CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
23 March 2009
Product News
For the Well-Being of the Patient: CAM Solutions from OPEN MIND
Products for the medical industry benefit from the high manufacturing quality offered by hyperMILL® – injection moulds for medical products as well as implants made from hard metal or titanium, for example. The high-precision machining offered by OPEN MIND Technologies AG’s CAM solution is essential for achieving the high surface quality that is crucial for the compatibility of implants. The fully automated hyperDENT® programming system is available to users in the dental industry.
OPEN MIND’s software package offers an extensive range of machining operations for use in medical engineering that are particularly useful for the complex milling and mill/turn processes required for implants as well as the manufacture of injection moulds. hyperMILL®’s 5axis technology enables the use of shorter and therefore more stable tools. Improved cutting conditions and less risk of chatter and tool breakage translate into better milling results. Tool wear can also be reduced to increase the performance of the machining process.
Milling in 5axis simultaneous machining avoids approach and retraction marks often found in 3+2 machining. The comprehensive 5axis strategies provided by OPEN MIND’s solution, such as 5axis swarf cutting with barrel-shaped tools, result in a significant reduction in machining times. Furthermore, the precision and high finish of the machined free-form surfaces created by hyperMILL® reduce the often expensive and time-intensive manual rework to a minimum. The CAM solution thus combines a high level of performance and machining efficiency with an excellent surface quality of the individually manufactured product, which is crucial for ensuring the compatibility of implants in the human body.
hyperMILL®: Integrated all-round solution for medical engineering
Widely used standard CAD interfaces and direct interfaces allow CAD data imports to hyperMILL® from CATIA V4® and CATIA V5®, Pro/ENGINEER®, NX™, Parasolid® and SolidWorks®, for example. The CAD-integrated hyperMILL® solutions, which are available for thinkdesign, SolidWorks®, Autodesk® Inventor™ as well as OPEN MIND’s own hyperCAD® application, provide even greater convenience for users. They allow users to carry out their CAM programming directly within their familiar CAD environment.
hyperMILL® offers 2D, 3D, HSC, 5axis milling and mill/turn strategies. All the programs can be generated in the intuitive and consistent user interface. The millTURN module is integrated so that stock tracking, collision avoidance and the tool database are available for all operations. This ensures quick and easy programming as well as superb process safety. Thanks to fully automated collision checking, programming is very easy. Tool angles and positions are largely generated automatically. Depending on the part geometry and the machine kinematics, users can choose between “3+2”, “automatic indexing” and “5axis simultaneous machining”.
Error-free from CAM to NC program: The postprocessors from OPEN MIND Technologies AG generate optimised NC programs from the machine- and controller-independent toolpaths created with hyperMILL®. Each NC program is tailored to the machines and controllers used by the customer. OPEN MIND’s expertise and many years of experience make it possible for the company to develop an individual solution for each system that optimally satisfies all existing requirements.
hyperDENT®: Open system specially developed for dental engineering
OPEN MIND Technologies AG’s hyperDENT® software is a fully automated CAM programming system for manufacturing customised dental solutions. The programming system is closely geared towards dental technology processes and allows the digital precision manufacturing of crowns, multi-unit bridges, abutments, caps or implants, for example. As the open CAM system is integrated in the process chain comprising scanner, CAM software and milling machine. hyperDENT® allows dental laboratories and dental technicians to flexibly set up solutions or modernise existing solutions to suit their own requirements.
hyperDENT® guides users through the entire programming process in a well-structured manner, so that even users who are new to CAM programming can generate complete NC programs with only a few mouse clicks. Once the machine and holder have been specified, the stock has been loaded and the part has been placed by clicking the mouse, the parts are simply and optimally aligned with the help of gouge control, and tooth preparation limits are automatically detected. Connectors are set automatically while sintering pins are set simply by clicking the mouse. In addition, hyperDENT® provides experienced CAM users with additional options for manually optimising and controlling individual programming steps.
The toolpaths are calculated automatically. The comprehensive collision check and avoidance feature, which also incorporates the fixtures, ensures maximum process reliability. Likewise, the machining simulation feature performs a thorough and detailed check of the generated programs before these are released for machining. (Where required, each step can be checked individually.) All of these features offered by hyperDENT® ensure exceptional high-quality parts and reliable production in dental technology applications.
Typical applications: Efficient and reliable machining
hyperMILL®, the hyperMILL® millTURN module and the hyperDENT® dental solution each provide a wide range of optimal machining strategies for machining different implants. These include:
Bone anchor machining: Larger step-over between paths in 5axis swarf cutting reduce milling times and ensure an excellent surface quality. Multiple axial and lateral infeeds also make this strategy suitable for roughing. Defined stop and milling surfaces and stock tracking allow machining operations to be optimised.
Milling of a bone plate: 2D machining supports the output of controller canned cycles. Tool radius compensation, feed rate compensation and subsequent editing on the controller are possible. hyperMILL® also offers various 3D roughing and finishing strategies. This means that the user can always choose the most efficient method for the surface shape. Where the geometry enables swarf cutting, the machining time can be greatly reduced by 5axis swarf cutting. Here, the cycle supports tapered and barrel-shaped tools.
Milling of a bone rasp: Job list-oriented stock tracking facilitates the simple yet effective roughing of complete models and is also an ideal method for rest material roughing with different tool orientations.
Mill turning of a spinal implant – turn roughing with millTURN: Sloping structures are also included in axial or radial roughing. Add-on functions such as tool position definition, stock trimming and path compensation allow users to adapt machining jobs to suit their specific requirements. Stock tracking: The stock is recalculated after each turning or milling step. Thanks to precise machining status feedback for the blank, milling only proceeds in areas where rest material is detected.
Using hyperDENT® to manufacture a dental bridge: With the roughing strategy the surface profile is milled in a single step while preserving the defined allowance on the stock. The rest material areas are machined subsequently with smaller milling tools. The Z constant finishing strategy is used for the fine machining of the manufactured bridge. The material is removed plane by plane with a constant Z stepdown. Collision with holder, fixture and workpiece are avoided. Rework machining: Cavities and undercuts are machined collision-free using 5axis simultaneous machining.
OPEN MIND Technologies AG is a Mensch und Maschine company (http://www.manandmachine.co.uk).
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