, was delivered in April after its premier at Houstex, offering greater hp and part capacity for even higher product output.

The plant expansion includes 25,000 sq ft under roof, 49,000 sq ft of concrete-paved outdoor storage, and a circular drive for efficient truck traffic. Pipe doors in the walls will permit flow-through processing of parts – in one end of the building and out the other. “In recent months we’ve responded to customer requests and increased our hole drilling capacity to 20 ft in length by 8½ in diameter. We added turning and pull boring technology,” Robinson said. “Our honing capacity is currently 18¾ in diameter, but the HTG tube hone takes us up to 24 in diameter and 30 ft lengths. We expect significant improvements in our efficiency with this machine’s ability to produce 40 hp at the spindle, as well as the new fixturing system and ability to use two-stage tooling. Every part we pull-bore for concentricity is also honed for final size, geometry and finish.”

Hole Specialists added about a dozen staff members recently and Robinson hopes to recruit 18 more after the expansion. Customers include Haliburton, Dynadrill, Baker, Continental Alloys and Services, Bardex, Dailey Thermetrics, Smith International and other industry leaders that need deep, round, straight, sized and finished holes with extremely precise tolerances. Parts include hydraulic blocks, thermo welds, defense, molds, and oil rig control blocks. Some are so big a 6 ft tall man can walk through them. The company quality assurance program complies with ISO 9002. www.holespecialists.net

COE PRESS EQUIPMENT (STERLING HEIGHTS, MI) . . .
finished the installation and startup of a new Cut-to-Length (CTL) line for Reliance Fabricator and Engineers, a steel service center located in Faridabad, India. The new CTL line is a heavy-duty system comprised of a ServoMaster 24 in servo roll feed, 250 Series power straightener, 10,000 lb coil reel and a pneumatic production shear. This investment expands Reliance’s state-of-the-art facility and ability to produce blanks for its steel, automotive, and appliance industry customers. “We are excited about this opportunity to show that we can compete in the global market,” said Jim Ward, the general sales manager of COE. “We believe this will open up the opportunity for other overseas business.”

The line can handle material thickness of up to .090 in x 24 in wide at 45,000 psi yield strength and tensile strength of up to 70,000 psi. The reel can handle 10,000 lb coils with widths up to 24 in and OD up to 60 in. Maximum linespeed of the CTL is up to 160 fpm and the servo feed provides roll speeds of up to 465 fpm with a feed accuracy of +0.005 in. The line also contains a high-speed pneumatic shear that can operate at up to 60 spm and is fully integrated, both mechanically and electronically, with the servo feed to provide a complete single-source CTL package. The line offers pneumatic raise and lower of the upper pinch rolls, independent adjustment of the upper straightener rolls, and self-centering hand crank entrance edge guides for easy modification. The system uses seven straightener rolls for optimum straightening capability and blank quality, as well as a central point lubrication system and a two-axis peeler table for material threading. It also features electrical safety disconnects, emergency stop push buttons and remote jog pendants. www.cpec.com

DASSAULT SYSTÈMES (AUBURN HILLS, MI) . . .
announced earlier this year that Lockheed Martin migrated its F-35 Lightning II robotic painting workcells to DELMIA Robotics. A long-time user of DELMIA manufacturing simulation solutions, Lockheed Martin’s new implementation of Robotics has made its manufacturing processes more efficient, leveraging a common interface across its CATIA design authoring and DELMIA digital manufacturing solutions. Lockheed Martin uses simulations to verify that the robots will reach all of the painting positions while avoiding any collisions. Automating the paint and coatings process provides significant time savings, as well as better process control. Protecting workers from potentially harmful paint fumes is an added benefit of robots. The company already experienced success with the previous generation of DELMIA Robotics simulation.

Already familiar with the CATIA interface, Lockheed Martin NC programmers easily move into robot support roles, pick up the software and produce programs. Lockheed Martin currently employs the robotic solution in two different automated paint cells, both configured on moving rail systems. A three-robot cell is dedicated to painting the aircraft exterior and a two-robot cell is configured to handle a variety of F-35 components. Both the physical cell and the robot programming have been designed for flexibility through optimization and verification of the programs in the virtual DELMIA environment so that the company can paint different mixes of components at different times.  

Enhancements within DELMIA Cenit FASTSURF make it easier to modify existing robot programs for significant time gains. Previous solutions required extensive rework any time a component design changed, but with FASTSURF, adapting to a part change is as simple as plugging a new parameter in the setup strategy. Lockheed Martin can also monitor the thickness of coatings – a critical factor in ensuring that aircraft  meet design requirements – through a query option at any point in the application.

In related news, McLaren Racing, the operating arm of the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula 1 team, and Dassault Systèmes announced a new partnership to further enhance racing car development efficiency. The agreement sees McLaren Racing committing to open V6 PLM solutions for integrated design development, analysis and management. ENOVIA V6 forms McLaren Racing’s collaborative innovation backbone by providing a single IP reference for managing engineering, intellectual property and business processes. CATIA V6 is used for innovative design and concurrent engineering to enhance McLaren’s development efficiency.

The deployment of V6 enables McLaren Racing to benefit from one of the most sophisticated, open, flexible, secure and integrated PLM 2.0 software environments ever created. The scale, scope and speed of Formula 1 racing design means tens of thousands of new innovative designs and ideas each year. Creating, developing and testing so many designs require an efficient and trusted software environment to integrate and safely manage the considerable load of technical data and engineering simulation results. V6 collaborative PLM will play a vital role in helping streamline McLaren Racing processes and promote successful innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration from the initial concept to manufacturing and then to the racetrack itself.

“While it may look straightforward to guide a racing car from a 3D digital model to the racetrack, it’s a process that involves an extraordinarily complex and disparate series of interlocking design, purchasing and manufacturing constituents. We are looking at every opportunity to cut our time to market – whether that’s through clever design, the introduction of improved processes or, in the case of V6 PLM, by introducing a sophisticated product lifecycle management system to improve efficiency throughout the production cycle,” said Jonathan Neale, the managing director of McLaren Racing. www.3ds.com

CNC SOFTWARE, INC. (TOLLAND, CT) . . .
created CNC Software Europe SA in Porrentruy, Switzerland for the development of Mastercam Swiss Expert, a CAD/CAM product dedicated to the Swiss turn market. CNC Software acquired sole rights to SylvieXpert, a Swiss turn software developed in this area of Switzerland in June 2010. The creation of CNC Software Europe SA allows access to the expertise available in the Jura Region of Switzerland, known as the birthplace of Swiss machining. According to Gary Hargreaves, the vice president of business development for CNC Software, “we opened the development center in Switzerland because of our commitment to Mastercam Swiss Expert. Hiring the right talent in Switzerland gives us the team to successfully push forward in this growing market. The Swiss Expert product is a great compliment to the existing suite of Mastercam products.”