A complete tool, mould-making solution

CAM programming is one of the areas in manufacturing that has significant potential for improvement and streamlining. Thanks to advanced machine intelligence, today’s programming sequences are increasingly automated.

Tool- and mould-makers who can produce complex, customised parts at short notice have good market opportunities despite the trend to outsource production to low-wage countries. German-made products are renowned for their high quality, particularly in the case of sophisticated parts and machinery. In response to increasing demands for fast, low-cost manufacturing, many tool- and mould-makers are turning to new technologies. For its part, the CAD/CAM industry has been coming up with solutions that aim to reduce programming times.

Many companies use the hyperMILL CAM solution from OPEN MIND Technologies AG for tool and mould-making. The software provides advanced 5-axis technology combined with a wide range of 2D and 3D strategies and HSC functions. This is a CAM solution that gives companies the flexibility to produce a broad product palette. In recent years, OPEN MIND Technologies has also been developing integrated automations; these reduce manual input and minimise machine running times.

A comprehensive solution with a consistent user interface

With its 2D, 3D, HSC and 5axis modules, hyperMILL is a complete tool- and mould-making solution. The streamlined user interface shared by all the modules is intuitive and has been designed for daily use. Dialog windows with graphical support and menu-controlled data entry mean that many of the programming steps are self-explanatory. Plausibility checks ensure that all entered data is valid. hyperMILL automatically detects erroneous entries, highlighting them in red and providing correction suggestions as part of the error messages. The main advantage of such a consistent approach to user interaction is that you can program even seldom-used machining strategies safely and reliably. Thanks to the wide range of machining strategies provided by the software, you can always find the right strategy for your job.

More than state of the art

Many machining tasks in tool- and mould-making can be programmed using 2D and 3D strategies. The software’s 3D cycles offer a number of intelligent add-on functions for experienced users to optimise machining quality and machine running times. An example of this is the new high-performance roughing strategy with hyperMAXX?. This new optionally available roughing strategy considerably reduces machining times. Ideally distributed milling paths and the dynamically adjusted feedrate enable users to work with optimal parameters (ideal case), thereby significantly reducing roughing time.

Automatic detection of tool positions

Whether for indexing or 5-axis milling, many users shy away from having to define tool positions themselves. To address this, OPEN MIND Technologies has developed a range of automated functions that greatly simplify the programming of 5axis machining steps. This was made possible by an automatic collision avoidance feature. The preferred and maximum tilt angles are all that is required for generating 5axis simultaneous machining jobs. The machining cycle automatically calculates an optimal, collision-free tool position. Automatic indexing similarly reduces programming time significantly thanks to automatically generated fixed tool inclinations, which also improves the surface quality when using machines with low dynamics.