CompositesWorld
Issue link: https://cw.epubxp.com/i/882089
OCTOBER 2017 44 CompositesWorld FOCUS ON DESIGN Lightweighting speed into CNC machining Drawing on a long history in composites manufacturing and CNC machining, this innovator turns to carbon fiber composites to reduce gantry component weight and increase shaping efficiency. ยป Dan Bolfing has taken a circuitous career route from world- class windsurf board manufacturer to CNC machine manufac- turer. But the path between those callings is clear in hindsight. His surfboard-making dates to the early 1990s. Over time, he saw the increasing application of advanced composites to surfboards, to make them lighter, stronger and more durable. In the late 1990s, says Bolfing, he was living in Maui, HI, US, building windsurf boards and kiteboards and looking for afford- able CNC technology to help speed up the previously manual process of shaping tooling board into molds for those evolving composite surfboard designs. He ran across an article in Compos- ites Technology magazine (a predecessor of CompositesWorld) about CNC machining of composites and, as a result, invested in a ShopBot (Durham, NC, US) router. e simplicity and effi- ciency of that router, says Bolfing, "changed my life. It gave a small company access to Fortune 500 technology." Yet, as capable as the ShopBot router was, Bolfing says he also started modifying it as soon as it was installed. at process taught him much about how CNC technology might be improved to make it more effi- cient, flexible and affordable. Re-routing of career choice In 2004, Bolfing suffered a serious injury and spent the next five years in recovery. He used that time to teach himself basic programming, and how to use CAD/CAM software. He also made plans for the rest of his life, which included relocation to the US mainland to launch a car company that would manufacture electric vehicles. Because Bolfing needed a CNC machine for this effort but could not afford one, he built his own. As he used that machine to build structures for his car, he did contract machining on the side to earn money. He quickly saw the advantage of a bigger machine: "I built another, larger machine and sold my older one," he says. "I soon Low mass reduces inertia Autoscale's Monster cgr-series CNC machine, designed to process foam, tooling board and lightweight metals, features a gantry, z-axis carrier and z-axis arm fabricated of carbon fiber/epoxy. The design saves 90% in weight, compared to a steel version and, as a result, the machine cuts twice as fast. Source (all photos) | Autoscale LLC Inc. By Jeff Sloan / Editor-in-Chief