CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive

2 May 2013

Events News

Delcam to Focus on Five-axis Developments at Advanced Manufacturing

Delcam will highlight its latest developments for the programming of five-axis machines at Advanced Manufacturing event to be held at the NEC, Birmingham, from 4th to 6th June.  While the company’s PowerMILL software remains its leading program for the five-axis programming of the most complex shapes found in the toolmaking and aerospace industries, both FeatureCAM, the feature-based CAM system for production machining, and the PartMaker software, for equipment including turn-mill machines, bar-fed mills and Swiss-type lathes, also offer extensive five-axis capabilities.

The first advantage of five-axis machining is the ability to machine complex shapes in a single set-up.  This saves considerable time compared to performing the job in a series of set-ups.  Furthermore, with multiple set-ups, there is always a possibility of incorrect alignment each time the part is moved.  With more complex parts, special fixtures need to be made to hold the component firmly during machining.  By reducing the number of set-ups, five-axis machining can also save the time and cost of making a multitude of fixtures.

Another major benefit of five-axis machines is that they enable shorter cutters to be used since the head of the machine tool can be lowered towards the job and the cutter oriented towards the surface.  These shorter cutters minimise vibration, allowing higher cutting speeds to be used with no loss in accuracy. 

For the latest PowerMILL release, the main change in the five-axis capabilities has been to increase the number of options for tool-axis definition.  For raster toolpaths, the lead and lean angles can now be defined relative to a contact normal.  In addition, better control is now possible for the tool-axis definition when using the To or From a Point, Line or Curve strategies.  These improvements will make it easier for users to control the contact angle between the cutter and the part, and so set the optimum cutting conditions for efficient machining and high quality surface finish.

The resulting NC programs can be made even more efficient by automatically reordering the toolpaths, using the tool number or tool diameter, to reduce the number of tool changes, or using a specific workplane, to minimise set-up changes.

New five-axis strategies available in FeatureCAM 2013 include flowline machining between two curves, pencil machining and corner re-machining.  These strategies for simultaneous five-axis machining allow a better surface finish to be achieved as well as ensuring access to more areas within the part in a single set-up.

New options have also been added to give smoother five-axis machining.  A new look-ahead capability will remove any sudden tool-axis changes during automatic collision avoidance and, instead, ensure that a smooth transition takes place.  In addition, FeatureCAM now offers the ability to smooth the Azimuth and Elevation axes independently and so remove excessive five-axis movement.  These options stabilise the rotary axis movement by maintaining a fixed tool axis as far as possible, replacing constant five-axis movement with a series of 3+2-axis segments having full five-axis transitions between them.

PartMaker 2013 R2 features much improved simultaneous milling strategies for both four- and five-axis machining, within a new module, ASM-MX (Advanced Surface Machining – Multi-Axis).  The module can be added across the entire PartMaker CAM suite, including the PartMaker Mill, Turn-Mill and SwissCAM modules.

The new strategies found in ASM-MX are based on the same unique approach to multi-axis programming used in PowerMILL.  This technology enables PartMaker to provide the user with complete tool-axis control for all five-axis simultaneous machining strategies. 

Additionally, ASM-MX features a unique new machining strategy called "Spine Finishing.”  Spine finishing can be used in either four- or five-axis simultaneous operations and is ideal for machining parts with complex curves, such as angulated abutments found in the dental implant industry. 

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