1. sSHOP SOLUTIONS
Problem Solving on the Shop Floor
Programming, Macros
Automate CAM’s Reach
A
t Wilson Tool International, two senior CNC
programmers demonstrate how management
flexibility in executing their jobs has greatly improved
productivity from the time orders are received to the
completion of machined parts to fill the orders. It’s a case
of how a company’s success can be traced directly to
management’s efforts to improve productivity and cut costs
by hiring the right people and equipping them with the most
advanced CNC programming system.
Wilson Tool is the world’s largest supplier of standard and
custom tooling and accessories to the punching, bending,
and stamping industries with manufacturing facilities in the
US, UK, and Canada, and distribution and support facilities
worldwide. At its headquarters campus in White Bear Lake,
MN, Wilson runs its business with SAP enterprise man-
agement software. It operates hundreds of machine tools
supported by 10 networked seats of GibbsCAM CNC pro-
gramming software from 3D Systems, formerly Gibbs and
Associates (Moorpark, CA). GibbsCAM is frequently used
by machinists on the shop floor as well as by seven full-time
programmers at Wilson’s three divisions.
The autonomy that Wilson management provides its
employees has led to initiatives that have been accepted and
adopted, including those that began within the CNC programming
group in the press-brake (bending) division. Kevin Hjelmgren
had been at Wilson for two years when he transferred into CNC
programming seven years ago. He began using GibbsCAM the way
other programmers showed him. “We would model the cutting tool,
get our tool position from the software, then do manual G-code
programming. We were doing very simple things with the software,
using it only as support, but I had been trained and knew its
capabilities,” Hjelmgren said.
Hjelmgren began using GibbsCAM for actual programming, and
when another programmer saw results, he began using it. Slowly, the
programmers began implementing the software, first for program-
ming, then for building models of the machines, models of the tomb-
stones for the horizontal mills, and models of the tools and holders, to
enable accurate toolpath verification and machine simulation.
“It has been great for programming horizontals, because I have
to get tools into very tight spaces,” said Hjelmgren. “Being able to
watch a program run on my computer has been a huge benefit.
With machine simulation, I see if something is not going to work and
fix it there, instead of discovering errors at the machine.”
The press-brake division makes the largest of Wilson’s tooling,
typically punches and dies for press brakes, and so have the largest
machines. Of its 26 CNCs, 15 are vertical mills, six are grinders, and
five are horizontal mills with 31.5" × 31.5" (800 × 800 mm) tomb-
stones. Although the division manufactures a standard product line,
much of the work is custom, made to order. Hjelmgren said that
GibbsCAM has helped to get some of that work. “Our designers
may come to us with a technical job, and ask if we can make it. I
open their SolidWorks model directly in GibbsCAM, run toolpath on
it to ensure we can make the part and give them a close approxima-
tion for quoting.”
Kevin Hjelmgren (left) and Gary Warlow wrote programs using GibbsCAM
macros to automate processes at Wilson Tool’s bending division to make
parts as needed in “lots of one.”

2. A feature of the software that programmers rely on is saving
machining processes for reuse. A process incorporates the type of
feature to be machined, tools used, machining style—all the variables
a programmer would need to specify. Later, the programmer can
recall the process and use it as is or, if there is an ECO, change the
affected variable. The program is automatically regenerated. “This has
saved us a lot of time and it has helped with changes we are making
in our work flow, for which I’m reprogramming around 200 parts.”
Until last year, the work flow using the horizontal mills was batch
processing—making lots of 30–50 parts and keeping an inventory.
Scheduling mills for custom jobs, which arrive daily, was a challenge.
Furthermore, because of the scheduling system, programming
requires specifying the tombstone and angle of rotation (tombstone
face)—B0, B90, B180 or
B270—for machining. However,
programmers can’t predict
which tombstone or face
will be open next. To tackle
the problem, the press-brake group decided to move from batch
processing to “lots of one,” making parts as needed, which was
enabled, in part, by the work of another programmer.
Gary Warlow, with 22 years’ experience at Wilson Tool in England,
transferred to Minnesota in 2011, and began using GibbsCAM two
years ago. He learned it quickly, in part because it is easy to use and
processes are easy to set up. Then he began writing GibbsCAM
macros, application program interfaces that use a specific language
provided to GibbsCAM users. 3D Systems (formerly Gibbs and
Associates) writes the code that automates GibbsCAM functions, and
maintains a user wiki with the macro commands to use the functions,
but macros use a specific syntax or sequence, and become complex
in multiaxis programming.
Warlow has years of experience in writing macros for other
applications and has even written macros to automatically
model parts with SolidWorks. He learned to use the GibbsCAM
language to automatically program many repetitive tasks,
including selecting and sizing geometry, specifying tools, and
running processes.
Management recognized what he was doing, and initiated a
roll-out of automation based on his macros. Moving to “lots of
one” is one of the projects. Warlow writes dynamic GibbsCAM
macros that call up and incorporate the appropriate part programs
generated by Hjelmgren, but the initial rotation angle is output
as a variable, letting a machine operator run the program on any
tombstone face.
GibbsCAM generates a setup sheet to inform operators of the
program number, setup, tools, machining operations, and run
time. When the program gets to the variable, it calls subroutines
and waits for the operator to enter tombstone and face identifiers.
All operations are loaded as a G55 (initial coordinate system),
but the macro outputs a G56 (new coordinate system) at every
rotation, dynamically updating location.
Another project initiated through Warlow’s macros goes much
farther, and incorporates data generated by the SAP system.
When an order is entered, data about the parts are collected. The
SAP system can generate a flat file or data file with coded infor-
mation about geometry and dimensions. The system is set up to
generate a bar code with the job order. The press-brake group
integrated bar-code readers
with GibbsCAM workstations,
and Warlow wrote macros
that read the part number
from the bar code, open
GibbsCAM, and model the part. The macros run in the back-
ground, doing mathematical and trigonometric manipulation on
the SAP flat file data, to generate values that populate the required
variables. It then calls the appropriate saved tools and machining
processes, machines the part, generates the part program, post
processes the file, and outputs a setup sheet. “It takes about 30
seconds for all this to happen,” Warlow said, “That’s faster than
opening a SolidWorks file.”
The press-brake division selected 26 product families for the
initial automation project. “Every dimension is available for those
product families within the SAP data, and we completed the project
in February,” said Warlow. “Now, our ongoing project is to automate
the rest of the families. Not all products have a flat file, but we’re
working on that, so for these parts I have macros stop with drop-
down menus, and I enter the data off a print.”
With the progress made, Gary Warlow expects automation
projects to go division-wide at all press-brake locations. He is now
training two programmers on macro development, one in his own
division, for backup, and one in the punching division. “I’ve been
meeting with the punching group, and they want to change their
manufacturing process, develop what we’ve done, and even go
further,” Warlow said. “The GibbsCAM macros are fantastic. It’s
unbelievable what you can do with them. I don’t know everything,
but I’ve gone a long way with them.”
For more information from 3D Systems, formerly Gibbs and
Associates, go to www.gibbscam.com, or phone 805-523-0004.
SHOP SOLUTIONS
ENGINEERING
MAY 2015
Copyright Notice: 2015 Copyright by Society of Manufacturing Engineers.
All rights retained. This article appears with permission from
Manufacturing Engineering, the official publication of SME.
“With machine simulation, I see if something
is not going to work and fix it there, instead
of discovering errors at the machine.”
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