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Trenz Manufacturing has a history of exponential growth in product line, facilities, equipment, and staff spurred by the imagination of its president, Doug DiBerti, and the equally imaginative use of advances in CAD/CAM. Trenz is a premier provider of billet accessories for the automotive aftermarket and offers thousands of car customizers around the world a broad line of parts including exhaust tips, hitch covers, license plate frames, column kits, emblems, billet grills, dash kits, steering wheels, pedal kits, bumpers, and other products to trick up many cars and light trucks.
Starting production in 1992 on hand-tooled and assembled billet grills in a single small building with few people, the company branched out into replacement pedals and license plate holders. Trenz invested in its first seat of Mastercam and a mill to design and machine sculpted, polished aluminum “bow ties” to replace manufacturers’ grill emblems. Three more mills and a lathe were added to enable the addition of round parts like shifter handles to their production line. A seat of Mastercam Lathe was added, kicking off Trenz’ sharp growth curve toward its present shop with 82+ hands, worldwide distribution of 2,000 products, and online merchandising. Mastercam controls all operations, including the function of an ABB robot which welds grill parts 24 hours a day. The fixtures and clamping for the robotics are also Mastercam generated.
From its modest start, Trenz has currently built a 100,000 square foot major manufacturing facility. They have purchased additional mills, lathes, robots, and additional seats of Mastercam. “Mastercam allows us to draw anything we need; new accessories, machining fixtures, and customers’ own designs,” says Ernie Waldo, Trenz’ Chief Operating Officer. “It’s versatility and reliability give us bulletproof toolpaths for any of our machines, including our water jets.”
The speed gained from Mastercam’s associativity between CAD-drawn model changes and CAM toolpath generation gave Trenz the opportunity for development of a new line: the DeBerti 100% forged billet steering wheel line. In addition to 13 stock designs, customers can furnish their own patterns to order one-of-a-kind solid billet steering wheels for their street rods.
Often combining several lathe operations and up to six mill steps, each steering wheel begins as an outsourced forged blank cold pressed from solid aluminum to retain the purity and structural strength of the billet-pressed stock. The Trenz team created a Mastercam 3D drawing of the basic blank, oversized by 2” to accommodate a wide variety of potential styles, as well as custom designs, down the road.
Once received back at Trenz, each forging is turned in six lathe operations, using toolpaths generated from Mastercam 2D and 3D geometry into a rough steering wheel blank and shelved until needed. Trenz wheels feature an adapter integrally turned into each steering wheel avoiding visible attachment screws for a totally solid look.
When a custom design is ordered, a 2D CAD drawing of the customer’s design is created in Mastercam and impressed on the original surface files for the blank wheel. Since the minimum ID and maximum OD are known from the 2D drawing parameters, a Trenz technician easily and quickly wraps the 2D pattern onto the customizable 3D wheel surface using Mastercam’s “project” feature.
If changes are made in the design, Mastercam’s associativity updated the appropriate toolpath sections to reflect the alterations. “The associativity is the key to our design and manufacturing process,” Mr. Waldo notes. “Once we’ve got the tooling down, we can modify the part all day long without having to redefine all the machining parameters.
As Trenz expands and normal employee turnover occurs, technicians new to Mastercam readily adapt to the program. Says Mr. Waldo, “A person who might have began here as a machine operator can often start 2D toolpathing within one hour. Once we’ve taught the basics, programmers quickly become familiar with the tools and begin to apply Mastercam’s amazing number of toolpath generation options.” The program’s automatic recommendation of speeds and feeds also gets new programmers up to speed faster. “Our staff can readily save their own customized speeds and feeds,” notes Mr. Waldo, “and they can even save entire sets of predefined machining operations for application to an entirely different part. It really speeds things up.”
Since the steering wheel has already been turned to its general shape, much of the work remaining to create the final design is pocketing. The 3/8” ball mill is Trenz’ tool of choice, roughing the pockets in one or more passes depending upon the thickness of the blank wheel material at different points along the pattern. A single 3/8” finish pass leaves a completely beautiful finish.
Trenz offers the option of deep-machined finger grips on the back side of each stock DeBerti or customer-designed steering wheel. The 3D surface file is cross-sectioned and a pre-researched ergonomic 3D finger pattern is drawn for one grip. “Mastercam lets our programmer say, in effect, ‘I have one grip drawn; I want to make 40, and I want them to go from 0 to 360 in diameter.’ The grip pattern,” Mr. Waldo explains, “is thus replicated around the full rear-surface geometry.
Each steering wheel’s horn button bears the Trenz logo. Again, to maintain the integrity of styling, the solid, flat-backed button’s toolpath is generated from the original wheel surface geometry and turned from solid billet aluminum in two operations. “Trenz” in logotype, is engraved on the curved surface using a toolpath process similar to the creation of the wheel design itself. The logo has been drawn in 2D, “projected” onto the 3D button surface, and etched by an engraving tool.
To bring the product to its trademark finish, the wheel and the horn button are sandblasted, powder-coated, and hand-polished to a diamond-bright luster. It’s just what any car customizer is looking for! |