May 2019

Mill-Turn Machine Programs Save
Time and Money for Oil Industry
Seismic Instrument Maker
Since 1980, Geospace Technologies has been developing innovative products for thepetroleum industry for land-to-deep sea systems for seismic data acquisition.
Since 1980, GeoSpace Technologies (Houston, TX) has been developing innovative
products for the petroleum industry, including geophones, printheads, and land-to-deepsea systems for seismic data acquisition. Seismic data acquisition, in particular, has
become one of the most commonly used technologies in the petroleum industry tosearch for subsurface oil and gas. Designing and manufacturing innovative scientificinstrumentation and equipment are at the heart of every GeoSpace project.

Programming used to be adifficult and sore subject for
us here, we now have a mucheasier way of getting things
programmed especially whena machine is busy withanother part. Now we can goback to ESPRIT, re-post to a
new machine and get runningon the machine right away.
Justin Henry, Machine Shop Manager© 2019 DP Technology Corp. All right reserved.

With GeoSpace’s seismic equipment, sound data is collected to create maps of theearth’s subsurface, which allows oil and gas companies to search for potential orexisting oil- and gas-bearing formations. For the oil industry, efficiently finding anddeveloping hydrocarbon resources is essential. As the search for oil and gas deposits
continues, perfecting the art of seismic data collection and subsurface mapping has
become one of the most commonly used technologies in the petroleum industry. And
the need for accurate and cost-effective technology continues to grow.
That’s where GeoSpace Technologies comes in. Geoscientists have come to rely on
their instruments and equipment to keep that data flowing – and to do so in newer andbetter ways. Efficiency and reliability are the keys to success, both for GeoSpaceTechnologies and for the petroleum companies that rely on them. Tight delivery
schedules are another key factor for this industry. For example, it might cost up to $300
thousand per day for a company to charter a large ship for a geological survey. Forcing
the ship to sit at the dock waiting for equipment to be delivered is not acceptable.
For GeoSpace Technologies, these constraints mean they could not rely on external
manufacturing suppliers—especially overseas suppliers—that have their own priorities
and can’t always be relied on for on-time deliveries. GeoSpace Technologies
overcomes this challenge by producing a majority of its products and their components

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under its own roof. The company employs over 200 manufacturing employees who build
molds, perform injection molding, build printed circuit boards, make machined metal andplastic components, and perform many other manufacturing operations.
GeoSpace has 33 CNC machine tools as well as many manual machines and auxiliary
equipment. The company has recently invested in newer, more advanced machinery,including a Citizen Miyano Machinery ABX-51TH3, with an upper turret on the left side,
one on the right side, and a lower turret capable of working on both sides.

Alejandro Perez, programmer, programming theend bell on ESPRIT.

The manufacturing engineers at GeoSpace Technologies initially programmed themachine with the CAM software they had been using for years, but ran into difficulties
while trying to take full advantage of the machine’s capabilities. For example, ensuring
complete use of the machine’s three turrets was complicated by the fact that simply
moving an operation from one turret to another often required starting the program fromscratch.
Justin Henry, manufacturing manager for GeoSpace Technologies, was tasked with thechallenge of improving the efficiency of the company’s manufacturing options. His toppriority was upgrading the company’s CAM software. Boosting efficiency withmultitasking machinings, like mill-turn and Swiss-type turning, was key. Henry says, “I
looked at a few of the market leaders and selected ESPRIT from DP Technology
because it provides the best support I have seen for advanced machines.”

Finished end bells with electronics.

ESPRIT reseller, Victor Davila of Shape Design, was brought in to assist. Davila notes,“We helped GeoSpace by showing them what they could achieve with ESPRIT. When
we met them, they had great machines and employees. One part was missing. They
were held back by inefficient CAM software. Getting more efficient, newer machines
made this bottleneck more visible. I told them they could write code and take it to themachine and run good parts the first time.”After training on the new software, Henry focused on improving the program to produce
a part called an end bell for the company’s OBX product. While doing seismic mapping,
this part protects electronic components from the deep-water pressure on the ocean
floor with the use of six O-ring seals. Too complex to be injection molded, the end bells
are machined from plastic at a rate of almost 50,000 per year.

The final sensor. At the top is the plastic version
for shallow water. At the bottom is the titanium
version for deep ocean water.

The GeoSpace Technologies’ programmer opened the Solidworks solid model of thepart in ESPRIT and used the software’s automatic feature recognition component toidentify the machining operations required to produce it. In a few cases, Henry manuallycreated features based on his own ideas on how the part should be produced. For
example, he combined a bore and a counterbore into a single feature so that both could
be produced with a single tool.
“We decided to flip the part around front to back in the machine because it is easier todeploy two spindles on the front side of the part, which also has most machining
operations,” Henry said. The programmer set about assigning machining operations tomaximize turret utilization. For example, originally, two radial drilled and tapped holes
were produced one after another by a single turret. With the new software system, they
are now machined simultaneously on the front side of the machine by two synchedturrets.
An axial through-hole with several steps was previously drilled and bored with four
different tools. The programmer changed this so that after the hole is drilled, a single
carbide insert tool is held in the positions to bore all the steps while the part rotates. Thenew approach saves considerable cycle time by reducing the number of tool changes.

DP Technology Corp.
1150 Avenida Acaso
Camarillo, CA93012 USA
espritcam.com
esprit@dptechnology.com© 2019 DP Technology Corp. All right reserved.

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The programmer also adjusted cutting speeds and feeds to take full advantage of thecapabilities of the tooling. The new speeds and feeds were tested and tweaked on themachine, and the final parameters were transferred into the final CNC program.
Overall, the new program reduced the cycle time for producing the part on the ABXmachine from 22 minutes to 6.5 minutes, saving GeoSpace Technologies both time andmoney. Building on this success, the programmers used ESPRIT to reprogram anassortment of additional parts for the ABX machine and achieved even greater savings.
The time savings also came from the ability to do time studies within the software. The
older software did not provide an accurate picture of run times until the part was test runon the machine. ESPRIT software, however, provides them with a report that shows
how long the tool will be in the cut. Knowing that a tool actually takes 2 minutes to run
instead of 10 allows for more accurate job planning and cost reporting.
In addition to more accurate job time estimates, ESPRIT allows GeoSpace engineers toaccurately depict within the software how a program will run when creating or modifying
a new tool. Avoiding collisions and syncing between turrets, for instance, can all besimulated in real time with a click of a button. With other systems, the syncs don’talways match what you see in the machine. Instead, time and materials must be wasted
while proving out the program on the machine tool.
ESPRIT “made it possible to move operations from turret to turret or setting sync points
with a few clicks of the mouse,” Henry said. Now, with more accurate syncs possible,
even greater efficiencies could be found.
Control is everything when you’re programming and process planning. ESPRIT software
was the clear choice for GeoSpace Technologies. While there are several reasons
GeoSpace chose ESPRIT for their machinery needs, one of the main reasons is “thepower and control that ESPRIT gives you. With ESPRIT, you have control over the tool
to do whatever you want to do.” ESPRIT is completely customizable to meet the uniqueand changing needs of manufacturers and machine tool builders. “Most CAM software
don’t let you do that,” says Davila.
ESPRIT is a powerful, full-spectrum CAM system for CNC programming, optimization,and simulation — supporting the entire manufacturing process from CAD file tomachined part. With factory-certified post processors delivering machine-optimized
G-code, ESPRIT is the smart manufacturing solution for any machining application.
“ESPRIT has given us the ability to quickly adapt and improve our CNC programs for
multitasking machines,” Henry concluded. “We have achieved substantial savings by
combining processes into a leaner approach, dividing operations to more efficiently
utilize all machine spindles and turrets, reduce the number of tool changes required,and make many other improvements.”
When you combine these benefits with world-class technical support that allows
programmers to get started quickly and keep running at top efficiency, it’s clear thatESPRIT is the only CAM software for customers like GeoSpace. With ESPRIT’s
continuously evolving features, GeoSpace Technologies is set to continue to develop
value-driven, innovative, and effective products and services for their clients.

DP Technology Corp.
1150 Avenida Acaso
Camarillo, CA93012 USA
espritcam.com
esprit@dptechnology.com© 2019 DP Technology Corp. All right reserved.

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