North West manufacturers are starting to integrate Fusion 360 Archives

According to a recent article on insidermedia.com “Manufacturers in the North West are being urged to accelerate technology adoption to adjust to the economic challenges.

Made Smarter, the movement connecting UK manufacturing industries to digital tools, conducted a survey of 200 SME manufacturers in the North West and the results highlighted that achieving growth by improving productivity and adopting digital technologies are key drivers for SMEs.

Manufacturers revealed they had plans to adopt new technology in the next two or three years including integrated digital technology.”

One such form of integrated digital technology currently being embraced by many SMEs is Autodesk’s Fusion 360, a cloud-based 3D modelling, CAD, CAM, CAE and PCB software platform for professional product design and manufacturing.

In this blog we’re going to focus on the 3D CAD/CAM aspect of Fusion 360 and it’s benefits.

Fusion 360 enables the user to quickly create or import designs from other platforms and then either create new features or edit existing ones. Workholding devices can be designed or inserted into the workspace within the integrated CAD/CAM platform.

Once the model and workholding has been defined, Fusion 360 makes it easy to translate the part to a CNC program ready for manufacture by changing the work environment, thus doing away with the need for exporting the file to a third-party CAM package. In doing so, the time to market the product can be reduced by considerably, all within one CAD/CAM solution. By using Fusion 360’s CAM environment, programming, cycle and inspection times are all reduced.

Fusion 360 has a vast array of manufacturing features which can speed up the manufacturing process considerably, such as:

2D and 2.5D machining: Set up jobs and create 2D and 2.5D toolpaths. Integrated CAD simplifies design revisions, reduces programming times, and helps avoid mistakes.

3-axis machining: Create high-quality NC code using powerful 3-axis machining strategies. Rough and finish 3D parts with intuitive workflows.

Multi-axis positional machining: 3+1 and 3+2 (positional) machining creates parts with fewer setups, using shorter, more rigid cutting tools to improve part accuracy and faster cycle times.

4 and 5-axis simultaneous milling: Uses specialised 4 and 5-axis toolpaths to achieve superior surface finish.

Turning: 2D turned parts can be programmed using a suite of dedicated turning strategies. Verify turning toolpaths with stock simulation and identify errors or collisions with the model, stock, tools, and workholding device.

Turn-Mill: Produce more complex parts by combining milling and turning operations. Generate NC code for multi-tasking hardware, capable of supporting both styles of machining.

Reference: https://www.insidermedia.com