As a specialist manufacturer of fiberglass products for customers in different industries, Equinox 3D often receives production orders from customers for various complex and customized products.As a result of the introduction of the Renishaw probe measurement system into the manufacturing process, This Fawcell, UK company has the ability to accurately and reliably meet the unique needs of its customers within the strict delivery deadlines.
background
Equinox Products started its business as a manufacturer of fiberglass products for a wide range of industries and is used in a variety of industries including automotive, construction and even playground equipment. Due to the steady demand for molds in the manufacturing process, Equinox 3D established a subsidiary, Equinox 3D The new company, which continues to grow, now offers four-axis CNC machine tools, 3D scanning, reverse engineering, CAD design and other engineering services that are not related to mold making.
Equinox 3D The newly added XYZ 1020 Vertical Machining Center (VMC) is equipped with a Renishaw OMP40 workpiece probe and a TS27R tool presetter, which greatly increases the productivity of the company. Although the Equinox 3D accepts ± 0.1 mm (Rather than strictly to the micrometer scale), they still consider the probing system to be a useful complement to their manufacturing process, and the aesthetically pleasing appearance is critical as consumers see and touch the glass fiber products they produce directly Most of Equinox 3D's products are staged and then assembled together, which means accurate alignment is paramount.Previously polishing, assembly and finishing of a multi-staged product did not take days, Which can take hours to complete.This will add considerable time and cost pressure to the manufacturing process, and time is just a luxury for Equinox 3D.A recent job with tight lead times is a classic example .
challenge
"The organizer of the 'Most Carnival in Italy' suddenly found us - a two-day racing carnival at Emilia-Romagna Piacenza in Castell'Arquato, culminated in a variety of super-Italian Darren George, Director of Equinox 3D Technologies, said, 'The organizers asked us to convert a Maserati sports car into a concept car, the Super Monoposto, which is a sports car, superbike and bike.
Renishaw probes significantly reduce Equinox 3D manual intervention time
Top supermodel and race car driver Jodie Kidd unveiled the mystique of this super-single sports car in Brooklands
The concept car prototype is the production version of the Maserati 4200, but organizers use the angle grinder to remove the soft roof and windshield. 'Carnival held date is already well established; In addition, some of the fixed workflow It took only a few weeks for us to take up some time and we had to design and build a brand new fiberglass cap for the cockpit of this one-seater sports car during this period, making it debut at Brooklands Ready, it will be the first show by Jodie Kidd, a supermodel and TV host, "explained Darren George.
The newly designed cap extends from the rear of the sports car and covers the passenger seat, leaving only the driver's seat exposed. Equinox 3D has to produce a multi-section fiberglass cap; this cap consists of a total of 16 models The plates must be assembled precisely so that the final shape of the glass cover meets the requirements and requires minimal manual trimming and grinding.
solution
The 16 mold plates must be precisely assembled so as to ensure that the final fiberglass cap shape meets the requirements and requires minimal manual trimming and grinding
Equinox 3D uses the Renishaw OMP40 Workpiece Alignment Head to set separate fiducials for each of the 16 panels of polyurethane (PU) with a density of 0.7 Using the probe measurement system, set a reference point for each panel approximately In just a minute, the setup time for each axis takes 3-4 minutes, even for simple setting of the X and Y axes, and up to five minutes for the Z-axis can be set.
Equinox 3D uses Renishaw OMP40 workpiece alignment probes to set respective fiducials for 16 polyurethane (PU) model panels with a density of 0.7
The Renishaw probe saved Equinox 3D for only about three hours in set-up time, and given the time constraints, the gauging system made a big difference to Equinox 3D. "We had to work 24 hours a day for 10 days The machine was able to make the top cover as planned, which means we had to come to the workshop to set up the next model board at midnight. Renishaw's probe set the benchmark automatically, which helped us a lot. 'Darren George said.
When processing this glass fiber cap consisting of 16 model plates, an OMP40 workpiece alignment probe and a TS27R toolsetter were used to complete the setting process
Due to the irregular shape of most of its products, Equinox 3D leverages the Renishaw OMP40 probe for in-machine post-inspection and uses the probe to confirm that the datum matches the CAD data before removing the workpiece from the machine Equinox 3D, on the other hand, uses the Renishaw TS27R tool presetting tool to confirm and modify the tool offsets in the sequence, providing a one-off, on-the-fly insurance of precisely finished workpieces.
result
Although Equinox 3D has saved a lot of machining time in the machine by using the Renishaw OMP40 touch probe, the time saved in assembling the 16 mold plates into a complete cap is even more impressive. Darren George once estimated that for this The type and size of fiberglass products normally require one or two days for manual trimming and grinding, thanks to the high precision of the initial processing, which is the fact that they require little or no manual trimming, which means the assembly work is very simple because Each adjacent part can be closely matched.
Timing was the biggest challenge for this job, and we finally delivered the trimmed and painted sports car roof 12 hours in advance, which would have been impossible without a probing system. Due to time, we had only one chance to make this top cover. The finished product was 2.4 meters long with many irregular 3D shapes, and we did not have any ready-made CAD data, all of which caused concern about tolerance problems. ' Mr. George explained, 'While we do not have to strictly regulate tolerances to the micron level, we still need to make sure that this fiberglass cap is seamlessly fitted to the sports car. The probe measurement system gives us the confidence to get things done '
Although the company also uses 3D non-contact scanning technology to measure workpieces, scanning technology has some limitations for some of the small internal features, and Equinox 3D will once again rely on the Renishaw OMP40 probe to precisely set This feature is especially useful when reversing complex workpieces, and the company's most recent project involved the production of bell-shaped enclosures for assembled vehicle gearboxes that were not provided by Renishaw probing systems Related functions, then the manufacturing process will become very difficult.
For more information, visit www.renishaw.com/mtp