With over 36,000 employees and 62 sites in 25 countries, Bombardier Transportation is the world's largest manufacturer of rail transport technology. The heart of rail technology beats in Germany, where the division of the Canadian corporation has its HQ. The Netphen factory manufactures running gear and bogies for all kinds of rail vehicles, from trams to high-speed trains, and not just its own trains, either. For example, Bombardier Transportation is supplying trailer bogies for the next ICE generation high-speed train to Siemens Mobility. 

Between 2500 and 3000 running frames and bogies of different types are machined, painted and assembled in Netphen per year. Regardless of the economic crisis, the work volume has increased in recent years, so that that the factory's 700 or so employees are kept extremely busy. The increasing workload could not be accommodated through the procurement of new machines and tools alone; the company also had to improve its productivity, and reduce the relatively long downtimes for machine tool changes and the running-in of new NC programs. The prerequisite for this was the introduction of a modern 3D-CAM system, and in early 2011 company Moldtech installed the first TopSolid workstations in Netphen. 

Optimisation of tool setting

This meant extra work for the tool-setting colleagues, who had to put together the complete tools based on the rough tool list and the drawings. Often, it only became apparent when running in the NC programs that they were a little too short or too long, and had to be modified once again. 

Alongside a 3D-CAM system, the users in Netphen therefore urgently needed integrated tool management with the possibility of accessing the real tool data during CAM programming. The new solution should, however, not only support the CAM programming, but also the administration of the tool stock and the storage location, as well as the ordering process. It should also be able to communicate with the measurement system. 

"What we wanted was a one-stop solution", says CAM programmer, Damian Sakwerda. "Since we'd already been working for a long time with a Zoller presetting machine, we chose to procure a new machine along with the Zoller Tool Management Solutions." 

A significant benefit of the Tool Management Solutions is that, instead of several databases in the company, there is just one source for all tool data in which, thanks to the integration of the presetting machine, the actual measurement values can also be determined. This is important, among other things, because the tools sometimes have to be reground, meaning that diameter and length may vary somewhat. 

The database contains all the necessary information for the machining, which to some extent can be generated at the push of a button. Not only does this save time, but it also ensures that when preparing tools fewer errors are made, a fact unanimously endorsed by Rüdiger Hof and Sergej Ponomarenko, toolsetters. 

The Zoller Tool Management Solutions are a modular suite which manages not only the technical characteristics and technology data of tools and components but also their storage location. This does away with the time-consuming search for tools in the company, offering better availability and reducing the requisite tool stock. 

It is indeed vital to know how many tools are needed, and where they can be found, because in the Netphen works a great many different tools are deployed, and their circuits are sometimes tortuous, leading from the warehouse through presetting in the interim storage facility and magazines to the machines, between which they are often still swapped. 

There are currently around 2500 complete tools in circulation - 1200 alone for the four Bimatec Soraluce boring-milling machines - often with several copies, for added security. Mr Kringe estimates that the tool costs, with the aid of the Zoller software, can be reduced by 25%; they currently stand at approximately €200,000 per year.

CAM with integrated tool management

The possibility to integrate TopSolid'Cam and the Zoller Tool Management Solutions was an important reason for deciding in favour of Missler software, but not the only one. All told, four CAM systems were shortlisted, which were tested against one another using an identical workpiece. TopSolid'Cam proved its worth through its easy operability, the comprehensive functions for the import and processing of 3D models from third-party systems (the bogies are modelled in Catia), the clear representation of the machining operations and, above all, the efficient simulation functions in the context of the machine environment. 

What was also decisive was finding a competent partner for implementation, (re-)training and support for the CAM solution in the shape of Moldtech. "Thanks to the excellent support from Moldtech, the switch to 3D was really easy for us", Mr. Sakwerda says. 

In conjunction with Zoller, Moldtech programmed the bidirectional interface between the CAM and tool management systems. The CAM programmers enter the desired technical characteristics and properties in TopSolid'Cam and access the tool data directly in the Tool Management Solution. This makes their work easier and, above all, improves the reliability of the NC programs. 

In order to be able to use the tools for CAM programming simulation, 3D models are of course required. They are usually constructed using the technical characteristics as a bounding geometry and made available to the CAM system, but can also be generated manually for complex contours and filed in the tool database. There is also the possibility of importing 3D models from manufacturer catalogues in neutral formats. 

The list of tools used for the NC programming can be transferred to tool management and used directly for the generation of the tooling sheets, thereby significantly reducing the tool setting workload. 

Moldtech not only takes care of the programming of the tool management interface, but also the link to the machinery pool. What was particularly challenging was the support for the relatively complex Bimatec Soraluce boring-milling machines, which are fitted out with interchangeable heads. Depending on the surfaces to be machined on the frames, the tools can be deployed with a rigid head, a crosshead or a swivelling orthogonal head. 

Since the machining with TopSolid'Cam is programmed in the virtual machine environment, the kinematics of the interchangeable heads, with their degrees of freedom, can be reliably simulated and correctly translated into machine language. Moldtech furnished the kinematically prepared machine models together with the postprocessors.