Developments support one-hit machining

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Apr 12, 2006

Mach 2006 to see enhancements to software that include faster and more intuitive operation, and functionality to provide combined milling and turning operations in an integrated programming package.

The latest developments for Alphacam V6 to support one-hit machining will be highlighted on stand 5567 at Mach 2006 at Birmingham's NEC between 15th and 19th May.

Enhancements to V6 include faster and more intuitive operation, as well as functionality to provide combined milling and turning operations within an integrated programming package.

Alphacam will also be demonstrating the effectiveness of its manufacturing systems alongside the benefits of Autodesk's Inventor 3D mechanical design software, following the recent signing of a Unique Application Reseller agreement with Autodesk.

Visitors to the stand will have the opportunity to win a licence for its five-axis programming software in a free prize draw.

Alphacam V6 lets users create complete libraries of user-configurable machining strategies for all their components.

Operators need only input the part geometry to be worked on, select the required machining style - including multiple roughing, turning, drilling and finishing routines, complete with nominated tooling and associated speeds and feeds - and the system will produce fully specified CNC machining programs at the touch of a button.

The ability to combine any number of stored machining routines provides drag-and-drop compilation of new machining strategies, which can be checked quickly and easily using the system's visualisation tools.

This means it reduces programming time and improves programming quality, but also lowers the skill levels required for right-first-time programs to be produced by inexperienced users.

The system's consistent application of manufacturing parameters to programs produced by different operators lets companies capitalise on in-house best practice, as well as achieve cost savings through standardisation and rationalisation of their tooling inventory.

Other enhancements include seamless importation of product data from a wider variety of CAD systems, including Parasolid, Solidworks and both Catia V4 and V5 parts files.

Alphacam also uses automatic feature recognition, which enables features of the product model to be instantly identified and extracted for subsequent processing.

The system's parametric module has been upgraded to streamline the specification and manufacture of families of products, by enabling new machining programs to be created from existing parts simply by entering numerical values for product variables.

It is available world-wide in all major languages, and is backed by local customer helpdesks, on-site or remote system support, product training programmes and the company's networking, installation and IT consultancy services.