Taking advantage of current trends in the aerospace industry and investing in the right technology is how this new start-up has achieved success. In the early 1990's, prime aerospace companies began trimming their vendor lists to encompass only those that met stringent requirements. Those requirements included competitive rates, quality control, and on-time delivery.

At the same time, to reduce costs and become more efficient, the primes began to de-emphasize their own metal cutting capabilities and began purchasing additional finished parts from their newly reorganized vendor list. These shops had demonstrated that they could deliver quality parts, on-time, and at a cheaper price than the primes could produce internally. Some primes began to dismantle their large production shops and sell off vast quantities of metal working equipment, including huge five-axis, multi-spindle skin mills. Then came a boom in commercial aircraft orders.

Michael Rapacz and Jim Showalter, very experienced in NC programming and managing thought that this could develop into an opportunity. They saw the aerospace business entering an upswing and that the cuts by the primes had been too deep to handle the new production requirements. They began to think of ways to open a new shop to capitalize on the coming opportunity. They asked themselves what customers look for in their suppliers:

• Specialized Services
• On-time Delivery
• Quality Control
• Competitive Rates

They knew that the best way to get into the business was to buy an existing shop. Rapacz and Showalter began an exhausting search. They eventually found a shop in a modern building in a state of the art industrial complex. The machinery was somewhat antiquated but included the ancillary equipment needed to support a shop. A long term agreement was reached whereby they would initially occupy space in the building and eventually assume ownership. Thus was born Pacific Contours in Anaheim, CA.

Insufficient capital is the element that separates most budding entrepreneurs from achieving their goals. Rapacz drew on every one of his personal assets for the needed capital. After careful consideration he placed orders to lease five machining centers; 1)Fadal KCV4020 3-axis 2)Fadal KCV4020 4-axis 3)SNK PC60V 5-axis 4)OKK High Speed KCV-600 (13,000 RPM, 120" X) and 5)Okuma & Howa 852 5-axis.

The next step was to put into place a capable CAD/CAM solution. Although Rapacz is a very experienced programmer, his initial plan was to sub-contract the programming. The outside programming costs would be expensed directly to the job. This would conserve the capital needed to acquire a programming system in the future. The programs they received were good but they did not have enough control over the methods employed and completion times.

They had been given an opportunity to prove themselves with a new customer. The project was hot and fresh from engineering. Engineering changes were being issued at a rapid rate that the outside programming service could not keep pace with. Pacific Contours desperately wanted to satisfy the customer and could not afford to have the machines sit idle waiting for revised programs. The time had come to invest in an in-house CAD/CAM system. They needed a system that could help meet their goals of on-time delivery, quality, and yet still remain competitive.

They selected NCL multi-axis machining software from Numerical Control Computer Sciences (NCCS) of Irvine, CA. NCL is the system of choice for users that have a need that extends to the most complex of five axis parts. NCL is a powerful Computer-Aided Manufacturing system 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 aerospace 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 aerospace, turbomachinery, power generation, and composite industries.

"It is Pacific Contours’ intention to never have to back away from a job because of complexity. NCL has the largest repertoire of five axis control modes, provides absolute control of each discrete move, and is a mature, proven system. The discrete control of the cutting motion is critical for successful programming of our High Speed OKK. At the very high feed rates of this machine it can be catastrophic if you do not control each move of the cutter. NCL allows programmer control of the entry, exit, and step-over moves as well as any or all of the moves in between", said Rapacz.

Pacific Contours placed an order for the NCL system on an expedited basis. The system was installed and Rapacz set up the necessary postprocessor using NCCS’ universal postprocessor PostWorks. PostWorks is a universal 2 through 10-axis postprocessor and postprocessor generator. PostWorks converts output from most major CAM systems (including CATIA CL files) into NC data files which can be used to run virtually any NC device including mills, lathes, EDMs, lasers, CMMs, Mill-Turns, ultrasonic cutters, and routers. A simple Motif-style interface enables the user to easily establish machine configurations, control unit features, and output file formats. PostWorks automatically creates a solid model of the machine and dynamically simulates the machine’s movement. PostWorks also provides a comprehensive macro language for easy customization. PostWorks is proven technology used across the manufacturing spectrum and is a cost-effective replacement to existing mainframe-based postprocessors.

Now Rapacz could finish the job that was started by loading the customer’s changes via an IGES file into his existing NCL model. In NCL, geometry and cutter motion is associative so it was a simple matter to make the changes necessary by the Engineering changes. When the geometric model changes, the tool paths are automatically updated, thus significantly reducing turn around time when design changes are made.

To insure that the changes were correct, the NC program was simulated using NCL/IPV. NCL/IPV is a verification program that simulates the metal removal process right on the computer screen. IPV stands for In-Process-Verification. It allows verification during the programming cycle, operation by operation, instead of at the completion of a program as is usually done with traditional verification systems and tool prove outs.

Pacific Contours delivered the finished product and gained a reputation as a "can-do" company from this customer. After a little more than one year in business, Pacific Contours attended ceremonies at a division of The Boeing Company where they were given a presentation and named to their ‘Preferred Supplier’ list.

Foresight, investment in the right CNC equipment, and a powerful CAD/CAM solution has assured this start-up continued success.