A leading North America-based provider of asset integrity management and industrial maintenance solutions for the oil & gas and petrochemical sectors partnered with ALTEN to address rising machining times on its CNC-manufactured components. The objective was to develop an optimized CNC program that could reduce overall cycle time without compromising part quality or machine reliability.

ALTEN managed the complete offline CNC programming workflow, from defining the manufacturing sequence and tooling strategy to simulating and validating the final toolpath before deployment on the shop floor.

Challenge:

• High machining cycle time: The client’s existing CNC programs resulted in excessive machining time, impacting overall manufacturing throughput.
• Risk of tool breakage and rejection: Conventional, unvalidated CNC programming carried the risk of tool breakage and part rejection during live machining runs.
• Line stoppage exposure: Traditional on-machine programming approaches risked production line stoppages whenever toolpath issues surfaced during actual machining.
• Need for offline validation: A new CNC program had to be created, simulated, and optimized offline before being trusted for production use.

Key Contribution by ALTEN:

• Defined the sequence of operations required for manufacturing the part.
• Defined part orientation and the appropriate work-holding fixture.
• Selected cutting tools and determined optimal cutting parameters.
• Defined the toolpath strategy to achieve the best possible surface finish.
• Created the CNC program, including G-codes and M-codes, offline using Power Mill.
• Simulated and validated the toolpath using Veri-cut software to optimize total manufacturing cycle time before deployment.

Technologies & Tools Used:

• SolidWorks for CAD modeling
• Power Mill for CNC programming
• Veri-cut for toolpath simulation and validation

Knowledge & Expertise That Made the Difference

• Strong expertise in offline CNC programming and toolpath strategy for complex machined components.
• Deep understanding of cutting tool selection, cutting parameters, and work-holding fixture design.
• Capability to simulate and validate toolpaths in advance, eliminating reliance on trial-and-error programming on the shop floor.

Business Impact & Benefits

• Achieved a 20% reduction in machining time through the optimized, offline-validated CNC program.
• Avoided tool breakage during machining, reducing tooling costs.
• Prevented part rejection through improved quality, validated before production.
• Eliminated the risk of line stoppages associated with conventional, on-machine CNC programming.
• Sustained a 5+ year engagement, delivered by a focused team of 4 engineers.

Conclusion

By combining offline CNC programming expertise with rigorous simulation and validation, ALTEN helped the organization to significantly reduce machining cycle time while improving manufacturing reliability and quality. This engagement reflects ALTEN’s strength in delivering precise, production-ready manufacturing engineering solutions for industrial clients.