Faced with an ever-increasing demand for more complex machined surfaces, Maidenhead-based motor sports supplier, Hewland Engineering, decided that to achieve the best off-line programming solution was to invest in Edgecam, by Pathtrace of Reading, the market- leading CAM system. Hewland Engineering, which produces high quality gearboxes for motor sports teams, manufacturers all its components in-house. A long term investment programme has seen the purchase of the very latest machine tool technology, which includes more than ?3 million of gear cutting equipment over the past three years While shafts for its gearboxes are produced on the company's three-axis lathe, it was the increasing complexity of prismatic components that generated the need for the investment in the Edgecam system.

Machining centres operated by Hewland include a Matsurra, a Kira and OKK's fitted with rotary trunnions to provide a fourth-axis capability.

All CNC programming is carried out off-line, as production engineer, Michael Mack, explains: 'As the parts we produce become more complicated, the programming time also increases.

In our market, we cannot afford to stand still, and we must keep our machine tool spindles producing for the maximum amount of time which means we must program off-line.

Edgecam, with its advanced surface modelling capability, has enabled us to achieve this objective,' he maintains.

The Edgecam system has been installed to replace an existing CAM system.

Says Michael Mack: 'The software was readily accepted by our programming staff and the back-up and support from Pathtrace has been first rate.

Pathtrace wrote the post processor to suit our lathes but subsequently we have written the others.