Omron Corporation
case study
Omron Micro Gets Smaller & Faster with CimatronE
Omron Micro develops and manufacturers electronic parts
URL:
and devices, with a focus on digital home electronics, mobile
www.omron.com
terminals, and office and automation equipment. As these are
Location: Kusatsu, Japan
Industry: Original equipment manufacturer (OEM)
all fields in which devices are shrinking as rapidly as time to
market pressures are growing, Omron recognized that to
of precision parts and devices for a wide
maintain its market position, it needed to upgrade its mold
range of industries
machining capabilities.
Challenges
Pushing the Limits of High-Precision Micro Milling
Shrinking size of electronic parts, particularly in
mobile phones, requires higher accuracy and
precision in molds; competitive market means
they need to reduce development time
“We have recently seen a marked increase in the need for
micro milling,” said Kyoichi Okamoto, the manager of Omron’s
engineering and micro machining center. “Our engineers are
always trying to break through the limits of micro machining
in order to give us a competitive advantage.”
Solutions
CimatronE NC Solution
Omron’s micro machining center had been utilizing a
Results
CAD/CAM system for designing and making molds, but some
Faster and higher quality mold creation
Significantly improved toolpath quality
Dramatically fewer mistakes, leading to lower
man-hours and costs
Exploring potential to make high-precision
steel molds without EDM
time ago it became clear that it was no longer adequate.
Noritaka Tanabe, the engineer in the engineering and micro
machining center said: “In addition to the inherent difficulties
of making high-precision molds, our customers are imposing
increasingly tighter lead times. So, we looked for an efficient
CAD/CAM system that would enable us to make extremely
high-quality molds in a very short time.”
Innovative Solutions for Manufacturing
Omron Corporation
“For example, to make a 0.3mm pitch connector, the shape of
the mold that makes the small hole of the connector is like a
needle. We chose our new CAD/CAM system based on its
ability to make such a small needle effectively. In addition, it
was important that the CAD/CAM system support the 50,000rpm
machining system that we recently installed.”
CimatronE Earns Top Marks
case study
Fewer Mistakes Means Time Savings
Since Omron began using CimatronE, it has dramatically
improved path quality, reducing the number of times paths that
need to be corrected, and hence reducing the man-hours needed
to make each mold.
“With our old system, there was a risk of failure at the final
milling, creating an improper cutter path that could damage
Omron compared numerous CAD/DAM systems, carefully
the machine and tools,” recalls Mr. Tanabe. “Now, we have
benchmarking the contenders. In the end, only CimatronE made
dramatically reduced that risk. Moreover, with our improved
the cut.
milling capabilities, we have eliminated copper electrode burr.
Overall, we have drastically cut the time for machining.”
“I believe CimatronE is the ideal system for high-precision
machining,” says Mr. Tanabe. “It is easy to make the cutter
path, which gives us a high degree of flexibility. In addition,
with the template functionality of CimatronE, it is easy to set up
the CAM parameters, and this function is also useful for
standardizing the know-how of the team. These were decisive
factors in our decision to install CimatronE.”
The combination of speed and quality enabled by CimatronE’s
advanced algorithm helped bring the solution to first place on
Omron’s list. Mr. Tanabe notes that numerous CimatronE functions
impressed him, including its optimization function for recognition
of stock, the constant control of cutter load, the rounding motion
for sharp corners, and the holder gauge check.
Future Plans Inspired by CimatronE Capabilities
Looking forward, Omron has ambitious plans for micro
machining. “I would like to make a hard steel mold without
EDM,” says Mr. Tanabe. “This is dependent on us being able
to make minute cuts with high accuracy, but I believe that
CimatronE will enable us to overcome this challenge.”
“CimatronE offers the best performance in Z direction control,
which gives us finer, free control of the cutter path. The advanced
high-precision machining capabilities we have gained with
CimatronE open great potential for us to produce a greater
variety of parts.”
"I believe CimatronE is the ideal system for high-precision machining...
The advanced capabilities we have gained with CimatronE open great
potential for us to produce a greater variety of parts.”
Noritaka Tanabe, Omron
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Innovative Solutions for Manufacturing
This document is for informational purposes only and is subject to change. © Copyrights 2006 Cimatron Ltd. All rights reserved. Cimatron, Cimatron E and the C logo design are trademarks of Cimatron Ltd. and are registered
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