Delcam to Hold High-speed and Five-axis Machining Seminars at Matsuura
Delcam will highlight the latest developments for high-speed and five-axis machining in the 2015 version of its PowerMILL CAM system at two half-day seminars at Matsuura’s European headquarters in Coalville, Leicestershire, on 14th October. The seminars, which will also feature a presentation from Matsuura on how to choose a five-axis machine and one from SGS on tooling for high-speed machining, are part of the Think: Production event being held at Matsuura from 14th to 16th October in association with Delcam, Tornos, Fanuc and Nikken.
The new PowerMILL release includes improvements to the Vortex high-efficiency area-clearance strategy, improved five-axis collision checking to also cover near misses, and more efficient raster finishing.
Delcam’s Vortex strategy produces safe toolpaths with a much deeper cut by using a controlled engagement angle that maintains the optimum cutting conditions for the whole toolpath. As a result, higher feed rates and material-removal rates are possible, reducing the cutting time by as much as 70%. In addition, cutting is undertaken at a more consistent volume-removal rate and at a near constant feed rate, so extending tool life and protecting the machine.
Two enhancements in PowerMILL 2015 will give even greater reductions in machining time with Vortex compared to conventional roughing. The first change allows toolpaths to approach the part from outside the stock at the cutting height, both for open pockets and in areas where earlier cuts have made this possible.
The second change allows an increased feed rate to be set for non-cutting moves. The extra time that can be saved depends on the shape of the part but an additional saving of around 20% should be expected above the earlier releases of Vortex.
Companies using PowerMILL for either positional or continuous five-axis machining benefit from improvements to the collision checking within the new relelase. Firstly, collision checking has been changed so that warnings can also be flagged for near misses. The user can now specify a clearance value and, when the machine tool comes within this value, it will turn yellow in colour to highlight a near miss.
Secondly, the display showing the list of collisions, and now near misses as well, has been updated to be easier to read, making it simpler to extrapolate the coordinates at these points. For near misses, the clearance distance is shown in the display, with the distance shown as zero for collisions.
To register for the morning or afternoon seminar, please go to www.delcam.co.uk/think
