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CAD/CAM AND COLLABORATIVE DESIGN OUTLOOK: DELCAM HELPS ENHANCE CAM SOFTWARE FOR MACHINING.

Article Excerpt
The PowerMill CAM software from Delcam plc (Birmingham, England, ++44-121-766-5544; Windsor, Ontario, Canada, 800-664-3506)(www.delcam.com) has helped the Proton KR motorcycle team derive key benefits from five-axis machining. The implementation of such software and the move to five-axis machining has enabled the company to bring more of manufacturing work in house, afforded engineers more freedom, and allowed mots of the components for the bike's frame to be machined from solid instead of being fabricated.

Proton KR, which is owned and managed by biking legend and triple World Championship winning rider Kenny Roberts, is the only independent team taking part in the current motorcycle Grand Prix season. Unlike the other teams, which race on bikes supplied by the major manufacturers, Proton KR develops its own unique racing designs at a manufacturing facility outside Banbury, England where the staff can now handle almost all design, manufacture and construction in-house.

Andy Stokes, programmer and machine operator, admitted that it took a little time to take full advantage of the new DMU 50 eVolution five-axis machine from DMG. "With five-axis machining, you have to look at the job a bit differently," he explained. "You need to adjust your approach to fixturing and work holding to give access to the maximum number of features in each set-up."

"Once you're used to it, five-axis machining makes things easier, even for parts that could be made with our three-axis machine," he stated. "We still can't do larger parts and, with only one machine, we don't have the capacity for longer runs of engine parts,...

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