Exapt Picks Moduleworks As CAM Components Partner

Moduleworks has confirmed its partnership with Exapt to provide CAM toolpath and simulation components for the Exapt product range. Exapt provides a range of CAM solutions, from lathe to full five-axis simultaneous milling. Initially, Exapt selected Moduleworks for five-axis machining capability but has since partnered with Moduleworks for three-axis and simulation technologies. In 2005, Exapt recognised the growing demand for five-axis simultaneous machining.

At the time, it had a full development schedule enhancing the other areas of its product and was wary of diverting resource into what could be a long and expensive development project. The company was also concerned about time to market and therefore elected to look for a technical partner. After evaluating the market, Exapt selected the Moduleworks five-axis machining component. The five-axis product was launched in 2007 and initial reaction to the product was positive.

Since then, Exapt has worked with Moduleworks to enhance the product with new five-axis capability added at each release. Following on from the five-axis integration, Exapt began to look at other component opportunities and elected to be an early adopter for the three-axis Mesh machining component, which was under development from mid-2007. Exapt was keen to bolster its 3D machining capability and provide increased flexibility and performance to its customer base.

As the three-axis component developed, Exapt and Moduleworks worked together to integrate prototype components and address specific requirements of Exapt customers. The first Exapt release containing the three-axis component took place in mid-2009. Exapt has now begun work with a third Moduleworks component - simulation.

Esprit 2010 CAM Eases Pocket Milling

DP Technology is to exhibit its Esprit 2010 software at Industrie 2010 on 22-26 March in Paris France. Representatives of DP Technology will be available to discuss Esprit upgrades and demonstrate how those upgrades can be put to work for the customer. The company claimed that every Esprit user will benefit from a faster-to-use graphical user interface (GUI) used to define machining operations throughout Esprit.

The tree-style GUI is used to define machining parameters used for cutting parts in milling, turning and wire EDM programming. In addition to an array of upgrades, the machining of pockets is said to be easier with Esprit 2010 due to advancements in feature recognition. The upgraded advanced feature recognition automatically recognises pockets with any combination of open and closed walls, fillets, chamfers and tapered walls.

Including major upgrades to milling functions, Esprit 2010 features several three-axis milling cycles, improved five-axis cycles, feature-based machining for all Freeform cycles and the ability to define a third-party rotary axis for milling machines. Knitted surfaces for parametric machining and advanced pocket feature recognition are also among milling upgrades, as well as associativity with CAD models. Advances made to Esprit Wire EDM functions include a cycle for four-axis pocketing and new technology for EDM machines equipped with a rotary axis.

Bank Of Algeria Mint Invests In CAD CAM Technology

The Bank of Algeria Mint has invested in equipment and methods from Sescoi to help it respond to the demands of modern banking and to encourage the growth of the country's economy. The tooling department needed a computer-aided-design (CAD)/computer-aided-manufacturing (CAM) system to help it improve its range of capabilities and shorten lead times. The Bank of Algeria purchased WorkNC from Sescoi in 2006.

The assistant director at the Bank of Algeria Mint said: 'We have a wide range of CNC milling and turning machines and we needed to modernise in order to achieve just-in-time manufacture, respond to urgent requirements and machine increasingly complex and intricate shapes.' Before the introduction of WorkNC, programming was carried out on the machine tool control, which required high levels of skill from the operator, reduced the available capacity and the productivity of each machine and limited the complexity of the parts being produced.

WorkNC-CAD is used to design existing or new components and parts using its recently incorporated parametric solid modelling. Furthermore, the WorkNC-CAD turning module is said to make CNC lathe machining easy and reliable. For machining and engraving, the bank uses WorkNC to create programs from two axis right through to the full five axis. The assistant director said: 'We program all our CNC machines with WorkNC for the milling of simple or complex parts.

'We have optimised our production processes and achieved productivity gains of more than 60 per cent.' For its five-axis programming, the Bank of Algeria uses WorkNC's Auto 5. Unique to Sescoi, the software automatically translates three-axis toolpaths into five-axis toolpaths, making five-axis machining as simple to program as three-axis machining, with reliable and collision-free toolpaths. Using the technology gives the bank the advantages of using short rigid cutters and the ability to reach more of the part in one setting, resulting in improved surface finish and shorter machining times.

Sescoi's five-axis routines include collision-avoidance algorithms, which consider the limits of the individual machine tool, introducing unwind and flip movements so that machining can continue safely and uninterrupted. The assistant director said: 'The ease of use of Auto 5 has enabled us to adopt five-axis machining methods very quickly. 'We find that the toolpaths it creates for our five-axis machines are completely reliable and we anticipate purchasing more licences in a few weeks.' The bank invests in a continuous training program with Sescoi, ensuring that its engineers can fully exploit WorkNC's capabilities, benefit from the support hotline and receive software upgrades.

Schott Enhances CAM Feature Recognition

Schott Systeme has launched an online video demonstration of its latest freeform feature recognition tools. Designed specifically with mould and model makers in mind, these tools help overcome the limitations of current CAM feature recognition packages, whereby only prismatic items such as pockets and holes are extracted from a model. Schott Systeme's CAD/CAM solution 'Pictures by PC' is able to examine and extract geometry for machining of far greater complexity.

By combining these enhanced recognition tools with the software's latest surface modelling capabilities, users are able to prepare models for machining in a greatly reduced timeframe. Citing mouldtool design as a typical example, all freeform holes on a model, such as those created to house ejector pins, can automatically be covered in a single click, preventing tooling during finishing operations from disappearing into the holes.

Complex features such as the slots created by electrodes can also be automatically covered using the software's advanced surfacing function, again improving finishing operations, but also removing the need to create complex and time-consuming surface patches, as can often be the case with mid-range CAD modellers.

Tapered pocket side walls requiring five-axis 'swarf cutting', characteristic of aerospace components, and freeform chamfers to be finished using five-axis 'end mill' techniques, are all features that can be instantly extracted from a 3D CAD model.

Helping to identify areas that require rest machining, actual radius surfaces within a given size range are automatically identified and extracted for re-machining. Similar tools also allow the selection of 'chained' radius faces, so entire freeform filleted features can be chosen in a single click.

Freeform models may often include numerous planar faces that require the application of normal facing operations. Here, the software searches for and extracts all planar faces on a freeform model, and machines them as individual 2.5D pockets, taking into account at all times the actual 3D model. This removes the possibility of gauging and tool collisions.