Open Mind and Seco collaborate to target 5-axis aerospace machining

“We are now working with Seco to automate the 5-axis machining processes. Working with aerospace manufacturers, the relationship with Seco enables Open Mind to look at projects from a software perspective while Seco discuss the same project from a tooling standpoint," said Richard Nolan, sales and marketing director, Open Mind Technologies UK Ltd. "Once we have both conducted our relevant projects, the customer can come to the Seco facility and view the solution on a Mazak, Mori Seiki or Hermle machining centre. From this we can work to implement a complete turnkey solution for the customer. These three days mark the start of a relationship with Seco that could potentially be of great significance to both parties” . Commenting on the collaboration, Peter Wiseman, UK technical manager, Seco Tools UK said: “We were impressed with how quickly Open Mind was able to create the titanium blade demo parts that we gave away to the attendees of the event. It was a great example of how Open Minds’ hyperMILL 5 Axis Blade Cycles complement Seco’s Jabro tooling.” Open Mind technical director Adrian Smith added: "“The problem that many customers have with packages from alternate vendors is collision detection. Our system interrogates the surface and guides the tool around the geometries in 5-axis taking into account any obstacles. With alternate packages this is not guaranteed, and if an obstacle is found the package will re-calculate the toolpath and re-run. This series of events will perpetually repeat itself until a suitable path around the obstacle is found. With the Open Mind hyperMILL, the toolpath will avoid collision automatically and without the need for additional simulation products to assist tool collision avoidance.”