Success Story Reliably machine rib geometries OPEN MIND worked together Volkswagen in Braunschweig, Germany, to develop the ‘Rib Milling’ cycle to program rib geometries. Programming rib geometries is not an easy task. The saying ‘It has to be easy’ was, as it so often is, the first step towards greater efficiency. By working together with OPEN MIND, Volkswagen was able to develop a feature to program rib geometries in a highly efficient manner. This function automatically detects grooves to be milled. Steep areas and floors are machined separately. About Volkswagen Braunschweig The Volkswagenwerk Braunschweig plant manufactures axles, steering mechanisms, plastic parts, battery systems, vehicle components as well as the required tools and machines. Innovative products place great demands on the manufacturing process and, as a result, on the development and manufacturing of resources that meet these requirements. In light of this, component tool engineering in Braunschweig, which occupies around 700 employees, holds a decisive position in the early phase of the product development process. © OPEN MIND Technologies AG. From tool engineering to the competence centre An impressive production portfolio and effectiveness and efficiency in the CAD/CAM p rocess chain make VOLKSWAGEN AG in Braunschweig a technological pioneer in component tool engineering. Here, the company manufactures moulds for cylinder heads and chassis, die cast moulds for gearboxes, coupling housings and steering b oxes and compression tools for reshaping the thick sheet metal of the chassis and injection moulds, for example, for bumpers or instrument panels made from plastic. Consistent use of the hyperMILL CAM/CAD solution from OPEN MIND Technologies AG over the past 13 years has contributed greatly to the success of 2D, 3D, HSC, mill/turn and 5-axis machining. „We opted for OPEN MIND back in 2002 because hyperMILL best supports our standardisation approach“, says ® Jörg Wenserski, Head of Engineering at the Machine Centre. “This has led to the development of a productive partnership with OPEN MIND and as a result, we have achieved a very high technical standard.” Rib milling without risk The joint rib milling project provides an ex ample from the long-standing development partnership with the CAM provider. The i coolng ribs from gearboxes have very deep cavities that entail major risk and are ex tremely time consuming in programming and machining. In accordance with the in-house knowledge management method, a specialist group made up of planni

“We opted for hyperMILL® back in 2002 because the system best supports our standardisation approach.” Jörg Wenserski, Head of Engineering at the Machine Centre at the Volkswagen plant in Braunschweig. Based on this specification, OPEN MIND subsequently developed a rib milling cycle that introduces a lot of innovations to the machining sequence, such as: an integrated roughing/ finishing function, integrated pocket machining of wide ribs, automatic collision detection of the tool holder taking conical milling tools into account and integrated bottom machinng. i Many of those involved see the fact...