"ToolRoom RN34 aims to be a differentiator by allowing customers to design complex geometries and achieve increased tool life, productivity and cutting volume, as well as increased quality and precision of the workpiece,” says Thomson Mathew, ANCA software product manager.
Douglas Franke, production manager at cutting-tool manufacturer Fraisa, says: “With ANCA’s balancing software, for example, we generally have a tool balanced within five minutes. Some of our more complex tooling can take a little longer, up to 20 minutes. This drastically decreases our machine set-up time, which could previously take several hours. Our biggest success story has been an aerospace customer who is running our 25 mm roughing tool for aluminium at 25,000 rpm.”
Newly added features in ToolRoom RN34 software include ball-nose cycles that can accommodate a high helix on the ball cutting edge for better fracture resistance and reduced vibration due to the irregular curve. In addition, a new feature is supported, namely the double corner radius, which allows the design of barrel shape or lens shaped tools with a larger to smaller, or smaller to larger, radius from the end of tool.
Tool balancing is performed on variable helix and pitch, or single flute tools, to minimise the eccentric weight distribution when undertaking high-speed machining. Benefits include reduced noise and vibration, improved machine bearing life, and better surface finish.
The new fluting cycles in ToolRoom RN34 cater for the manufacturing of variable helix and pitch tools. Here, the fluting cycles eliminate the harmonics caused during high-speed machining by varying the time intervals between flute contact with the workpiece.
A further enhancement is the availability of a new tool type from the end mill wizard to manufacture lollipop cutters, which are widely used in the aerospace and mould-making industries.
Additional improvements include: support for reverse infeed when using large dish angles on square end mills; a newly created end-mill cycle to add OD chip breakers; embedded TOM files; support for constant helix fir-tree cutters; support for standard flute and fan-gash flute style countersink tools; a newly developed feature to produce a second margin towards the trailing edge of drills; the introduction of a thread-milling operation; and the addition of a pocket grinding operation.
