CNC West Dec jan 2019

58 www.CNC-West.com CNC WEST December 2018/January 2019 The integrated Hurco control powered by WinMax is a flexible and intuitive control equipped with a 2.7 GHz duel core processor, 4 GB RAM memory, a 128 GB solid state hard drive, 10,000 block lookahead and an intuitive graphical user interface that supports mul- tiple machining strategies. Hurco reports that users can go from print to part faster with Hurco due to its flexibility that provides multiple programming methods: Conversational; Industry Standard NC; and NC/ Conversational Merge. Conversational programming simplifies complex operations with an easy to learn, intuitive, user-friend- ly interface. The Hurco control also features NC with EIA/ISO support. This means NC programming us- ers do not have to change current processes. The con- trol can also combine the best of Industry Standard NC and Conversational with its NC/Conversational Merge feature. NC/Conversational Merge makes it easy to apply conversational features, such as pattern operations, scaling, tool probing, part probing and unlimited work offsets, to existing NC programs. Patterns include loop rotate, loop translate, loop linear, loop angular, pattern locations, scale and mirror image. Introduced at IMTS, 3D Import with 3D DXF technology is the newest feature added to the Hurco control. According to Mike Cope, product technical specialist for Hurco, “The customer can simply load the file they receive from their customer directly into the control, which eliminates the need for extra steps.” Cope explained the evolution of the 3D Im- New Technology for Hurco Control port, which illustrates Hurco’s commit- ment to continuous innovation of con- versational programming, which was invented by Hurco co-founder Gerald Roch in 1976. “When Hurco introduced the DXF Transfer option in 1992, it was a real game changer for the end user because many shops received DWG or DXF drawing files. This made it easy to transfer the files to the machine and use them to create their programs on the shop floor right at their Hurco CNC machine, and also eliminated incorrect data being entered, or `fat-fingering numbers’ as we say in the shop. Today, it is common for shops to receive solid models of the parts that they need to produce, and even paper prints are becoming obsolete. Therefore, Hurco engineers developed 3D Import, which includes 3D DXF technology that displays all geometry that the CAD system outputs, including splines. With 3D DXF, the customer can select the bottom of a contour, and the Z-axis depths will also be automatically input into the conversational block. All previous versions of DXF translators only dis- played lines and arcs data, and were only useful in 2-D - no Z-axis data was translated. 3D Import (the solid model portion) will automatically create the necessary Transform Plane data blocks in conversational pro- gramming for 5-sided programs. The company reports that another benefit of the Hurco control is the enhanced motion control system Hurco invented that determines the optimal trajec- tory to run the tool, provides consistent programmed feedrates and reduces cycle time. “With this patented motion control system called UltiMotion, cornering ve- locity is 2.5 times faster than conventional motion, ma- chine jerk is reduced by half; and because the software is smart enough to adapt as required by the tool path, dynamic variable lookahead can be up to 10,000 blocks. UltiMotion is different than the smoothing features offered by CAD/CAM software and improves upon CAM output by providing better handling of the machine mechanics and dynamics. All Hurco CNC machining centers are equipped with Ulti- Motion as a standard feature, not an extra charge. Ad- ditionally, no set up or programming is required,” said a company spokesperson.