1) Switching to new CNC software has helped Springfield Marine increase machining productivity and reduce programming time. The new software automatically generates more efficient toolpaths that allow for higher feed rates. 2) The new software automatically recognizes features in solid models, eliminating the need for manual rework. It also stores machining operations that can be quickly applied, reducing programming time by two-thirds on average. 3) For a sandcast aluminum seat swivel part, the software helped increase the roughing feed rate from 75 to 200 inches per minute and reduced programming time from several days to a few hours.

1. Change in CNC Software Helps Reduce Cycle
Time and Speeds Programming
Switching to new computer numerical control (CNC) Leading marine seating and hardware
software has helped one marine components manufac- Springfield Marine is a leader in the innovation of seat-
turer not only increase machining productivity, but also ing and hardware products for the marine industry,
reduce its overall programming time. even though the company lost its complete facility to a
devastating fire in November 1999. The fire destroyed
In the past Springfield Marine used surface model the company’s entire manufacturing plant, yet within
based CNC software with limited flexibility in defining two weeks it was back in business by renting space
roughing operations that made it necessary to keep and machines from other companies in the area.
feed rates below optimum levels. The company then
switched to a new generation of solid model based Springfield Marine produces removable pedestals,
software that provides higher machining productivity seats, non-removable pedestals, table pedestals and
by generating more tables for the marine
efficient toolpaths. industry as well as
This new software au- many other products.
tomatically generates The company makes
roughing routines that many different styles
walk around the outer of pedestals that are
boundary of the part, used in bass boats,
eliminating the need pontoons, leisure
for plunging. The boats and a large va-
new routines make it riety of fishing boats
possible to increase and also provides
the feed rate from 75 custom manufactur-
inches per minute ing services. Most of
(ipm) to 200 ipm in these products are
machining mold cavi- built from die cast or
ties. sand cast aluminum
and machined to
By automating many final specifications.
routine tasks, this Some of the pedes-
new software has tals are fixed while
also reduced pro- others can be adjust-
gramming time by at ed either manually or
least two-thirds, on The sand cast swivel pattern being programmed in ESPRIT hydraulically.
the average, over the
company’s entire pro- The company uses
gramming workload. a 60-30, three-axis
For example, it automatically recognizes and catego- Fadal machining center and a Mori Seiki single-spindle
rizes features in a solid model and stores machining lathe to produce molds, prototypes and machine cast-
operations that can later be applied to create toolpaths ings to specifications. In the past, the company used
simply by dragging and dropping them onto features. a surface model based CNC software to generate
programs for these machines. This software could not
“We have seen substantial improvements in machining read the solid models used to define the part geometry,
productivity as well as reductions in programming time so after adapting the design for manufacturing, the
since implementing ESPRIT CNC software from DP company’s programmers exported a wireframe IGES
Technology,” said Mike Mawhiney, Product Develop- file and read it into the CAM software. The previous
ment and Information Technology Manager for Spring- software read surface, but not solid, geometry so the
field Marine Company in Nixa, Missouri. programmer exported the CAD surfaces into the IGES

2. neutral file format. The old CNC software read in the import into SolidWorks. The ability of ESPRIT to accept
surface geometry without difficulty, but the program- solid geometry from SolidWorks and other popular
mer then had to convert the individual surfaces into a computer aided design software eliminated the need to
continuous volume ready for defining machining paths. generate patches and stitch surfaces together, which is
A considerable amount of manual rework was usually usually required when surface geometry is transferred.
required because entities often overlapped, didn’t con-
nect to one another or were lost in the IGES translation. Generating toolpaths
On more complex 3D parts, it often took several days Mawhiney then created a boundary around the part rep-
to simply modify the geometry to the point where the resenting the parting line of the pattern. The geometry
programmer could begin to create the toolpath. In many was relatively simple so Mawhiney manually defined the
cases, the amount of time required for touchup made it features, including selecting the contoured surface as
faster to simply re-create the geometry from scratch. a single feature. For more complex parts, he typically
utilizes ESPRIT’s automatic feature recognition capabil-
Upgrading to new CNC software ity to catalog the features in the solid model. Automatic
Springfield worked with CIM Integrators, Inc., a com- feature recognition eliminates the need to manually
pany that specializes in selling and supporting CNC select individual features such as pockets, islands,
software, to improve their programming processes. CIM holes, bosses and grooves. The software automatically
Integrators recommended ESPRIT from DP Technology organizes each feature into a tree structure and the
because it can read and automatically recognize fea- programmer can rearrange the features as desired to
tures in native solid models and it allows programmers promote efficient machining.
to store common machining operations as technol-
ogy pages that can be recalled and quickly applied to Mawhiney then selected pre-defined technology pages
features. The software also provides a wide range of to machine each feature. Each technology page in-
roughing routines that circumnavigate the part at a con- cludes a tool and typical machining parameters, includ-
stant depth of cut, avoiding plunging operations and ing cutting speed, feed rate and depth of cut. In this
making it possible to run at much higher feed rates. case, he selected a one-inch roughing end mill to rough
out the cavity at 10,000 rpm, 0.200 inch depth of cut
Mawhiney provided an example of a how the use of and 175 inches per minute feed rate. He also specified
ESPRIT has transformed the company’s programming that the roughing operation leave 0.015 inch of stock
operations. The part is a pattern for a seat swivel, used for finishing. The software automatically generated a
to produce a mold for sand-casting the part. The part roughing pass that moved around the part at a constant
was originally designed using AutoCAD. Mawhiney im- z-axis level, maintaining a constant feed rate and depth
ported the DWG file into SolidWorks where he created a of cut. This approach reduces time-wasting z-axis
solid model that fully defined the part geometry. Spring- movements and keeps the tool continuously engaged
field Marine’s contract machining customers commonly in the material. The software automatically determined
provide STEP and Parasolid files which its engineers what areas of the part could be cut with the large-diam-
A sandcast aluminum swivel produced by Springfield The Springfield Marine facility in Nixa,
Marine Missouri

3. eter tool and backed off in areas that required a smaller ESPRIT’s roughing routines have helped us improve
radii tool in order to avoid gouging. machining productivity, which helps us more efficiently
utilize our most valuable assets, people and production
Simulating and validating machining operations machinery. In the normally time-consuming operation of
Next, Mawhiney defined a series of finishing operations roughing out mold cavities, we have seen a better than
using progressively smaller ball nose end mills of 1⁄2 two-to-one improvement. Another major advantage is
inch, 1⁄4 inch, and 1/8 inch diameters. The 1/8-inch end that ESPRIT saves time in programming both simple
mill was needed to cut out a series of teeth on the side and complex parts. It can read the native file format
of the swivel that locks the seat into position. When he of our solid modeler and stores any and all machining
had defined the final finishing operation, he viewed a operations so they can be re-applied whenever needed.
simulation that showed every machining operation and As a result, ESPRIT has reduced the time required to
made it easy to visualize exactly how the program will program new parts to between one-half and two-thirds
operate at the machine. He viewed each cutting tool of what was required in the past. ESPRIT has also
being loaded and taking its assigned cuts along with made it possible to easily program parts with complex
the entire machining environment in dynamic 3D solids. contoured surfaces that were time consuming in the
He then zoomed in on the finished part to determine past. All in all, we are very satisfied with this software
whether it matched the design intent. When he was package and would recommend it to other companies
satisfied with the results, Mawhiney used ESPRIT’s with similar requirements.”
Universal Post Processing System to generate G-code.
ESPRIT’s extensive post processor library contains President/CEO of Springfield Marine Ron Mawhiney
posts for a large number of the more popular machine added that the major advantage from his point of view
tools and the software includes a post processor is that a prototype of a new design can be machined
generator to modify existing posts or create new posts and tested to the American Boat & Yacht standard
from scratch. before investing the money in an expensive die cast or
plastic injected mold.
Mawhiney concluded that the switch to ESPRIT has
provided several major benefits. “First and foremost,