Alp Aviation trusts the Renishaw Productivity + software to eliminate human error

"Alp should become a centre of expertise, and the key to achieve this is the communication and the relationships between my employees," says Senay Idil, CEO, how has created the perfect culture among its staff to control production processes. To talk with the engineers it is clear that they share the same enthusiasm to achieve the best results, "we analyze the entire production process cycle time and we were able to reduce the times of adjustment in some cases up to 50 percent" said Cenk AkinHead of the Department of engineering. "Software Productivity + and inspection of piece of Renishaw probes have made this possible." The benefits include not only saving in time and costs; We cannot rely entirely on the production process, given that we have removed the possibility of human error. "The repeatability of the process has improved, we have reached a higher level of quality using probes with less than a micron repeatability".

When you start the manufacture of a new piece a process engineer is assigned to the piece and is responsible for all the processes of the production cycle. The client sends the file CAD engineer and decides a machining process, including the selection of machining tools, using a CAM system of Unigraphics. The CNC program that generates the CAM is loaded into the software Productivity + of Renishaw, where the engineer adds inspection cycles. This final program is sent to the corresponding machine by means of a DNC system and machines a piece of proof before the commencement of its mass production.

Software Productivity + was acquired in July 2007 with the aim of reducing the time of development of the process - the working environment of Alp is highly automated so it was not considered acceptable to manually schedule the inspection routines. Productivity + is based on a graphical environment that allows a 'friendly' programming and easy to use. Alp engineers simply use CAD model characteristics to control, or defined parameters from the Windows of dialogue to define the inspection program. When it is complete, you select the desired post-processor and the CNC program generates automatically, ready to be sent directly to the machine.

For greater security, inspection routines can be graphically simulated in software, correcting errors before it reaches the program to the machine. Cenk Akin, responsible for the Engineering Department, discusses the key factors of benefit for Alp, "Productivity + facilitates inspection routines checking before sending them to the machine." "If you are running the machine to check processes rather than to produce pieces are losing money".

Productivity + has been acquired not long ago, but Alp has used the inspection of piece of Renishaw probes for many years. All new machines are requested from factory with such probes.

Now operators use simple systems of mooring and programmed the machine that you use the probe and calculate the zero exact piece. The probe is used also as process control, for example, each piece is checked before the finish machining and once it is inspect the critical points of the workpiece in the machine itself. The cycle time, by eliminating manual adjustment and the time of inspection in a three-dimensional machine, has been reduced by up to 50 percent.

The objective of reducing in Alp setting times is particularly important, since mechanized pieces have many variations and have a great deal of flexibility. Some sets of pieces can be mecanizing over a year, but some machines change series 2 or 3 times a day with only a few pieces for each series. That's particularly that Alp is close to achieve near-zero setting times, using pallet changing systems to allow operators to load the pieces while the previous piece being machined, and by part inspection probes to calculate the zero piece in seconds.

Şenay İdil, general director of Alp, explains how the company: "We do not in general machining, or manufacture simple pieces of the aerospace sector." We carefully select our clients with the idea of establishing long-term relationships. This is because that we believe in doing a job that we know that it will continue in time, which can establish a strategic plan for growth at the time of the signing of the contract. Our idea of establishing a long term relationship applies both to clients as to suppliers. The technologies that we are talking about, piece of software Productivity + and Renishaw inspection systems, are critical to, with a relatively low investment, operate the machines in the most efficient manner possible. In 2006 we invest 12.5 million in machines and other systems after a period of careful consideration, but it was clear that he wanted that each machine had a tube for inspection of piece. "Quality is a key element in the manufacture of parts for the aerospace sector, with a dimensional control in-process defined by the engineer of production, but with an independent verification of 100 per cent of the relevant characteristics of the final piece".