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2006-06-09 News Headlines

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Tooling for automotive mirror, an impossible deadline

Tooling, for an exterior automotive mirror by Schefenacker Vision Systems, is perfect and on time thanks to mouldmaker A F Gaskin and Delcam’s PowerMILL CAM software.

Faced with an "impossible” deadline for supplying a new exterior mirror for a passenger car, Schefenacker Vision Systems turned to A.F. Gaskin, its sole UK mouldmaker, to develop the tooling. In turn, A F Gaskin relied on its Delcam software to manufacture the moulds to meet both the time constraints and the high quality requirements of the project.

Schefenacker has unrivalled experience in the design and manufacture of interior and exterior mirrors for a large range of passenger car marques including Aston Martin, Ford, Land Rover, Jaguar, Volvo, Nissan and Toyota. Over the years, A.F. Gaskin had developed an excellent working partnership through close cooperation with Schefenacker that totally convinced the company that the timescales and quality parameters for the project were achievable.

"The time constraints imposed by our customer in giving a face-lift to the car meant that there was no time for prototype tools so the tooling had to work first time with no problems,” explained Tony Salisbury, New Tooling Manager at Schefenacker. "A.F. Gaskin was the only toolmaker in which we had the unqualified confidence to rely on to offer a solution that would help us secure the contract – and the company did not let us down.”

Mirror mould. Click Go for larger image. photo: Delcam

The complete job involved six mould tools – each with a left and right component – for a two-piece case with a coloured exterior to match the car colour, and for the first time, an LED turn-signal feature. "The tools were complicated in both design and manufacture,” said David Gaskin, M.D. of A.F. Gaskin. "A cut-out on the new design presented potential mould distortion issues, which we were able to overcome in our innovative tool design. The extra added value that we brought to the project was seen as a major benefit.”

With the help of Delcam’s PowerMILL CAM software and A.F. Gaskin’s high-speed, five-axis machine tools, the moulds were completed and shipped to Schefenacker on time. They went into production immediately to produce 300 mirrors for paint trials, which were perfect first time.

"There is no doubt that A.F. Gaskin saved the day in enabling us to fulfil this important contract by hitting all the targets,” concluded Mr. Salisbury. "The excellent service, on-time delivery, fast communication, unrivalled quality and all-round experience in toolmaking has totally vindicated my decision to retain them as our only UK supplier and I look forward to continuing this relationship for many years to come.”

Find information about Delcam.

Read a recent press release from Delcam about - 'Delcam is pleased to announce that Russia’s Rostvertol company, formally the Rostov Helicopter Plant, has become the 15,000th customer for its range of CADCAM software.'

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