CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
25 January 2012
Product News
DP Technology Corp. Now Shipping ESPRIT 2012 CAM Software
DP Technology Corp. is now shipping ESPRIT® 2012, the latest version of its flagship software designed to program today’s multi-spindle, multi-turret mill-turn and Swiss-turn machine tools.
Performance-enhancing upgrades built into this new version of ESPRIT provide existing ESPRIT customers with additional tools to increase productivity. Included in ESPRIT 2012 are a significant number of innovative programming technologies for all machining disciplines — including 2-5 axis milling, 2-22 axis turning, 2-5 axis wire EDM, multi-tasking mill-turn, and high-speed 3- and 5-axis machining.
ESPRIT’s high-performance capabilities include machining any part geometry — solid, surface, or wireframe — universal post processing to format G-code for virtually any machine tool, and solid simulation and verification with dry runs rendered in dynamic solids for optimal part quality and consistency.
ESPRIT 2012 is available now and runs on the Microsoft® Windows® 7™ and Microsoft® Vista™ operating systems.
Advancements to 3-and-5-axis ESPRIT FreeForm Cycles
Numerous enhancements and additions have been made to 3-and-5-axis FreeForm cycles in ESPRIT 2012.
Among them is a new 5-axis trochoidal channel-roughing cycle that utilizes a circular toolpath to constantly adapt to the shape of a cavity bounded by two walls, which allows the machining of deep cavities with thin walls.
Also new to ESPRIT 2012 is a 5-axis blade cycle that creates finishing toolpath on a single blade. This new cycle is designed specifically for the challenges of optimizing the toolpath on models with convex faces on one side and concave faces on the other.
Among all-new 5-axis impeller-cycle upgrades unique to ESPRIT 2012 are a wider array of settings that include a “single pass” roughing strategy that creates multiple cuts down the center between the blades before roughing starts.
A new “roll around edges” setting enables users to roll the tool around blade edges to guarantee an overlap of the toolpath.
A new “spiral” option creates spiral toolpath that expands outward from the mid-line between the blades for smoother toolpath that keeps the tool on the part. Likewise, multi-blade optimization with new settings for “number of blades” and “cut all blades” offers options for machining priorities to cut blades by either region or by level to prevent deflection and vibration when the blades are thin.
All 3-axis FreeForm cycles have been improved with enhanced distribution of points in the toolpath and autotilt options to transform 3-axis toolpath into 5-axis. Autotilt is ideal when short rigid cutting tools are used in deep cavities.
Improvements have also been made to ESPRIT’s existing knitted surface option, which creates a single surface from any number of faces on a solid model. New to ESPRIT 2012 is the ability to cover openings in more than one face with knitted surfaces.
Expanded Machining Cycles in all Disciplines
ESPRIT 2012 offers upgrades in all machining disciplines, with enhancements to turning, milling, mill-turn and wire EDM cycles.
For turning, the “park” cycle has been redesigned in ESPRIT 2012 to allow a machine tool’s head or turret to be parked. Increased versatility is achieved with the enhancement of allowing parking on each axis, which can be individually controlled using one of the four modes available — not parking the axis; moving the axis to home, as it would be set for a tool change; the tool moves to the input position in the operation coordinate system, or the axis moves to the input position in the machine-coordinate system.
For milling, ESPRIT 2012 offers an enhanced method of treating features used for contouring operations. Rather than allowing the tool to "roll" over the edge when at or near the starting depth, the feature edge can be extended to maintain the desired shape.
For wire EDM, new feature extension settings make it possible to extend the extremities of the feature so the wire path can start or end outside of the material when contouring or with EDM turning operations. This allows the wire path to be extended without actually modifying the feature. A new “dwell time” setting that inserts a dwell at the end of the rough cut to enlarge the exit point, ensuring that the wire for the skim cut can be re-threaded, has been added to all EDM contouring cycles.
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