2018cnc6-7

40 www.CNC-West.com CNC WEST June/July 2018 OPEN MIND Technologies AG reported that its customer Concept Reality Inc. out of Vancouver, Washington is increasing productivity and improving part accuracy using the hyperMILL® MAXX Ma- chining finishing module for aerospace part manufac- ture. The company reports that hyperMILL® CAM software from OPEN MIND enables 5-axis strate- gies for fast, easy-to-use programming, resulting in reduced cycle times and high- quality surface fin- ishes. The integrated hyperMILL® MAXX Machin- ing finishing module, a performance package of the hyperMILL® CAM software suite, is the CAM pro- gramming source enabling the use of conical barrel cutter technology to reduce cycle times significantly. It is ideal for planar, ruled and curved surfaces often found in complex 5-Axis components. hyperMILL® MAXX Machining offers three powerful modules for finishing, roughing and drilling. “On a recent aerospace project, the hyperMILL® MAXX Machining finishing process allowed us to in- Vancouver, Washington Aerospace Contract Manufacturer Reduces Cycle Time crease our step down between tool paths by 12x when compared with traditional ma- chining methods using ball nose cutting tools. This saved us 5 hours per part in finishing operations while re- ducing cusp height,” said Mr. Chris Nunn, president of Concept Reality Inc. “We were able to deliver a high- er quality part in less time ‒ a great benefit to our customer.” The hyperMILL® MAXX Machin- ing finishing module makes efficient use of machine and tool options in rela- tion to surface quality and speed, by applying an in- novative 5-axis tangent plane machining strategy and conical barrel cutters that use the functions of a barrel cutter and a ball mill simultaneously. A conical barrel cutter features a very large radius ‒ ranging from 250 mm to 1,500 mm. The large radius of the conical barrel cutter makes step-over distances of 6 mm and 8 mm a reality. It does not require switching cutters in order to finish adjacent areas such as rounded interior corners, and hard-to-reach areas can be ma- chined in a highly efficient, secure manner. In addition to superb surface quality, the hyperMILL® MAXX Machining finishing process enables short production times, increased tool life, the use of fewer tools and it offers the highest degree of process reliability.