Milling with speed and efficiency

Mastercam 2018 Mill, available in the UK from Gloucestershire-based 4D Engineering, offers expanded machining flexibility and an increased emphasis on speed and automation.

2D high-speed toolpaths, 3D enhancements, and multi-axis features combine with dozens of additional new enhancements in a package intended to improve shopfloor productivity.

When it comes to 2D enhancements, stock awareness has been added to select 2D toolpaths which allows tool motion on the top, bottom, or both values of the stock. This provides a safer and more optimised tool motion. Users can also optimise finish passes based on the rough stock, giving more efficient and safer tool motion.

Plunge entry is supported for dynamic mill toolpaths, allowing users to plunge directly into material. Spring passes can be used to create additional finish passes which can be used on thin material parts that may have flexed away from the tool during previous passes.

The workflow for all 3D high-speed toolpaths has been streamlined to give fine control over exactly where to cut. High-speed hybrid toolpaths now offer smoothing controls and deliver a finer finish. Follow containment has been added which allows the tool to follow the containment boundary back to the start of the cut, creating clean and closed passes. It also helps to avoid partial cuts when a containment boundary is directly on top of a vertical surface.

Common Direction has been added to select toolpaths and keeps the tool at a uniform tilt angle to reduce tool and machine motion. Dropping has been added to the 3- to 5-axis toolpaths and projects the 3-axis toolpath onto the selected surfaces, adjusting the tool vectors to be normal to the surface. Also, the multi-axis link Safety Zone page has been redesigned to better reflect the parameters.

Additional powerful tools in Mastercam 2018 Mill include: many contour enhancements such as Chamfer tool offset, Machine finish passes, Multi pass order, and Rough pass cut direction; Mastercam 2D toolpaths now support Depth Cut Direction and Depth Cut Order, allowing users to order cuts from top to bottom or from bottom to top, as well as the depth cut order.

Additionally, Detect Undercuts disables undercutting when using an undercut tool and the Collision Control page has been redesigned in Mastercam Multiaxis. Lastly Maintain Tilt keeps the tool tilted during retract and feed moves to reduce tool and machine motion.

Developed by CNC Software in the US, Mastercam is Windows-based CAD/CAM software for 2- to 5-axis routing, milling and turning, 2- and 4-axis wire EDM, 2D and 3D design, surface and solid modelling, and Swiss machining.

Founded in 1983, CNC Software provides CAD/CAM solutions to more than 224,000 installations in 75 countries in industries including mould making, prototyping, automotive, medical, aerospace and consumer products.

Mastercam www.mastercam.com

Company

Mastercam

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