Live demonstrations of Waveform on a DMG Mori ecomill 600v using Seco Tools UK’s new 5542C cutter delivered a material removal rate above 65 cm3/min when cutting Toolox 33 (video, attached).
Steve Finn, DMG Mori UK managing director, says this highlights the benefits of three premium products working in harmony. “Combining DMG Mori machine tools, Seco cutting tools and VISI CADCAM from Vero Software improves efficiency and productivity for the customer,” he states.
VISI’s UK support manager, John Cockerill, says the new Waveform roughing strategy in VISI 2016 R2 increases material removal rates by a minimum of 100%, with figures as high as 500% achievable, when compared to conventional toolpaths.
Paul Bown, Seco’s UK product manager, highlighted that the new 5542C cutter used in the demonstration is ideal for use in combination with VISI’s waveform roughing strategy, saying: “It’s particularly strong and has a tapered core, along with considerable clearance on the bottom for helical interpolation to get into cuts without the need to drill holes.” The demonstration tool was 8 mm in diameter, used the full 20 mm depth of cut and 20% side engagement, and was running at 200 m/min.
Adds Brown: “This is a four-flute tool, and we’ve got a five-flute version coming later in the year, along with a six-flute tool for these strategies on titanium.
“These strategies utilise the full depth of the tool with smaller step-overs, meaning speeds and feeds can be considerably ramped up, giving significant productivity improvements.”
Other demonstrations during the events highlighted other VISI strengths. Its ability to work with point cloud data to produce toolpaths quickly was underlined. And long-time VISI user Bob Tunks, managing director of BK Tooling, sang the software’s praises, following 20 years of use. “We’re a successful, small, high precision plastic injection mould tool making and moulding company, and we wouldn’t be where we are today without VISI. It makes us more cost efficient by producing better products in a faster time. Many designers go for freeform organic shapes nowadays, and we’ve got to be able to replicate those. That can’t be done with a 2D drawing – we need 3D modelling, and to be able to machine directly from those 3D models. So we need good machine tool technology and a really good CADCAM package.”
Another user, Simon Cockerham, design engineer with Peco Tooling, highlighted how VISI supports the manufacture of small, intricate parts for model railways, using cutters with a diameter often of 0.3 mm diameter and sometimes down to just 0.2 mm diameter. “VISI gives us the ability to reliably and consistently perform our job using both the CAD and CAM sides,” he says, adding: “While VISI has reduced the machining times for our highly detailed parts, the software also has tremendous benefits for even the simplest components. It simply takes three clicks to create a cube in VISI: X, Y and Z, and you’ve got a cube. To put a hole through it, again three clicks. Centre of circle, outside of circle, length of circle, and there it is, a hole straight through it.”
