hyperMILL^® Keeps Wheels Turning for Birmingham Subcontractor

Advanced Engineering Ltd | Birmingham, United Kingdom

Specialising in the production of prototype components and complex small batch runs for the automotive sector, Birmingham based Advanced Engineering (UK) Ltd has always maintained its ethos of investment in technology to deliver component quality at lead times beyond the capabilities of its competitors.

The investment has seen Advanced Engineering evolve with technology to move from 3+2 axis machining into full simultaneous 5-axis machining. Since 2006, the company has purchased five simultaneous 5-axis machines with more recent acquisitions including Mazak Hyper Variaxis 630 and Mazak 630-5X machining centres. With two seats of CAM software from two different, local and leading vendors, Advanced Engineering‘s Managing Director, Mr. Terry Pedley was intent on driving through software changes to maximise the capabilities of the new machine tools.

The best available CAM software

Extensive investigation that involved visits and consequent recommendations from F1 engine manufacturers and other prestigious names in the automotive and motorsport sectors, resulted in the TS:16949, AS:9100 and ISO:9001 accredited company acquiring three seats of OPEN MIND‘s hyperMILL^® CAM software just over 12 months ago. The Engineering Manager at Advanced Engineering, Mr. David Richardson takes up the story: “Our MD didn’t believe our existing software was up to the job and to improve our quality, he investigated and invested in hyperMILL^® as he wanted the ‘best available’ software. With two Engineers in the office with extensive experience on various CAM packages, we have witnessed the multitude of benefits of implementing hyperMILL^® and can confirm the MD definitely made the right choice.”

“I've used a nummer of CAM packages and each has its benefits. However, hyperMILL^® is far superior in all aspects. We do a lot of 3D 5-axis machining and hyperMILL^® is perfect for this, whereas our other packages do not adapt well to complex designs.“

Mick Mann, CAM Programmer

Improved productivity in the office as well as on the shop-floor

The programming team at Advanced Engineering are in agreement that hyperMILL^® has improved productivity in the office as well as on the shop-floor. As Mr. Mann continues: “hyperMILL^® is very user friendly, intuitive and has features that are far easier to use than alternate packages. The crash testing and tool collision is far beyond previous packages with tool data banks capable of clarifying the path of the tool and even the toolholders inside cavities to give full crash detection. It has been so intuitive and user friendly, we haven‘t had to make a call for support in over 15 months.”

www.ae-uk.net