Elliott Company -
A global leader in design, manufacture, installation and service of turbomachinery

Ever wonder why some machine shops are more productive than others? The many possibilities include idle machines, software incapable of running the machine effectively, and or untrained machine operators. To manufacturers there are few things more costly than idle machines. Having the right combination of software to run the machines is crucial in the machine shop's production. As such, shops can benefit from selecting the right CAM system.

Elliott Company struggled with the relationship between their machines and the software to run these machines. They discovered inefficiencies throughout their part making process, leaving them with many scrapped parts. Costs continued to rise, product quality began to diminish, along with customer satisfaction. As a result, management began to research many of the CAM systems on the market.

Elliott company, a global leader founded more than 100 years ago, specializes in the manufacture of turbomachinery products, which are used around the globe. Products include air and gas compressors, steam turbines, power recovery turbines, bow thrusters and power generating equipment for the refining, chemical, petrochemical, oil, gas and industrial market segments. Corporate headquarters are located in Jeannette, Pennsylvania, and covers 40 buildings on 102 acres of land. Included at this site is the main manufacturing plant with 800,000 square feet under one roof.

"Our customers are the center of our business life, says Antonio Casillo, President and CEO." Elliott exists to identify customer turbomachinery needs and to find ways to satisfy those needs - at a competitive price - and within the shortest possible response time. The company defines itself by working diligently to continue discovering beneficial innovations that will satisfy the needs of customers today and in the future. "Our vision is to be recognized by our customers as the world's best turbomachinery company by our commitment to excellence through employee involvement, continuous improvement, and superior quality and technology. This requires a multitalented employee base, and adherence to our vision of where we want to go, and a management team that knows how to synergize the power of these components so they work together smoothly," explains Antonio Casillo. He goes on to say, "with our customers and suppliers as partners, we are on the threshold of exciting new achievements in our fields of specialization. We are committed to making good things happen for our clientele - no matter what the need - no matter when or where it is needed."

Keeping the Machines Running

For well over a decade, the company has relied on their equipment to reduce parts handling, improve product quality, and help meet on-time delivery promises. To insure effective machine operation, accuracy, and speed, Elliott sought out a solution. The company now utilizes NCL 5-axis CAM software from Numerical Control Computer Sciences (NCCS) to keep the company's most valuable equipment running.

NCL is a powerful computer-aided manufacturing package, which generates simultaneous 2 through 5-axis NC tool paths and provides parametric 3D modeling. All geometric modeling and tool path functions are fully associative. A change to the model results in an immediate change to corresponding tool paths. NCL is ideally suited for environments where design changes are frequent, such as the turbomachinery industry. NCL also supports full parametric programming where a family of parts can be machined by simply filling in a form. NCL is used extensively in the turbomachinery industry.

Elliott found that only a few systems on the market were capable of doing simultaneous 5-axis contouring and ultimately discovered that NCL multi-axis machining software from NCCS surpassed them all. With over $15 Million worth of equipment machining parts that can cost hundreds-of-thousands of dollars, programming errors were not an option. To eliminate these inefficiencies, the company purchases and installed the NCL package, trained their employees in the use of the software, and ultimately put it to use in less than 3 months.

NCL Features Speeds Programming

Like many companies, Elliott is pursuing lean manufacturing methods. Many aspects of NC programming are typically wasteful. Ideally you would like to program certain things only once, such as thread milling routines or other standard operations. With the purchase of NCL, the software now gives programmers the tools needed to quickly create complex programs, develop utilities automating routines and graphically verify the tool path ... before the program is sent to the machine. A valuable feature of NCL multi-axis machining software is it resembles an APT like language, which is a powerful language based core. According to Paul Rupnik, Programmer, "This powerful language enables us to manually create complex, 5-axis simultaneous programs easily".

A second valuable feature is its ability to develop macro routines for repetitive programming operations. "We are able to write labor saving macro programs to handle our common operations. Powerful utilities providing consistent, standardized code for the operators are created by using variable inputs and programming logic. As a result, these common routines reduce programming time, NC setup and dry run time, and bolster operator confidence", replies Paul Rupnik.

A third feature of NCL is the IPV (In-Process-Verification) option, an integrated numerical control simulation and verification module. NCL/IPV is a fast and accurate way to simulate the material removal process of NC tool paths. The user can instantly verify tool paths at any time during a NCL CAM session. It interactively simulates, verifies, and displays the metal removal process of NC tool paths as they are being created. During and after the metal removal process, the cut model can be viewed from any orientation, cross-sectioned, inspected, and compared to an existing solid model. In addition, NCL/IPV can verify existing tool paths from NCL or other CAM systems. NCL/IPV significantly reduces the need for costly tape prove-outs and insures accurate, efficient, and safe NC programs.