A demonstration of Delcam’s Vortex high-efficiency area-clearance strategy was one of the highlights of a two-day Grand Opening Open House hosted during November by the Montreal division of EMEC Machine Tools at the company’s new, expanded showroom.
The demonstration was carried out on an Okuma GENOS vertical machining centre using the Vortex strategy in Delcam’s PowerMILL CAM system for high-speed and five-axis machining. Other live demonstrations during the event were performed on an Okuma horizontal lathe and a Tsugami 5AX lathe.
The Vortex strategy gives the fastest safe metal removal from solid carbide tooling, in particular designs that give deeper cuts by using the full flute length as the cutting surface. It can be used for two- and three-axis roughing, three-plus-two-axis area clearance and for rest machining. It gives benefits when machining all types of materials, including titanium, tool steel and alloys such as Inconel.
Vortex produces toolpaths with a controlled engagement angle and so maintains the optimum cutting conditions for the toolpath that would normally be possible only for the straight-line moves. As a result, higher feed rates are possible so the cutting time is shorter, while cutting is undertaken at a more consistent volume-removal rate and at a constant feedrate, so protecting the machine.
The constant feedrate achieved with Vortex is a fundamental difference from other high-speed roughing techniques. Trials at Delcam have shown that this approach is more reliable as it can often be difficult to predict exactly how machine tools will react to changing feedrates.
Vortex also uses a minimum radius parameter, calculated to make sure that the machine tool can maintain the cutting feedrate in corners and, more generally, for any non-straight part of the toolpath. This makes the cutting process more predictable since the machine should run at the programmed feedrate throughout and not slow down in the way that it could on other kinds of area-clearance toolpath.
