Product category:
Software, off-line programming, CAM, for metal cutting machine tools
News Release from: Delcam | Subject: PowerMILL CAM software
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 16 January 2004
Latest 5-axis machining software
demonstrated
How the latest five-axis machining techniques, with exceptional calculation speed and versatile toolpath editing, can shorten lead times, will be demonstrated 'live' on a CNC miller at a US show.
Delcam will demonstrate the latest five-axis machining techniques in its PowerMILL CAM software on booth 2745 at the Westec Exhibition in Los Angeles, California from March 22- 25, 2004 Visitors will be shown how PowerMILL's exceptional calculation speed and versatile toolpath editing can shorten lead times, as will also be able to see live machining demonstrations on a Hermle C30U milling machine
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 27 Feb 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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Australian company Nepean Engineering has seen benefits in both its toolmaking and engineering businesses since it adopted Delcam's PowerMILL CAM software.
These practical demonstrations will reinforce Delcam's long-established tradition of providing software that produces toolpaths that are not only mathematically correct but which also run efficiently on the machine tool.
Delcam's latest release, PowerMILL 5, continues to expand and improve on the strategies available for complex five-axis machining projects.
For example, secondary axis limiting has been added to ensure that the program generated will not attempt to move outside any limits in the machine tool's range of movement.
Further reading
Software gives yacht designers more freedom
The addition of Delcam's PowerMill CAM software has given designers at the Viking Yacht Company increased freedom to create new advanced aesthetic features.
Software puts motorcyclists into five axes
Delcam's PowerMILL CAM software has helped the Proton KR motorcycle team to move successfully into five-axis machining, a change that has brought huge benefits.
Contact point analysis allows the user to ensure that only the cutting surface touches the component and that rubbing with the shank is avoided, while contact point feed rate control enables the feed rate to be set based on the cutting speed rather than the rotation rate of the tool tip.
This last enhancement is of great importance when cutting some of the more difficult materials found in the aerospace industry.
Five-axis drilling has also been improved to give faster drilling, more comprehensive hole recognition (from a wider range of CAD systems) and automatic capping of holes to prevent the milling cutter entering them.
PowerMILL 5 also has the ability to ignore surfaces that are not required for a particular calculation.
This option can be helpful when machining products like aerospace blisks, where the same shape needs to be duplicated a number of times within the component.
The user can select the surfaces making up the feature and instruct PowerMILL to ignore the remainder of the model.
The toolpaths generated can then be checked for collisions with the rest of the model and once any necessary adjustments have been made, they are copied around the model to produce the complete machining program.
Further information on all these developments can be found in Delcam's free guide to high-speed and five-axis machining. Request a free brochure from Delcam ...
Companies not attending the exhibition can obtain a copy of the Delcam guide by visiting the Delcam web site.
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