The latest video added to the Delcam.tv website shows the high metal-removal rates that are possible with the Vortex high-efficiency area-clearance strategy in Delcam’s PowerMILL CAM system for high-speed and five-axis machining. The demonstration shows Vortex in use on a DMG 65 monoBLOCK five-axis machining centre fitted with Seco tooling. Other strategies shown in the video include five-axis drilling, sawmill slot milling and five-axis engraving.
To watch the video, please go to www.delcam.tv/DMGMORI
Delcam’s Vortex strategy gives the fastest safe metal removal from solid carbide tooling, in particular from designs that give deeper cuts by using the full flute length as the cutting surface. The strategy, which is also included in Delcam’s FeatureCAM feature-based machining software and the PartMaker system for the programming of turn-mill equipment and Swiss-type lathes, can be used for two- and three-axis roughing, three-plus-two-axis area clearance and for rest machining. It gives significant time savings regardless of the material being machined, whether that be titanium, tool steel or alloys such as Inconel.
Vortex produces toolpaths with a controlled engagement angle to maintain the optimum cutting conditions for the toolpath that would only be possible only for the straight-line moves with conventional roughing. As a result, much higher feedrates are possible so the cutting time is far shorter, while cutting is undertaken at a more consistent volume-removal rate and at an almost constant feedrate, so protecting the spindle and the machine.
The consistent feedrate possible with Vortex is a fundamental difference from other high-speed roughing techniques. Delcam has performed trials showing that this approach gives more reliable results as it can often be difficult to predict exactly how machine tools will react to constantly 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 again 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.
The control of the engagement angle that is possible with the Vortex strategy also makes the performance of the tool more predictable because it is operating closer to the optimum cutting conditions associated with a straight-line cut. This means that it is easier to adjust the feeds and speeds being used to machine a particular part such that a tool can be relied on to cut, for example, ten components before it needs to be changed. A tool change can then be added into the program where appropriate so that lights-out machining can be undertaken safely and consistently on a long series of parts, either overnight or across a weekend.
