Irish company set up to market digitising software

Rathnew Scientific is a new Irish company that has been specifically set up to market and provide support throughout Ireland for Renishaw's sophisticated digitising equipment software.

Rathnew Scientific is a new Irish company that has been specifically set up to market and provide support throughout Ireland for Renishaw's sophisticated digitising equipment software.

Although a new company, Managing Director Andrew Galt is no stranger to Renishaw's extensive range of metrology systems.

He was previously employed by Renishaw for nearly ten years before moving to Ireland.

Primarily concentrating on digitising equipment sales, the company is also able to offer services such as sub-contract digitising, CADCAM services, and CNC machine tool error checking and calibration.

We can provide you with a digitising system to suit your particular need.

There are three main hardware systems, one is a dedicated machine, the other two are systems that can be retrofitted to your existing CNC milling machine.

All systems use analogue contact probes, additionally, the Cyclone has a non-contact laser probe option.

Once in operation all systems are fully automatic, have features which mean you can safely leave the machine to run unmanned.

Whichever system you choose, all run under the same Renishaw "Tracecut" software.

This provides you with the user interface to set up digitising parameters, manipulate the data, create an output.

The output can be either a variety of CAD formats, or using the powerful CAM features within Tracecut, a CNC programme for any type of controller.

You can also measure the dimensions of your finished components print out an inspection report.

You could also choose to have the "Tracesurf" module, this will enable you to create IGES CAD surfaces from your digitised data.

The Cyclone is a dedicated digitising and measuring machine.

It has a standard working envelope of 600 x 500 x 400mm (X,Y,Z) and is particularly suited to fine detail work.

The Cyclone can use either a contact analogue probe or a laser non-contact probe.

It can be used in an office or workshop environment.

It has many different applications and currently there are over 1,500 machines installed worldwide employed on such diverse industries as footwear, jewellery, turbine blades, moulds dies, automotives, coins and medals.

Renscan is an enhanced version of the popular Retroscan system can be retrofitted to your CNC milling machine.

This means that you can digitise patterns that are as big as the axis travels of your machine tool.

Once fitted you can easily switch between digitising and machining, simply by exchanging the spindle mounted probe for a cutting tool.

The digitised data is not specific to the CNC which means you can digitise on one machine and create a CNC programme for another.

Retroscan is an "entry-level" system that can be retrofitted to your CNC milling machine.

It is an ideal system if you have only an occasional digitising requirement.

The tool shape, diameter machining path can be totally independent of the stylus diameter scan path used for digitising.

Like all Renishaw digitising systems it uses the same Tracecut software, which means that you have the same software functionality as the higher-level systems.

Tracecut is much more than just a data capture system.

It provides the user interface for setting up digitising parameters enables you to manipulate data then create a CNC programme or CAD output.

It also features a dimensioning module which gives you the ability to measure components and print out an inspection report.

There are also other application specific modules for turbine blade refurbishment IGES surface generation.

Tracecut enables you to define planes align axes has a full range of datum functions which means that you can set up jobs rapidly easily without the need for complex fixtures.

A wide variety of 2D 3D data capture methods are available:- X, Y, Angled, Radial etc.

Tracecut gives you the power to manipulate digitised data in many ways:- Male to Female; Scale by different factors in X,Y,Z; Triple zone scaling e.g for footwear; Merge models; Combine models for multi-impression tools, etc and Create split-line / parting face.

Tracecut breaks the traditional copy milling link between stylus cutter.

You can create your CNC programme, with the tool shape, diameter machining path being totally independent of the stylus diameter scan path used for digitising.

You can apply a negative or positive offset to the surface to allow for a spark gap or material thickness.

You can create any number of roughing, semi-finishing, finishing passes.

Area clearance of stock from solid is carried out automatically.

You can choose from a variety of cutter path strategies:- X-axis parallel; Y-axis parallel; Any Angle; Terrace (Z level machining); Spiral and Radial.

Toolpaths can be constrained from certain areas with 2D profiles.

Post-processor files to suit virtually every CNC on the market are part of the Tracecut package.

A variety of CAD points output formats such as DXF, IGES, VDA, ASCII are available.

Tracesurf is an option that gives you the ability to create STL (triangle), and IGES CAD surface files from digitised point cloud data.

This can be very useful when you require to update a CAD model according to a physical pattern that has been modified in some way.

(This was Manufacturingtalk's Top Story on 12 February 2002).

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