NUMBER 02 - Haas Automation, Inc.
NUMBER 02 - Haas Automation, Inc.
NUMBER 02 - Haas Automation, Inc.
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<strong>NUMBER</strong> <strong>02</strong>
TABLE OF CONTENTS<br />
<strong>NUMBER</strong> 2<br />
FEATURES<br />
My, How You’ve Grown! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2<br />
Soild State Race Car . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5<br />
Downhill Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9<br />
A Perfect Bike Is A Perfect Fit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17<br />
The Derailleur and the G-Boxx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20<br />
Chopper Renaissance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22<br />
CYCLE TIME<br />
<strong>Haas</strong> <strong>Automation</strong> Europe Launches Educational Initiative . . . . . . 30<br />
Windshear’s Advanced Wind Tunnel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33<br />
THE ANSWER MAN<br />
Application Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36<br />
CNC MACHINING EUROPE is published by <strong>Haas</strong> <strong>Automation</strong> Europe. CNC Machining Europe is distributed free of charge by <strong>Haas</strong> <strong>Automation</strong><br />
Europe and its authorized distributors. CNC Machining Europe accepts no advertising or reimbursement for this magazine. All contents of CNC<br />
Machining Europe are copyright 2008 and may not be reproduced without written permission from <strong>Haas</strong> <strong>Automation</strong> Europe. CNC Machining Europe<br />
is distributed through a worldwide network of <strong>Haas</strong> <strong>Automation</strong> distributors, and by individual subscription request. Contact <strong>Haas</strong> <strong>Automation</strong> Europe<br />
headquarters via mail or fax to be added to the subscription list. <strong>Haas</strong> <strong>Automation</strong>, <strong>Inc</strong>. & CNC Machining Europe magazine names ©2008.<br />
www.<strong>Haas</strong>CNC.com. | <strong>Haas</strong> <strong>Automation</strong> USA, +1 805-278-1800 | <strong>Haas</strong> <strong>Automation</strong> Europe, +32 2 522 99 05 | <strong>Haas</strong> <strong>Automation</strong> United Kingdom,<br />
+44-1603-760 539 | <strong>Haas</strong> <strong>Automation</strong> Asia, +86 21 5046 22<strong>02</strong><br />
9<br />
22<br />
30
In This Issue<br />
Welcome to the second issue of CNC Machining Europe.<br />
For our cover story this issue we’d like to transport you to the rolling hills of Germany, where<br />
mechanical engineer Karlheinz Nicolai and his team of bicycle enthusiasts have set up shop to<br />
manufacture some of the world’s finest mountain bikes. Upon graduating from university, Karlheinz<br />
ventured to the US to “broaden my view of the world, and business,” he claims. Through an internship<br />
at a high-end design and development firm in Southern California, he learned the art of developing<br />
simple solutions to complex problems. His engineering genius and his openness to new challenges<br />
have since yielded race-winning mountain bike designs, and a revolutionary bicycle transmission<br />
called the G-Boxx. We think you’ll agree, when it comes to bicycle design, a little travel obviously<br />
broadens the creative mind.<br />
Back in the States, we drop in to Orange County Choppers to see another kind of two-wheeled<br />
genius. Paul Teutul Senior and his prodigal sons Paulie and Mikey require little introduction. Their<br />
fame is very well established in the US, and they’re becoming just as well known around the world,<br />
thanks to cable and satellite TV and our growing fascination for reality TV.<br />
We take you inside OCC’s very public world of wild creativity and explosive tempers for a belowthe-surface<br />
look at the machining behind the apparent mayhem. According to Paulie, “The CNC<br />
machines are huge for us.” And so are the machinists. “You can have good machines,” he says, “but<br />
if you don’t have good people to run them, you’re not going to be doing good stuff.”<br />
Finally, in France, we visit Vallet, where although the latest project is partly still on the drawing<br />
board, and has four-wheels instead of two, it is just as genius. This is one project to watch, if only<br />
for its engineering audacity.<br />
If you know of any similar stories of engineering genius (don’t be modest!), we’d love to hear<br />
from you.<br />
Happy reading.<br />
On The Cover<br />
Cover Photo:<br />
Hoshi - K. Yoshida /<br />
NICOLAI GmbH.<br />
CNC MACHINING |
75K<br />
My, How You’ve<br />
Grown!<br />
<strong>Haas</strong> <strong>Automation</strong> Installs 75,000th CNC machine tool.<br />
Story and photos by Matt Bailey<br />
It hardly seems possible, but on May 31, 2007, <strong>Haas</strong> <strong>Automation</strong> installed<br />
its 75,000th CNC machine tool.* When one considers that more than two-<br />
thirds that number have been sold in the last 7 years, and that the company<br />
designs and builds its machines at a single plant in Southern California<br />
employing just 1100 people, it’s even more incredible. And to think that<br />
less than 20 years ago, skeptics the world over doubted that any US<br />
company could ever build machine tools economically again, let alone on<br />
such a scale.<br />
*By the end of 2007, there were 85,000 <strong>Haas</strong> CNC machine tools installed around the world.<br />
| www.<strong>Haas</strong>CNC.com
Steffen Brück, general manager of the <strong>Haas</strong> Factory Outlet for Baden-Württemberg – Nord, a division of Brück Machines.<br />
Recipient of the milestone machine was German<br />
company MEPO Minoudis GmbH & Co. KG, a family-owned,<br />
second-tier automotive components supplier based in Korb,<br />
in the south-western state of Baden-Württemberg. The<br />
company already has four other <strong>Haas</strong> vertical machining<br />
centres; the new VF-3SS high-speed machine will, like the<br />
others, be set to work machining parts destined for local<br />
companies Porsche, Bosch and Mercedes, plus a number of<br />
other prestigious domestic and overseas car builders.<br />
At a special hand-over ceremony to mark the occasion,<br />
<strong>Haas</strong> <strong>Automation</strong> General Manager Mr. Bob Murray<br />
traveled all the way from the company’s US head-office to<br />
meet the owners of MEPO and to personally thank them<br />
for their purchase.<br />
“Installation of the 75,000th machine is a very special<br />
occasion for <strong>Haas</strong> <strong>Automation</strong>,” says Mr. Murray, “and we’re<br />
very pleased that it has been installed at MEPO, a successful<br />
and growing company with high standards and demanding<br />
customers; they are very typical of the sort of companies we<br />
work with around the world.”<br />
Also present at the ceremony was Mr. Peter Hall,<br />
managing director of <strong>Haas</strong> <strong>Automation</strong> Europe, and the man<br />
responsible for leading the company’s meteoric growth on<br />
the continent.<br />
“It’s fitting that the 75,000th <strong>Haas</strong> CNC machine tool<br />
should be installed in Europe,” Mr. Hall says. “Although<br />
obviously not <strong>Haas</strong>’ home market, it’s an incredibly important<br />
one for the future prosperity of the company.<br />
“To counter threats from low-cost countries, European<br />
manufacturers are under enormous pressure to increase<br />
productivity and keep costs and overheads low and under<br />
control. By providing simple, reliable and very productive<br />
CNC machines, <strong>Haas</strong> helps them to do just that.”<br />
Mr. Hall also claims that in the machine-tool industry,<br />
the old-world order has been all but overthrown by the<br />
upstart California company and its no-nonsense approach<br />
to providing companies with the tools they need to make a<br />
good living.<br />
CNC MACHINING |
“<strong>Haas</strong> is the lowest risk machine tool investment in the<br />
world,” he says. “We give customers simplicity, reliability and<br />
comprehensive support. They no longer have to buy overcomplicated<br />
or expensive machines, they can buy the one<br />
they need to do the job.”<br />
It took the vision, energy and engineering brilliance of<br />
a small group of individuals – with, let it be noted, no prior<br />
machine building experience – led by a maverick machine<br />
shop owner named Gene <strong>Haas</strong>, to change the face of<br />
precision engineering the world over. Never before has CNC<br />
metal cutting technology been so affordable, reliable and<br />
easy to use. <strong>Haas</strong> machines have become the tool of choice<br />
for anyone running a machine shop and intending to make<br />
a profit.<br />
| www.<strong>Haas</strong>CNC.com<br />
Needless to say, a multitude of imitators follow in the<br />
company’s wake, but none can match the ingenuity of <strong>Haas</strong>,<br />
the western world’s largest producer of CNC machine tools<br />
by volume. Still growing, and with its sights set firmly on<br />
15,000 machines a year and $1billion in annual revenues, the<br />
company continues to introduce new machine tool products<br />
almost every month, expanding its already impressive range<br />
by applying the same tried-and-tested engineering logic to<br />
constantly improve productivity and reduce running costs.<br />
<strong>Haas</strong> CNC machine tools are sold worldwide through<br />
the company’s 140+ <strong>Haas</strong> Factory Outlets (HFOs) –<br />
dedicated, independently owned <strong>Haas</strong> resellers who have<br />
reached the high levels of service and support demanded<br />
by <strong>Haas</strong> <strong>Automation</strong>.
Unlike other machine tool case studies, this is the story<br />
of something that has yet to be built. A story of one man’s<br />
vision, which may or may never see the light of day, but<br />
which, for sheer engineering creativity, deserves to be told.<br />
Solid State Race Car<br />
Story and photos by Matt Bailey
The small town of Rugles is approximately 130 km north<br />
of Le Mans, venue of the world’s greatest 24-hr motor race.<br />
If you were born in Rugles and you had even the slightest<br />
interest in anything mechanical, chances are that you’d pay<br />
attention for one week of every year when race teams from<br />
around the planet pass the front door of your family home<br />
on their way to what enthusiasts regard as a hallowed and<br />
magical place.<br />
Jean Michel Vallet did. In fact, like many of his<br />
contemporaries, Vallet was smitten by the sights and sounds<br />
of Le Mans, and decided at an early age that one day he’d<br />
own and race his own sports car.<br />
In the intervening 40 years or so, Monsieur Vallet has built<br />
his eponymous engineering workshop by making precision<br />
components for mostly local companies, but always with one<br />
eye on his long-held dream of building a race car, and one<br />
day, perhaps, driving it at Le Mans.<br />
| www.<strong>Haas</strong>CNC.com<br />
In the long interval, Vallet has honed his knowledge<br />
and skills as a manufacturing engineer. In the early 1970s<br />
he was quick to realise the potential of CNC, investing in<br />
the first of many numerically controlled machines. Within<br />
20 years, his collection of machine tools was, he says,<br />
eclectic. Then, in the late 1990s the time came to move to<br />
new premises; it was the ideal opportunity to streamline the<br />
company’s workshop.<br />
“When we built this new factory, we had something like<br />
seven different makes of CNC machine tools,” he says.<br />
“Running the factory was complicated and inefficient. For the<br />
sake of productivity, we had to standardise.”<br />
In 1998, Vallet took a trip to the Paris machine tool<br />
show where, for the first time, he came across <strong>Haas</strong> CNC<br />
machine tools.<br />
“We found the best machines for our growing company,”<br />
he says. “For a start, all <strong>Haas</strong> machines have the same
control, which means if you can program one, you can<br />
program all of them. Plus, they’re powerful with lots of torque,<br />
which is ideal because we often use large diameter end mills<br />
on stainless steel.”<br />
He was also impressed with <strong>Haas</strong>’ 4th-axis capabilities:<br />
All <strong>Haas</strong> milling machines are available with 4th-axis<br />
software, and can be quickly and easily fitted with a <strong>Haas</strong><br />
rotary table.<br />
A few years down the line and the company boasts<br />
an armoury of <strong>Haas</strong> machines, including a VF-9 vertical<br />
machining centre.<br />
Current work<br />
Vallet began by supplying a local company making<br />
machines for bottling plants. Today, the company’s bread-andbutter<br />
work, the work which will pay for M. Vallet to pursue his<br />
motor racing dream, is mainly making parts for companies<br />
building food packaging and processing machines, plus<br />
some special and secretive aerospace projects, which he’s<br />
“It’s as simple as plug<br />
and play,” says Vallet.<br />
reluctant to discuss in detail, except to reveal that customers<br />
include big names such as EADS and Dassault.<br />
“We make scale models of new and prototype aircraft,<br />
which are used for wind tunnel testing and are full of sensors<br />
measuring airflow and aerodynamic forces. We also make<br />
five-axis parts for our aerospace customers, which are<br />
actually comparatively straightforward to machine. The<br />
trickiest parts we make are for the food processing industry,<br />
machined from special stainless steels. These parts often<br />
have very tight tolerances, which are challenges, because<br />
we have to find ways of making them at the price the<br />
customer wants to pay. It’s demanding work, which we’re<br />
able to do because we use accurate but relatively low-cost<br />
machine tools.”<br />
In Vallet’s busy workshop is a line of <strong>Haas</strong> machines,<br />
including eight CNC vertical machining centres and five<br />
CNC turning centres. One, a <strong>Haas</strong> VF-1, runs 24 hours a day<br />
using a Kuka robot arm to change parts. An adjacent PC,<br />
using software designed personally by M. Vallet, controls<br />
the robot separately. PCs interconnect all the machining<br />
stations, allowing managers to keep tight control of planning<br />
CNC MACHINING |
and scheduling. The factory runs 3 shifts and 24 hours a<br />
day: 10 <strong>Haas</strong> machines running through the night with just 5<br />
operators on duty.<br />
Seeing the Future<br />
Whatever your art, part of the genius in creativity is vision.<br />
Michelangelo looked at a lump of marble and saw the shape<br />
of David, Goliath’s nemesis. All he had to do was chip away<br />
the excess stone. There are more than 85,000 <strong>Haas</strong> CNC<br />
machine tools installed around the world, a great many<br />
being used by people with undeniable vision and creativity.<br />
But, who amongst them could stand in front of a <strong>Haas</strong> VF-9<br />
and see a racing car? That’s creativity of a different order.<br />
Engineering genius!<br />
“My aim,” says Vallet, with a flickering smile, “is to create<br />
an entire racing car from just six solid blocks of aluminium, in<br />
70 hours, using only four tools.”<br />
| www.<strong>Haas</strong>CNC.com<br />
Big blocks of aluminium, he admits, but just six, from<br />
which he intends to machine all of the major and supporting<br />
structural components, including the chassis, suspension,<br />
mounting brackets, etc. No castings, no extrusions, just<br />
solid parts.<br />
“We’ll buy-in brakes, glass, wheels, that sort of thing,” he<br />
says. “We’ll make the body from glass fibre, and we’ll use an<br />
Alfa Romeo V6 engine, giving 340 hp. But otherwise, we’ll<br />
make it here, on one <strong>Haas</strong> machine, in less than a week of<br />
running two shifts a day.”<br />
When M. Vallet says it, it sounds so simple. One of those<br />
“why didn’t I think of that” moments. If he succeeds, and the<br />
serious look in his eye says he intends to, he could be racing<br />
the car in a year or two. Expected cost? €100,000 for a road-<br />
going version; considerably more for something capable of<br />
putting up a good fight at the famous 24 heures du Mans.
Downhill from<br />
the Start<br />
Story and shop photos: Matt Bailey<br />
Studio and action photos: Hoshi - K. Yoshida / NICOLAI GmbH<br />
CNC MACHINING |
0 | www.<strong>Haas</strong>CNC.com<br />
In the gently rolling hills a few kilometres<br />
outside of Hanover, Germany, lies a sleepy<br />
18th Century farm, which appears very much<br />
like many others dotting the landscape. The<br />
numerous outbuildings are half-timbered<br />
with bowed walls and shingled roofs, yet<br />
these contain not livestock and hay, but<br />
rather a state-of-the-art industrial design and<br />
production facility. Despite a distinct lack of<br />
mountains nearby, this farm in Lower Saxony<br />
is home to Nicolai GmbH, producer of some<br />
of the world’s finest mountain bikes.
NICOLAI MOUNTAIN BIKES is owned and operated<br />
by engineer Karlheinz Nicolai. Offering custom bikes and<br />
frames for serious amateurs and professional competitors<br />
worldwide, the company’s goal is simple: “We want to<br />
build the best mountain bikes in the world,” says Nicolai.<br />
According to the industry press, they are well on their way<br />
to doing just that.<br />
Karlheinz Nicolai began his career after graduating with<br />
a degree in mechanical engineering from Hanover University<br />
in 1994. Shortly after, he accepted an internship with bike<br />
development and engineering company AMP Research in<br />
Irvine, California.<br />
“I wanted to broaden my view of the world – and of<br />
business,” he says. “I learned a great deal at AMP. In<br />
particular, the American way of getting things done with as<br />
little fuss as possible. That stood me in very good stead.<br />
The experience at AMP also sparked my interest in serious<br />
mountain biking.”<br />
On his return to Germany, Karlheinz founded Nicolai<br />
GmbH after bidding on and winning an R&D contract from<br />
another American company, Mongoose Bicycles. The new<br />
company’s remit was to develop and build a new frame for a<br />
racing bicycle.<br />
“At that time, I was just a one-man show, working from my<br />
garage at home,” he remembers.<br />
The frame that Nicolai developed was raced in the<br />
National Off-Road Bicycle Association championships that<br />
year and, to the surprise of the designer, won.<br />
“Suddenly, overnight, I became famous as the person<br />
who designed the winning frame,” continues Nicolai, jokingly.<br />
The punch line was that Mongoose immediately placed an<br />
order with Nicolai for 1,000 frames.<br />
“This was a serious shock,” he recalls. “I had no production<br />
or manufacturing capability at all, so I decided to outsource<br />
everything, and just assemble the finished product.”<br />
This turned out to be far from the perfect arrangement.<br />
Quality control was extremely difficult to manage, and dealing<br />
with vendors was time consuming and often frustrating.<br />
Although the fledgling Nicolai GmbH ultimately fulfilled the<br />
order, it was touch-and-go.<br />
“It was the most stressful period of my life,” Nicolai<br />
remembers. “That’s when I decided in the future to handle all<br />
manufacturing in-house.”
| www.<strong>Haas</strong>CNC.com
The frame that Nicolai developed was raced<br />
in the National Off-Road Bicycle Association<br />
Championships that year and, to the surprise of<br />
the designer, won.<br />
CNC MACHINING |
In-House Production,<br />
In-House Versatility<br />
In 1997, Karlheinz Nicolai moved his family and his<br />
business to the sprawling farm in the country that both<br />
continue to call home.<br />
“I’d always admired this house,” he says. “So when the<br />
owner passed away and the family decided to put it on the<br />
market, we moved in.”<br />
Finally, the young firm had space in which to operate<br />
and grow. And grow it did. Having begun with older, used<br />
machines, Nicolai knew that long-term success lay with<br />
investing in modern, state-of-the-art machinery and<br />
software. In 1999, the company purchased a new CNC<br />
machine, which gave rise to “an explosion of productivity.”<br />
Nicolai was on its way.<br />
| www.<strong>Haas</strong>CNC.com<br />
In 2005, when Karlheinz Nicolai went looking for a<br />
vertical machining centre, he turned to a friend for advice.<br />
“He’d been successfully running a <strong>Haas</strong> VF vertical<br />
machining centre for the last 10 years without any trouble, so<br />
I decided to check out the <strong>Haas</strong> machines,” notes Karlheinz.<br />
“We had a strict budget with which to purchase not just<br />
the machine, but all the new SK40 tooling we would need to<br />
get started. It quickly became apparent that the <strong>Haas</strong> VF-2SS<br />
was the ideal machine for our applications. There’s nothing on<br />
the market that compares with it for price and performance:<br />
a relatively compact machine that can machine small and<br />
larger parts at high speed. We needed a 12,000-rpm spindle,<br />
because we machine a lot of aluminium. We got all this and<br />
more with the VF-2SS, and remained within our budget. Even<br />
though we financed the machine over several years, it really<br />
paid for itself in the first few months.”
Nicolai GmbH selects employees carefully, preferring to<br />
train motivated individuals with conventional machine<br />
shop experience onsite. And with only 15 full-time<br />
employees and a backlog of orders, it’s important<br />
that each person and every machine is productive<br />
from the start. The logical, user-friendly <strong>Haas</strong> control<br />
makes CNC machining easier to understand, reducing<br />
operator error and training time. Nicolai feels this has<br />
been a great advantage to his firm.<br />
CNC MACHINING | 5
One of the main advantages of in-house machining is the<br />
speed with which new ideas can go from the drawing board<br />
– make that computer screen – to a finished prototype.<br />
Karlheinz says, “We design primarily in SolidWorks, and<br />
use both ESPRIT and VisualMill on the CAM side.” Design,<br />
programming and production are under one roof, and<br />
seamlessly integrate in an environment where designers,<br />
programmers and machine operators work closely together.<br />
The VF-2SS fit in perfectly.<br />
“With the <strong>Haas</strong> machine, we can have a prototype<br />
finished in the time it would take just to communicate with<br />
| www.<strong>Haas</strong>CNC.com<br />
vendors and get a price quote on making the part outside,”<br />
Karlheinz explains.<br />
Nicolai GmbH selects employees carefully, preferring to<br />
train motivated individuals with conventional machine shop<br />
experience onsite. And with only 15 full-time employees and<br />
a backlog of orders, it’s important that each person and every<br />
machine is productive from the start. The logical, user-friendly<br />
<strong>Haas</strong> control makes CNC machining easier to understand,<br />
reducing operator error and training time. Nicolai feels this<br />
has been a great advantage to his firm.
SIDEBAR<br />
A Perfect Bike<br />
is a Perfect Fit<br />
A bicycle should fit the rider’s anatomy and riding<br />
style as closely as possible, and ordering a Nicolai bike<br />
is a bit like having a suit made to measure by a tailor.<br />
The customer places a detailed order, and the bike or<br />
frame is built to those exact specs.<br />
Many professionals order the frame alone, and<br />
add wheels and other components themselves from a<br />
variety of sources. Nicolai frames may be ordered in<br />
S, M, L, XL, XXL, or any custom size the buyer specifies.<br />
The list of additional options is extensive. For 2008,<br />
buyers may choose from 23 different frame designs as<br />
the starting point for their winning ride. Frame prices<br />
start at 958 Euro.<br />
For riders who prefer to purchase a complete bike,<br />
Nicolai offers 13 models assembled in-house using<br />
Nicolai frames, and incorporating other components<br />
of professional quality carefully matched to that frame.<br />
Here, again, the buyer has countless options from<br />
which to pick and choose. Prices for complete bikes<br />
start at 2 499 Euro.<br />
CNC MACHINING |
The Nicolai G-Boxx Project<br />
The catalyst behind the purchase of the <strong>Haas</strong> VF-2SS<br />
was one of Nicolai’s most challenging and revolutionary<br />
products: the G-Boxx bicycle transmission.<br />
Most conventional bicycles use a derailleur to change<br />
gears (see sidebar page 20). But these are far from ideal in<br />
the fast-paced and demanding world of serious mountain<br />
bike racing. So in 1999, Karlheinz Nicolai decided to design<br />
something completely different: a bicycle transmission using<br />
a planetary-gear cartridge and robust AlCuMg1 aluminium<br />
casing incorporated into the frame design.<br />
The complicated casing for the G-Boxx transmission was<br />
the <strong>Haas</strong>’ first critical test, and the results were a resounding<br />
success. The development phase of the project required<br />
| www.<strong>Haas</strong>CNC.com<br />
making and testing a large number of design prototypes,<br />
and the <strong>Haas</strong> was just the machine to get the job done.<br />
Now that the product is on the market, Nicolai can turn a<br />
solid aluminium billet into a finished G-Boxx casing in just<br />
18 minutes.<br />
The VF-2SS continues in daily use, not only for the G-<br />
Boxx, but also for a multitude of short runs, prototypes and<br />
tooling of all sorts.<br />
“We machine a lot of parts where we need less than 100<br />
pieces,” Nicolai says, “or where it’s just not economically<br />
feasible to make a casting or have the pieces extruded. In<br />
such cases we machine them from solid stock on the <strong>Haas</strong>.”<br />
Having this production capacity in-house allows Nicolai<br />
to keep costs under control, with the flexibility to rapidly
adjust production on the spot. This is exactly the kind of<br />
rapid-reaction management needed by a small manufacturer<br />
to stay competitive in today’s global marketplace. Decisions<br />
made today are implemented on the production floor today.<br />
Almost a decade after moving his business into the<br />
picturesque farm, Karlheinz Nicolai surveys the ordered<br />
workrooms filled with designers, welders, machinists and<br />
their equipment. Looking over the rows of bike frames<br />
awaiting completion and delivery to eager customers, he<br />
says, quietly, “When we started here, I never imagined we’d<br />
end up needing every single one of the 2 000 square meters<br />
of floor space.”<br />
It’s safe to say that none of that space is more productive<br />
than that occupied by the <strong>Haas</strong> VF-2SS.<br />
“It’s a relatively small machine, but it has made a very big<br />
difference to our company and our future.”<br />
CNC MACHINING |
0 | www.<strong>Haas</strong>CNC.comSIDEBAR<br />
The Derailleur<br />
and the G-Boxx<br />
The derailleur is a device used on chain-driven bicycles to allow gear changes – rather like the transmission effects<br />
gear changes on an automobile. The concept dates back to 1905, when touring cyclists used primitive derailleurs<br />
where the jockey wheel was brazed to the chainstay. Often disallowed in road racing in those days, derailleurs required<br />
freewheeling, which gave their users a considerable advantage over fixed wheel riders who had to contend with peddle<br />
scrape in turns.<br />
This changed in 1938, when Simplex introduced a revolutionary derailleur having a jockey wheel capable of moving<br />
in and out to effect gear changes, while also moving forward and backward according to the size of the sprocket.<br />
Simplex’s design incorporated a cage similar to those still in use on some derailleurs to take up slack in the chain.<br />
However, the Simplex system had a serious weakness: it was very sensitive to dirt and debris, and required frequent<br />
cleaning and lubrication. Despite this, it was so successful that it was immediately allowed in the Tour de France, and<br />
dominated racing through World War II.<br />
After the War, Tullio Campagnolo invented the parallelogram front and rear derailleurs, which revolutionized<br />
cycling in the post-War decades. Campagnolo’s parallelogram system was fast and more reliable than the Simplex<br />
design, and the cable-operated front derailleur was a dream compared to previous systems. “Campy equipped”<br />
became the motto for professionals and serious amateurs the world over. Later modified by Suntour, the basic<br />
Campy design remains in wide use today.<br />
However, the last couple of decades have brought tremendous change to the biking world, including the<br />
emergence of competitive mountain biking. This relatively new sport – accompanied by significant advances in<br />
bicycle frame design, construction materials and suspension technology – has brought many new challenges<br />
to bike riders, designers and manufacturers. For example, when you’re hurtling down a rocky mountain pass at<br />
anything up to 80 kph, the last thing you really want is a vital and fragile derailleur dangling from the rear of the<br />
frame, vulnerable to damage from rocks or a spill. So in 1999, Karlheinz Nicolai set out to find an alternative<br />
solution to the exposed derailleur.
In the past, enclosed transmissions were always too heavy for<br />
leisure bikes, let alone competition machines. Now, incorporating<br />
lightweight machined alloys, Nicolai has come up with a<br />
revolutionary design that is much more robust than the traditional<br />
derailleur, without any added weight.<br />
The G-Boxx – as Nicolai calls his invention – is not a derailleur<br />
at all, but rather an enclosed transmission using a planetary-gear<br />
cartridge. This system eliminates the rear derailleur entirely, and<br />
replaces it with the now centrally located transmission integrated<br />
into the frame itself. Overall weight distribution and balance are<br />
markedly improved, but perhaps the most significant advantage is<br />
the ability to now change gears while standing still, or even when<br />
the rear wheel is locked. The G-Boxx raises the bar in mountain<br />
biking to a new level.<br />
The first Nicolai production bike frame to be outfitted with<br />
the G-Boxx transmission as standard is the flagship of the<br />
company’s fleet: the Nucleon TST. An extreme downhill and<br />
freeride machine developed in association with the KRC-Nicolai<br />
race team, the Nucleon TST is a contender in the world downhill<br />
championship series.<br />
As well as fitting the G-Boxx to its own products, Nicolai<br />
has also formed a subsidiary called Universal Transmissions<br />
to market the patented G-Boxx system to other bicycle<br />
manufacturers worldwide.<br />
http://www.nicolai.net/<br />
+49 (0) 5185-95 7191<br />
CNC MACHINING |
Chop<br />
| www.<strong>Haas</strong>CNC.com
pers<br />
Orange<br />
County<br />
Motorcycle’s<br />
Renaissance<br />
Men<br />
CNC MACHINING |
Story and photos by Richard Berry<br />
“American Chopper,” the unlikely little television<br />
reality series focused on the daily doings at a fatherand-sons<br />
custom motorcycle shop, has grown into a<br />
full-fledged global phenomenon.<br />
Over the seasons, we’ve watched the size of this<br />
shop, the skill of the builders and the sophistication<br />
of the dazzling bikes all grow before our eyes.<br />
Yet, all we’ve seen so far is just the tip of this<br />
venturesome iceberg.<br />
| www.<strong>Haas</strong>CNC.com
“You’re wasting time!” booms Senior, flying out of his office in a<br />
clinched-fist fury. Out on the floor, the prodigal sons respond true to form: Paulie<br />
digs in for a fight, while Mikey backs off with a smirk. The Orange County Choppers<br />
shop is, once again, a certifiable war zone. “It ain’t what you do,” bellows Senior’s<br />
almighty voice of clout, “it’s the way that you do it!”<br />
Custom Bikes for All<br />
The well-known management at Orange County<br />
Choppers (OCC) is busy laying the groundwork to make the<br />
company the best-known and most influential bike builder in<br />
the world.<br />
Paul Teutul Senior’s behind-the-scene business<br />
planners, designers, machinists and builders are settling in<br />
to manufacture a new line of standardized production bikes<br />
to support a growing chain of OCC retail dealers. Until now,<br />
each bike has been specifically made to order for each<br />
customer, so the move represents a major shift in the way<br />
everyone at OCC must approach his work. Perhaps no one<br />
faces greater changes than OCC’s machine shop manager<br />
Jim Quinn.<br />
“It’s definitely a challenge,” says Quinn. “In some ways it’s<br />
easier, but in many ways it’s more difficult. Because of the<br />
way we’ve networked our machines, once we’ve made a part<br />
to spec, it’s just a matter of loading the program and we can<br />
duplicate it again without any problems.”<br />
But trying to dedicate machines to manufacturing<br />
production, while building one-off bikes under the pressures<br />
of television deadlines, is no simple matter. “That’s the other<br />
part of it,” says Quinn with a smile. “It never fails. As soon as<br />
I get a machine set up to run production wheels all day, it’s<br />
‘Oops!’ we’ve got to break in and run a special design for one<br />
of the bikes for the show.”<br />
Realizing they suddenly had a lot more irons in the fire,<br />
the OCC gang set out last year to virtually double the size of<br />
the machine shop. Paul Senior and son Mikey, with a full video<br />
crew in tow, dropped in on the one-million-square-foot <strong>Haas</strong><br />
<strong>Automation</strong> factory in Southern California, and humorously<br />
scribed their names on the machines they wanted. Jim Quinn<br />
and many others had thoughtfully coordinated the expansion<br />
and suggested which machines to acquire weeks before the<br />
stars left for the sunny coast; but Senior’s impromptu “This<br />
one’s mine!” scrawl, staged during the factory tour, was much<br />
more entertaining on camera.<br />
Back home, the OCC machine shop began to expand,<br />
spilling over into what had been the warehousing area of the<br />
30,000-square-foot building. This new annex holds a recently<br />
installed <strong>Haas</strong> Mini Mill, TL-1 Toolroom Lathe and EC-500<br />
horizontal machining center – all tied in with the crew’s everbusy<br />
VF-5/50, VM-3 and VF-2SS vertical machining centers<br />
and SL-20 lathe.<br />
CNC MACHINING | 5
Real Time<br />
“The nice part is that I now have crossover between all<br />
my <strong>Haas</strong> machines,” says Quinn. “Pretty much the same<br />
program will work on any of them. And, I keep my tool libraries<br />
the same from machine to machine: Tool two is always a drill;<br />
tool seven is always a quarter inch endmill and so on. With<br />
this broad interchangeability, it’s amazing what we can do.<br />
“There was a day here, a couple months ago, when I had<br />
wheels running on four of my five mills, even the (smaller)<br />
VF-2,” says Quinn. “A lot of Senior’s old-school bikes take a<br />
16-inch rear wheel, instead of the usual 18s and 21s we put<br />
on most of our new choppers. I said, ‘you know what? . . .<br />
I think this will fit in here!’ I’d never even thought of cutting<br />
wheels on the VF-2 before, but I needed four sets going out<br />
that day. Happily, the 16-incher fit the VF-2’s cutting envelope<br />
with a bit to spare, and I didn’t have to change a thing in the<br />
| www.<strong>Haas</strong>CNC.com<br />
program. To be able to just throw it in and cut wheels on all<br />
those machines, all at the same time, was just amazing.”<br />
Every <strong>Haas</strong> machine at OCC is fully networked, and has<br />
either a 20- or 40-gigabite hard drive, which Quinn accesses<br />
from his office. “I use my desktop to post the programs<br />
through Mastercam ® ,” he says. “I output that post, and send<br />
the NC code directly to the machine tool.”<br />
The flawless finishes Quinn achieves on OCC’s famous<br />
appearance parts are the result of both his machining skill and<br />
the flexibility of this network setup. “The chaining tolerances<br />
I use in Mastercam are always evolving,” he admits. “I’m<br />
now down to about five-millionths. This makes the programs<br />
extremely large, but you couldn’t ask for a finer finish. Since<br />
the programs are too big for resident memory, I do most of<br />
my wheel and surfacing files through DNC,” he explains. “Our<br />
chromers and polishers really love the finish we’re getting off<br />
the <strong>Haas</strong> machines.”
New Reality<br />
With the challenging expansion into production<br />
manufacturing alongside the custom-build television<br />
demands, nearly everyone in the OCC shop, including<br />
Quinn, is wearing a lot more hats these days: machinist,<br />
designer, fabricator, engineer, assembler and, of course, TV<br />
personality. Everyone has to be a little bit of everything.<br />
“Yeah, that’s kind of what we’ve become,” confides<br />
Quinn. “But this way, everybody knows the product a lot<br />
better than when we were niched, always doing the same<br />
job.” The change was absolutely necessary, he explains, to<br />
get OCC to where it is today. “When you consider some of<br />
the tight time frames we face, it’s obvious we can’t afford<br />
a machinist-versus-designer standoff around here,” says<br />
Quinn. “Everybody has to work together to put out bikes; our<br />
systems have to be efficient.” The crew has to give Paulie<br />
what he needs, when he needs it, and Senior what he wants,<br />
when he wants it!<br />
Left unsaid is the fact that they must now also face the<br />
dogged demands of daily production.<br />
After peering below the surface of OCC, it’s easier to<br />
value Senior’s hard-nosed work ethic, and to appreciate why<br />
nothing sets him off like “wasted time!” But, above everything<br />
else, this is a business of talented, creative people influenced<br />
by the imaginative minds of Paulie and Mikey Teutul. If there’s<br />
any leftover time available, individuals like these will find a<br />
way to fill it . . . with creative mischief.<br />
So, when Senior has lobsters delivered, packed in dry<br />
ice, it’s only a matter of time before a tightly sealed bottle of<br />
dry ice chips and water is tossed out onto the floor, just<br />
outside his office. When the bottle reaches maximum<br />
pressure and explodes, so does Senior. The famous black<br />
door flies open with a vengeance and, once again, the prolific<br />
OCC shop becomes a video war zone, and it’s show business<br />
as usual.<br />
CNC MACHINING |
Real Word for Word<br />
In a rare quiet moment back in OCC’s expanded machine shop, Senior and<br />
Paulie philosophize a bit, and talk to us about the demands of “American<br />
Chopper.” Their thoughts are so often in sync that it’s not surprising when<br />
they jump in and finish each other’s comments.<br />
CNCMachining:Senior, we know how long OCC has been on<br />
the scene, but how long have you been around, building bikes?<br />
Senior: My first bike was a ’71 Triumph that I think I got in<br />
1974. Probably a couple of years after that I first started messing<br />
around with fabrication and stuff.<br />
CNC Machining: So, you’ve been at this for more than 30<br />
years, now! How do you keep coming up with fresh ideas?<br />
Senior: You know, most of the time, now, Paulie comes up<br />
with the ideas. But, every once in a while, we’ll both start off just<br />
kind of talking about it. We’ll both have certain ideas, and just<br />
keep pushing the envelope. And sometimes I initiate things and<br />
| www.<strong>Haas</strong>CNC.com<br />
he takes over from there. But usually, he’s more of the designer;<br />
he’s the guy who really comes up with the ideas.<br />
CNCMachining:Whatever you’re doing, it works. Everybody’s<br />
expecting you guys to fall on your face some week, but you keep<br />
coming up with bikes that make clients happy, again and again.<br />
We’re still waiting to see someone tell you: “Well . . . you know . . .<br />
we just don’t like that.”<br />
Senior: (laughing) I think that with the equipment we have<br />
today, especially the <strong>Haas</strong> stuff – you know, being able to make<br />
our own wheels and do our own CNC machining – that makes life<br />
a little bit easier. And it helps our creative ability to come up with<br />
something and now actually be able to do it here.
CNC Machining: Do you feel you’ve reached that elusive<br />
creative highpoint, where anything you can imagine, you can make?<br />
Senior:I think so. I do – pretty much anything.<br />
Paulie: (joining in) Yeah! I think we can make pretty much<br />
anything I need – especially with the <strong>Haas</strong> . . . I mean, the <strong>Haas</strong><br />
CNC machines are huge for us. We’re now able to do everything.<br />
All the time, we talk about how capable we are, how innovative<br />
we are and how much technology we have. But you don’t really<br />
realize it until you come back here in the shop, take a minute and<br />
really look around. I mean . . . it’s amazing.<br />
CNC Machining: We assumed you got a big production<br />
machine like this EC-500 for manufacturing. But we see you’re<br />
doing all kinds of creative one-off stuff with it.<br />
Senior: Well, you’re always being challenged, you know what<br />
I mean? So . . .<br />
Paulie: . . . we step up to it. We’ve got a great program, and<br />
a great couple of machinists here, our guys Jim and Tye. I mean,<br />
they come up with great things. You can have good machines, but<br />
if you don’t have good people to run them, you’re not going to be<br />
doing good stuff.<br />
CNC Machining: We noticed, since our last visit, that<br />
everyone around here now seems to have a finger in every pie.<br />
We’re calling you guys “new renaissance men!”<br />
Senior:(laughing) Everyone has to do it all, that’s for . . .<br />
Paulie: . . . sure. Yeah, everybody has to know everything<br />
around here.<br />
Senior: (still laughing) That’s pretty much it.<br />
CNC Machining: Even with your crew of certified overachievers,<br />
OCC’s creative output amazes us. How do you guys<br />
make this unscripted television show work so well every week?<br />
Paulie:Good people. And you just direct the people and they<br />
go. They’re creative, and talented and very intelligent.<br />
CNCMachining: But, you always seem to be riding against<br />
the wind here . . .<br />
Senior:(jumping in) Always . . . always . . . always!<br />
CNC Machining: So, you’re telling us that this “pulling a<br />
rabbit out of the hat at the last minute” deal is really the way things<br />
happen?<br />
Paulie: Yeah. And it’s all very real. There’s always a<br />
combination of deadlines we have: one, the airdates for the show;<br />
two, actual unveils; and three, just our . . .<br />
Senior:. . . time!<br />
Paulie: Yeah . . . never, ever enough time.<br />
Senior:The thing of it is, even if we do have a minimal amount<br />
of time to build the bike, incorporated in that minimal amount<br />
of time we’re out doing other things. We have to sometimes be<br />
on the other side of the world and back, and still get the thing<br />
completed. So it’s . . .<br />
Paulie: . . . And then, if we have a lot of time for a bike, it<br />
always gets scrunched down to no time, in a matter of minutes,<br />
with all the schedule changes. There are always a million reasons<br />
to get something else done first.<br />
CNCMachining:So the pressure is as real as it looks on TV?<br />
Are you saying it’s a force that actually improves your work?<br />
Senior:Pressure’s definitely part of it. I think that’s what keeps<br />
it interesting. You’ve got to have goals, you’ve got to have reasons<br />
to do stuff, but it’s got to be interesting.<br />
Paulie: Yeah, it’s real. If we had to fake pressure, it would<br />
show, and . . .<br />
Senior:. . . and we wouldn’t be here!<br />
CNC MACHINING |
CNCMACHINING<br />
cycle Time<br />
<strong>Haas</strong> <strong>Automation</strong><br />
Europe Launches<br />
Educational Initiative<br />
The worldwide shortage of skilled CNC machining operators, programmers<br />
and application engineers is a challenge faced daily by almost all precision<br />
engineering companies, from Calcutta to California, Copenhagen to Cape Town.<br />
0 | www.<strong>Haas</strong>CNC.com
In a huge and unprecedented effort to alleviate the problem,<br />
<strong>Haas</strong> <strong>Automation</strong> <strong>Inc</strong>., California, USA, announces the formal<br />
launch of the <strong>Haas</strong> Technical Education Centre (HTEC) program<br />
for Europe.<br />
Already a resounding success in the USA and Canada, the<br />
<strong>Haas</strong> <strong>Automation</strong> Europe HTEC program aims to create long-term<br />
alliances with European vocational training, technical colleges,<br />
universities and other manufacturing technology learning<br />
institutions. The goal: to make the latest manufacturing technology<br />
accessible to a very wide range of educational establishments,<br />
and to provide students with hands-on experience in a real-world<br />
manufacturing environment.<br />
The HTEC concept was first established by <strong>Haas</strong> <strong>Automation</strong>,<br />
<strong>Inc</strong>. in the USA in 1996, and was originally a school-based<br />
program – a place where teachers and students could experience<br />
the latest machine tool technology.<br />
Today, the program has evolved beyond the company’s<br />
wildest expectations. In the USA and Canada, there are already<br />
more than 600 HTECs, including almost 100 high schools, 100+<br />
vocational schools, almost 300 community colleges and close to<br />
200 universities, with well over 1600 machines installed. Over the<br />
next few years, <strong>Haas</strong> <strong>Automation</strong> Europe will implement plans to<br />
mirror the program’s popularity in Germany, as well as in France,<br />
Italy, Spain and every other European country.<br />
“Our initial goal is to have 100 fully <strong>Haas</strong>-certified HTECs<br />
in Europe within 5 years,” Peter Hall, <strong>Haas</strong> Europe’s managing<br />
director, explains. “That is, 20 new HTECs per year, however,<br />
judging by the response we are already experiencing, this is<br />
probably a very conservative number, and I anticipate raising this<br />
number to at least 200 in the near future.”<br />
<strong>Haas</strong> CNC machine tools are distributed and supported<br />
in Europe via 45 <strong>Haas</strong> Factory Outlets (HFOs). Assuming an<br />
average of 4 HTECs for each HFO, the company will quickly<br />
approach Mr. Hall’s target of 200 HTECs.<br />
Closely tied to the company’s distribution network, each HTEC<br />
is the result of a unique alliance between <strong>Haas</strong> <strong>Automation</strong> Europe,<br />
a local <strong>Haas</strong> Factory Outlet (HFO) and a local learning institution.<br />
All HTECs are <strong>Haas</strong>-certified, and require a commitment between<br />
the school management and the local HFO.<br />
“This is a wonderful and inspiring challenge,” enthuses Mr.<br />
Hall. “HTECs are dedicated to the future of the manufacturing<br />
industry, and they continue the <strong>Haas</strong> pledge to deliver high-quality<br />
education to the technicians and engineers of tomorrow.<br />
“We’ve already made some groundbreaking agreements with<br />
notable institutions, including the prestigious Universität Wien,<br />
the Gewerbe Akademie in Konstanz, Germany, more than 20<br />
universities and schools in Russia, Poland, Italy, Greece, Belgium,<br />
Scandinavia, Portugal and Estonia. Plus, there are more than 150<br />
<strong>Haas</strong> Mini Mills and other <strong>Haas</strong> CNC machine tools installed in<br />
Lycee across France.”<br />
CNC MACHINING |
KELLER CNCPlus-TRAINING<br />
<strong>Haas</strong> <strong>Automation</strong> Europe and industry leading German<br />
manufacturing software developer KELLER have joined forces to<br />
develop and offer <strong>Haas</strong> customers a free, ‘off-line’ programming,<br />
CNC training and low-cost CAM package, which will enable<br />
companies to train their machine operators “in-house.”<br />
KELLER CNCPlus-TRAINING is a groundbreaking program<br />
designed to teach both novice and also experienced operators,<br />
without the specific expertise, how to program a <strong>Haas</strong> machine<br />
using the proprietary <strong>Haas</strong> CNC. From January 2007, anyone<br />
purchasing a <strong>Haas</strong> machine tool has been offered this innovative<br />
and highly effective training system – worth thousands of Euros<br />
– absolutely free. The scheme has been so successful that the<br />
company plans to continue the offer throughout 2008.<br />
As a “time-served,” professional engineer, Peter Hall is<br />
unequivocal about the importance of education in the engineering<br />
sector of the future.<br />
| www.<strong>Haas</strong>CNC.com<br />
“These are exciting times for young people choosing<br />
engineering as a career. It is rapidly becoming very evident<br />
that technology will play a pivotal role in ‘re-engineering’ the<br />
world’s manufacturing economies – and the infrastructure we<br />
rely on – to become more sustainable and less damaging to<br />
our environment.”<br />
“It’s no exaggeration to state that mankind’s future will<br />
depend on the ingenuity of scientists and engineers to develop<br />
the needed technologies and products, and on the resources<br />
of the international manufacturing community to make these<br />
technologies and products a reality. Manufacturing will need a<br />
huge number of well-qualified, skilled people in the decades to<br />
come. Through it’s HTEC program, <strong>Haas</strong> aims to make a longterm<br />
contribution to meeting this demand.”
CNCMACHINING<br />
cycle Time<br />
Windshear’s<br />
Advanced Wind<br />
Tunnel Scheduled To<br />
Open Spring 2008<br />
In early 2008, the most advanced wind tunnel of its kind<br />
will open its doors for business in the USA. Windshear,<br />
will be the world’s first commercially available full-scale,<br />
single-belt, rolling-road wind tunnel in existence, and is<br />
being built by <strong>Haas</strong> <strong>Automation</strong>. Located a few kilometers<br />
east of Charlotte, North Carolina, this groundbreaking new<br />
venture is currently under construction, and is scheduled<br />
to begin accepting customers in March 2008.
According to company officials, Windshear <strong>Inc</strong>. will operate<br />
the one-of-a-kind facility 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with a<br />
staff of 25. The facility will be available for hire to all motor sports<br />
teams and auto manufacturers, providing services previously<br />
available only to top Formula 1 teams.<br />
Although two similar rolling-road facilities exist in Europe,<br />
and numerous scale-model tunnels operate worldwide, what<br />
makes this new facility unique is its business model: Windshear<br />
is being made available to all F1, Indy, stock car racers and auto<br />
manufacturers. Most other facilities found around the world are<br />
proprietary operations, owned and operated by manufacturers,<br />
or race teams, for their own use.<br />
Windshear was designed to accommodate 100% full-scale<br />
vehicles, and provide constant airspeeds up to 290 kmh (180 mph),<br />
with temperatures controlled to within plus or minus 0.55 °C (1 °F).<br />
The high-tech rolling road will be 3.2 meters (10.5 feet) wide by 9<br />
meters (29.5 feet) long, and be able to accelerate from zero to 290<br />
kmh in less than one minute. The “road” is actually a continuous<br />
stainless steel belt just one millimeter thick, and it is designed to<br />
| www.<strong>Haas</strong>CNC.com<br />
last up to 5000 operational hours. During testing, “through-the-belt”<br />
sensors measure the aerodynamic down force under each tyre,<br />
while a sophisticated on-board data acquisition system collects<br />
other test-critical data.<br />
High-quality, repeatable data, as well as security and privacy,<br />
are the standard for Windshear. Every step of the way, from<br />
determining customer requirements to customer check-in to<br />
vehicle setup to vehicle testing, Windshear’s experienced and<br />
skilled personnel will work to ensure that all customer needs are<br />
met quickly and professionally.<br />
Windshear’s state-of-the-art wind tunnel and 180-mile-perhour<br />
rolling road promise to provide a stable, verifiable and<br />
repeatable environment for motor sports testing – in a highly<br />
secure and private working environment.
<strong>Haas</strong> CNC Racing<br />
<strong>Haas</strong> CNC Racing is owned by Gene <strong>Haas</strong>. <strong>Haas</strong> has been<br />
involved in motor sports since 1995, forming technical partnerships<br />
with race teams in CART, IRL and NASCAR, including Hendrick<br />
Motorsports.<br />
The end of the 2006 NASCAR season saw the beginning of<br />
a new era for <strong>Haas</strong> CNC Racing. After residing for nearly 5 years<br />
in the shadow of Lowe’s Motor Speedway, the team moved its<br />
headquarters to a newly constructed $15-million race shop in<br />
nearby Kannapolis, North Carolina.<br />
Along with a threefold increase in space, the new 140,000-sqft<br />
shop includes technological advances that make it a worldclass<br />
development facility. Among these are an R&D area filled<br />
with <strong>Haas</strong> machines for prototype production, and a seven-post,<br />
full-scale track simulator to model racetrack conditions. The new<br />
Windshear wind tunnel is ideally located for <strong>Haas</strong> CNC Racing,<br />
and will also be available for other NASCAR teams to rent for<br />
aerodynamic testing.<br />
CNC MACHINING | 5
CNCMACHINING<br />
the ANSWER MaN<br />
Dear Applications:<br />
Sometimes when I run a new program<br />
on my <strong>Haas</strong> SL-20, I get a 604 NON-<br />
MONOTONOUS ARC IN PQ BLOCK<br />
alarm on a G71 in my program. Why do<br />
I get this non-monotonous alarm? Why<br />
do I have to increase the programmed<br />
arc radius seen in the alarm description?<br />
How can I fix this alarm?<br />
Jimmy Moore<br />
Dear Jimmy:<br />
A G71 monotonous tool path in the<br />
X axis is defined to always move a tool<br />
in the same direction, either increasing<br />
or decreasing on the diameter, but<br />
not both. A G71 non-monotonous tool<br />
path is defined by the tool changing<br />
direction on the X-axis diameter.<br />
If you get a 604 NON-MONOTONOUS<br />
alarm when using a G71, it is because<br />
the motion defined between the P and Q<br />
block contains axis motion that does not<br />
continue in the same direction.<br />
See examples below<br />
You can locate and fix these alarms<br />
by first running the program in Graphics<br />
without recognizing the G71 command<br />
line, and watching only the part geometry.<br />
That way, you can see and fix any errors,<br />
like an incorrect radius, or an incorrect<br />
starting point or ending point. Then,<br />
run the program in Graphics again,<br />
| www.<strong>Haas</strong>CNC.com<br />
<strong>Inc</strong>orrectG71partgeometries<br />
recognizing the G71 command line, to<br />
see if the program runs without alarms. If<br />
it does, run a part.<br />
Sincerely,<br />
<strong>Haas</strong> Applications<br />
Dear Applications:<br />
I am looking for a code or setting<br />
that will allow my machine to make a<br />
loud “beep” when it reaches a specific<br />
command while running a program. For<br />
instance, at M00 Program Stop to let me<br />
know when it’s at that point. My neighbor<br />
has his <strong>Haas</strong> machines beeping at the<br />
end of a program, and I would like my<br />
<strong>Haas</strong> machine to do the same thing.<br />
Shawn Dill<br />
Dear Shawn:<br />
Yes, you’re able to make the machine<br />
beep at an M00, M01, M<strong>02</strong> and M30 by<br />
turning on Setting 39.<br />
Sincerely,<br />
<strong>Haas</strong> Applications<br />
• • •<br />
Dear Applications:<br />
We are using a bar puller on a job<br />
that I am running, and I would like the<br />
machine to stop after a certain number of<br />
parts. Can you assist me in doing this?<br />
Bob Knight<br />
Dear Bob:<br />
There are a couple of ways to specify<br />
the number of machining cycles you<br />
would like to run. One of the simplest is<br />
by using a sub-program, with an M98<br />
Pnnnn that calls up a program from your<br />
list of programs. Another way is to use<br />
a sub-routine, with an M97 Pnnnn that<br />
calls up a block of code that starts with a<br />
sequence number located after an M30.<br />
With either M97 or M98, you can specify<br />
an Lnn count command for the number<br />
of times you would like to repeat the sub.<br />
A program using an M98 would look<br />
something like this:<br />
%<br />
O01201 (Sub-program call with M98 and<br />
looping it 10 times)<br />
M98 P12<strong>02</strong> L10 (Calling sub-program O12<strong>02</strong><br />
and repeating it 10 times)<br />
M30 (End of program command)<br />
%<br />
%<br />
O12<strong>02</strong> (Sub-program called by an M98 P12<strong>02</strong><br />
repeating it 10 times with L10)
N1 (Sub-program tool path)<br />
N2 (Sub-program tool path)<br />
N3 (Sub-program tool path)<br />
M99 (Loops back to line after M98)<br />
%<br />
A program using an M97 would look<br />
something like this:<br />
%<br />
O01203<br />
M97 P101 L8 (Calling a local sub-routine with<br />
an M97 P101 repeating it 8 times)<br />
M30 (End of program command)<br />
N101 (Local sub-routine called by an M97 P101)<br />
N1<strong>02</strong> (Sub-routine tool path)<br />
N103 (Sub-routine tool path)<br />
N104 M99 (Loops back to line after the M97)<br />
%<br />
Another simple way to specify the<br />
number of machine cycles for a part<br />
is by using the TOOL LIFE page in<br />
CURNT COMDS. Enter the number<br />
of times you want to run a part in the<br />
ALARM column of tool #1. When the<br />
USAGE reaches the ALARM number<br />
for the desired number of cycles, the<br />
machine will stop. You can zero these<br />
numbers by pressing ORIGIN.<br />
Sincerely,<br />
<strong>Haas</strong> Applications<br />
• • •<br />
Dear Applications:<br />
Is there a special G-code for doing<br />
rigid tapping on my <strong>Haas</strong> VF-2? If I hold<br />
a tap in a regular collet holder, and use<br />
rigid tapping, can I tap a deep hole in two<br />
steps (i.e., tap 3/8" deep, clear chips,<br />
and then tap 3/4" deep)? Will the spindle<br />
orient and pick up a thread in the same<br />
spot? If I’m tapping four deep holes, do I<br />
peck tap each hole at two depths before<br />
moving on to the next hole? Or do I tap all<br />
four holes first at a 3/8" depth, and then<br />
at a 3/4" depth? Will the machine pick up<br />
the thread in both cases?<br />
Steve Hann<br />
Dear Steve:<br />
Yes, you will be able to pick up<br />
threads at the same spot in both cases.<br />
Rigid tapping is a standard feature on<br />
all of our machines, except the Mini Mill<br />
and Toolroom Mill. Turn on Setting 133<br />
(REPEAT RIGID TAP). Now you’re able<br />
to peck tap a hole by using multiple G84<br />
commands at the same location. The<br />
first depth will be at Z-0.375; the next<br />
will be at Z-0.75 to the final depth. Then<br />
move to the next location and repeat the<br />
sequence for each hole.<br />
G00 X0.5 Y-0.5<br />
G43 H04 Z0.1<br />
S650 (G84 Turns on spindle)<br />
G84 G99 Z-0.375 R0.1 F32.5 (Hole 1)<br />
G84 Z-0.75<br />
G84 X1.5 Y-1.5 Z-0.375 (Hole 2)<br />
G84 Z-0.75<br />
…<br />
etc.<br />
Sincerely,<br />
<strong>Haas</strong> Applications<br />
• • •<br />
CNC MACHINING |
<strong>Haas</strong> Europe Exhibitions 2008<br />
EXHIBITION COUNTRY CITY FROM TILL<br />
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<strong>Haas</strong> <strong>Automation</strong> Europe<br />
Mercuriusstraat 28 • B-1930 Zaventem • Belgium<br />
Tel: +32 (2) 522 99 05 I Fax: +32 (2) 523 08 55<br />
Europe@<strong>Haas</strong>CNC.com<br />
www.<strong>Haas</strong>CNC.com<br />
<strong>Haas</strong> <strong>Automation</strong>, <strong>Inc</strong>.<br />
2800 Sturgis Road • Oxnard • California 93030<br />
Tel: +1 (805) 278 1800 I Fax: +1 (805) 278 2255<br />
Toll Free: 800 331 6746<br />
www.<strong>Haas</strong>CNC.com<br />
<strong>Haas</strong> <strong>Automation</strong> Asia<br />
No. 96 Yi Wei Road • Building 67<br />
Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone • Shanghai, 200131. P.R.C.<br />
Tel: +86 (21) 3861 6666 I Fax: +86 (21) 3861 6799<br />
Asia@<strong>Haas</strong>CNC.com I www.<strong>Haas</strong>CNC.com<br />
EN_<strong>02</strong>/2008