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3T Additive Manufacturing achieved a reduction in its part setup time from five hours to ten minutes by adopting technology from Renishaw and its associate company, MSP.
3T-am offers metal and polymer Additive Manufacturing services to a wide range of industry sectors, including companies that produce orthopedic implants and instruments, primarily using Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion. The company has experienced strong growth in recent years, and while originally known for prototyping, it has more recently become established as a serial production company.
To ease pressure brought by growth, the company made significant investments in two 5-axis mills and a CMM, but despite this extra capacity, each part still required manual setup and created additional demand on manufacturing personnel to deliver parts on schedule.
3T-am invested in Renishaw’s OMP600 high-accuracy machine tool probe and MSP’s NC-PerfectPart software, allowing 3T-am to identify and correct errors in part positioning and machine performance prior to machining. OMP600 offers the benefits of automated job setup, as well as the ability to measure complex 3D part geometries and, in combination with MSP’s software, automate machining processes and eliminate the potential for human error.
By automating 3T-am’s processes, MSP enabled the company to complete setup and alignment for a full batch of parts in the machine during the day and leave the machine to run overnight. This enables 24/7 lights-out production, allowing the company to maximize machine utilization and produce a whole batch of parts in one day, compared to only one part previously. The process was detailed in a case study shared by MSP.
NC-PerfectPart’s initial step is to assess the machine tool’s geometric performance to ensure it is calibrated and correct in 5-axis movement. This confirms every aspect of the probe and machine performance is within set tolerances prior to part setup and machining, to ensure that parts can be finished accurately.
“I challenged MSP to prove their claims in real time as it all seemed too good to be true,” said Martin Jarvis, Production Engineer at 3T-am. “I attended Renishaw’s Innovation Centre in Gloucester and presented the MSP engineer with a completely blind test. I turned up with a part which they had no advance knowledge of, and they programmed the part and delivered the promised results before my eyes. When MSP’s products were installed at 3T-am, the MSP guarantee also meant we were making right-first-time parts before their engineer even left the site.”
