Edgecam 2020.0 Now Supports Barrel Cutters, Tilting-Head Five-Axis Control

The introduction of a specific five-axis Tilt control strategy, combined with barrel cutter support, is said to be the most significant enhancement in version 2020.0 of Edgecam from Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence’s Production Software division. Brand Manager John Buehler says that since barrel cutters are recognized as one of the fastest tools for five-axis machining, they are now fully supported in the Edgecam Toolstore. In addition to “side tilt by contact point” capability, the advanced five-axis cycle also offers further gouge checking in the Swarf command, along with extra “ink” control in all strategies. 

Mindful of the need to generate quick tool paths to reduce production costs, Edgecam offers a significant performance boost when either roughing or profiling a solid model. “Essentially, the machining engine will only compute data constrained within the boundary, ignoring the rest of the model,” explains Mr. Buehler. “This significantly decreases the cache size while generating faster tool paths.”

Formerly introduced in the Hole cycle in the 2018 R1 release, the Deep Hole strategy evolved to become its own individual cycle. The original modifiers have been improved and new control tabs have been added to the cycle, giving greater control over the tool path.

The Turning environment offers a new machining cycle called Thread Profiling. “Reacting to a high frequency of requests from customers in this area, Edgecam 2020.0 allows users to effortlessly machine complex form threads such as VAM and Acme,” Mr. Buehler says. “The cycle provides both roughing and finishing strategies, allowing users to specify their own thread forms.”