34′ Boat Direct Molds for European Client

It is refeshing to see there are still some folks out there who are confident in their financial position such that they are able to place orders for products that will support small businesses and their employees. In today’s socio-economic climate, often times financially secure people are vilified, but it is these same people who spend money and keep ‘the little guy’ in business. A whole myriad of local suppliers and their employees are the beneficiaries of these investments. We, at Janseneering are very pleased to have been selected to fabricate direct, limited production molds for the hull, deck and other parts for a 34′ tender destined for Europe.

This project is a perfect opportunity to show you some of our steps involved in making a part with 5-axis CNC milling machines. There is a lot of background effort even before we start physical work. 3D Computer Aided Design (CAD) files are created that digitally represent what the final product will look like. We use this model to create and cut frames kits that are then erected on a structural base.

The layout of the frames and longitudinals can be quite detailed and if we were to do this by hand, it would take some time. We take the 3D CAD file and engrave a ‘footprint’ onto the wooden base top that locates where the frames and longitudinals will be mounted. This greatly speeds up and facilitates the erection process.

Janseneering has three 5-axis CNC machines and the small one, with the use of a vacuum hold down table, is used to cut the frames from lumber goods. We take the CAD file frames and longitudinals and nest them into sheets of wood to efficiently use the most material and waste as little as possible.

This is when and where the project starts to look like something. Amongst these structural shapes you can start to see the shape of the hull mold. The accuracy and speed of the CNC process is difficult to duplicate with hand methods. The mold will be accurate, fair and symetrical from port to starboard. It will be true to its designed lines because everything is using the original 3D CAD file as the basis for assembly and production. More on this project as it unfolds. Please stop back as we get ready for 5-axis CNC work.

The Landing School LS-20

The Landing School of Arundel, ME is renowned for its curriculum established to provide the highest quality hands-on training in boat building. Their latest project is a 20′ long sailboat that started with the school doing the design. At that point they looked at the options for fabricating the tooling. The school has many hours of hand built experience but the faculty elected to expose the students to the latest technology, that of 5-axis CNC plug making.

Janseneering’s engineers spent time with Naval Architect and Continuing Education Program Manager Ken Rusinek to best determine how to layout the hull and deck plugs and best utilize the time and talents of the faculty and students. How would the students get the best training, knowledge base and experience? It was decided that Janseneering would supply the hull plug as a split down the center plug, with the two halves integrating male/female alignment devices. This would ensure a perfect fit when the separately laminated hull molds were joined together. Without the precision of the CAD file and 5-axis CNC machine, this would have been a very difficult tooling step to accomplish.

The deck plug was supplied as a single piece but incorporating hatches, lockers and other intricate details. Both plugs were supplied ‘as is, straight off the CNC machine’ and needed pinholes filled, sanding and primer paint. The students were able to experience the joys of final fairing and sanding, an experience I am sure will be well remembered. At last word, the plugs have been finished and molds have been successfully cast from them. To find out more about this project as well as The Landing School, please visit their website where you will find lots of good things going on.

We are still here.

It has been a while since we posted anything. That is not because we were sitting around twiddling our thumbs, but rather, Janseneering has been quite busy with a very large project that required many one-off molds. As exciting and enjoyable as this project is, Janseneering has signed a non-disclosure agreement with our client and is not able to share any information, pictures, or even divulge what industry segment this project belongs to. Suffice it to say, and please take it on our word, that we are very proud of the molds and tooling we have delivered. For much of the time, all three of our 5-axis CNC machines have been cutting away creating molds from very simplistic concepts to quite complicated, highly accurate molds. This project is winding down and we have been involved with other 5-axis CNC work, and we will show case it in the near future.

Janseneering signs many non-disclosure agreements with clients who require anonymity. We respect and honor that request. Unfortunately, it also means we are not able to share with our readers many very exciting and interesting projects that showcase our abilities and the talents of Janseneering’s employees. We have worked on some pretty significant projects that you may come across but will most likely never know we were involved.

Custom Architectural Door Opening Head Casing Redux

The inside and outside head casings for this custom curved door turned out to be absolutely stunning, and that is before they are final sanded, fit to the door and given a final finish coat. We started with glued up pieces of 16/4 mahogany that were mapped out to fit the casing without excess waste, being careful to be sure grain direction and wood quality matched as closely as possible. The first CNC step was to rough the surrounding wood away – it is very difficult to achive a dimensionally accurate and smooth surface if you try to go to a finish cut right away. We use 3-axis machining for this step since it is easy to program and works well, and we rough to within 0.100″ of the final surface.

The final cut is made with a variety of end mills, depending upon what the corners and profiles look like.

 

 

 

 

 

The below picture shows the outside casing on the left, with the smaller inside casing behind it. The compound curve, required because the head casing not only formed an arch but also fits to a curved door, would be close to impossible to make with a full 3-axis CNC cut. The flexibilty and accuracy of the 5-axis CNC produced a dimensionally accurate part that will miter exactly into the door’s side casing.

In addition to making custom wooden mouldings Janseneering also is able to make curved staircase handrails with elaborate shapes and profiles.

Accoustical Horn

Prior to being sent aloft as a payload on a launch vehicle such as the space shuttle, electronics components and devices are tested to be sure they can withstand the extreme noise and vibrations that occur during lift off and the ride to the outer atmosphere. To replicate these conditions, accoustical firms subject the components to extremely low vibrations. A client was in need of a very large core over which reinforcements and resin would be laid. We fabricated to their 3D CAD file a multipart foam core that was broken down and shipped in crates. The accuracy of the 5-axis CNC allowed the client to accurately assemble the core such that the desired tonal quality and frequency was exactly as specified.

Historical Architectural Restoration

A local wood worker was faced with a dilemma when he was tasked with re-creating several tapered fluted columns for an historical restoration project. The columns were works of art and you could tell by the spoon chisel marks that the tapered column and flutes were painstakingly crafted over 100 years ago by a dedicated woodworker. Our modern day artisan could have faithfully reproduced the part but it would have taken lots of layout and a long time. Janseneering created a 3D model of the column and machined the columns on the 5-axis CNC machines. The detail and short turnaround time exceeded the wood worker’s most optimistic expectations and he was able to install them ahead of schedule.

Zaha Hadid Sculpture

I guess an article without a picture is just that, so here is a representative picture of the cluster of parts Janseneering fabricated in collaboration with Custom Composite Technologies to make the 18 parts that went into the Zaha Hadid designed and executed Stalactite project. It really helps to have people in it to get an idea as to the scale of the project.

KaMeWa Waterjet Tunnels

The flow of water from the bottom of the hull into the waterjet propulsion system and out of the transom of a hull is very critical. This was especially important for a new carbon fiber U.S. Navy SEALs’ high-speed, medium-range insertion and extraction vehicle. Engineers faced a tooling challenge in the manufacture of the lightweight but complex carbon fiber-reinforced composite tunnels that supply water from the bottom of the MAKO patrol boat’s hull to the impellers of its KaMeWa waterjet propulsion system . Each was to be a monocoque that included the hull interface flanges where water enters the tunnel, the tunnel itself and the transom flange where water exits. Further, the inside surfaces of the tunnels needed to be smooth and very fair to optimize water flow.

A 3D CAD model was built to define each tunnel’s inner surfaces based on the hydrostatic and fluid dynamic calculations that determined optimum design and performance. Using this CAD file, Janseneering 5-axis CNC cut the male molds for the tunnels. Due to the complexity of undercuts and shapes involved, the mold for each tunnel was fabricated in several pieces and then assembled into a single tool. The accuracy of the CAD model and CNC machining process ensured that the pieces would fit perfectly together, maintaining the designed shape and fairness. Once the tunnels were fully laminated, the multipiece foam tool was removed from inside the tunnels. The tunnels then were placed into the hull where they fit accurately to the hull bottom and vertical transom.

Maine Boatbuilders Show

Don’t forget to mark your calendar for March 20-21, 2009 for attending the Maine Boatbuilders Show in Portland, ME. This annual show highlights many of Maine’s marine trade businesses and is a great confluence of boatbuilders, suppliers, vendors, boat yards and service facilities. Janseneering will have a presence and will highlight recent projects such as hull and deck plugs, waterjet tunnel molds, sculptural and art pieces. These projects all entail some usage of the 5 axis and 3 axis capabilties of our CNC machines used to support the marine, architectural, artistic, transportation, infrastructure, wind energy, automotive, woodworking and other industries.

Custom One Off Molds

Working with Custom Composite Technologies of Bath, Maine, we machined, on the 5 axis CNC machines, direct one off molds for several carbon/epoxy parts such as equipment platforms and the funnel. Burke Design performed the engineering for a series of composite parts installed on Sycara, a 151 ft. classic fantail cruiser under construction at Burger Boat Company in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.