Edgecam supports fast 5-axis machining tools

The development of a specific five-axis ‘Tilt’ control strategy, combined with a barrel cutter, is the most significant enhancement in the latest release (2020.0) of Edgecam from Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence’s Production Software division.

John Buehler, brand manager, says barrel cutters are recognised as one of the fastest tools when performing five-axis machining, and are now fully supported in the Edgecam Toolstore. As well as ‘side tilt by contact point’ capability, the ‘Advanced 5-axis’ cycle also offers further gouge checking in the ‘swarf’ command, along with extra ‘ink’ control in all strategies.
Several newly developed and enhanced features in Edgecam 2020.0 provide increased productivity for both milling and turning users, while the recently introduced Edgecam Inspect module includes 13 upgrades.
Mindful of the need to generate quick tool paths and reduce production costs, Edgecam 2020.0 offers a 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. This functionality decreases the cache size, while generating faster tool paths.
Previously introduced in the ‘Hole’ cycle in the 2018 R1 release, the ‘Deep Hole’ strategy has been enhanced, justifying the creation of its own individual cycle. The original modifiers have been improved, and further control tabs have been added to the cycle, giving greater control over the tool path.
Within the ‘Turning’ environment there is a newly devised machining cycle – ‘Thread Profiling’. Reacting to a high frequency of enhancement requests from customers in this area, Edgecam 2020.0 allows users to machine complex form threads such as VAM and Acme. The cycle provides both roughing and finishing strategies, permitting users to specify their own thread forms.
For further information www.edgecam.com

LK celebrates one year of independence

Control 2019 in Stuttgart proved to be the venue for British CMM manufacturer LK Metrology to celebrate its first year of trading as a stand-alone company once more.

LK was purchased at the end of March 2018 from Nikon Metrology by Angelo Muscarella, owner of Italian firm ASF Metrology. The last time LK was independently owned was prior to its takeover by former holding group Metris at the beginning of 2006. In 2018, the company celebrated its 55th anniversary in the metrology industry.
“We are delighted to complete our first year so successfully, during which we made a profit despite the expense necessarily incurred in transferring ownership of the company, which included opening a new office in Shanghai,” says Muscarella. “We’ve already launched a packaged version of our Altera CMM with Renishaw Revo-2 probe, which is called the SCANtek 5. In addition, at the Control exhibition we previewed another newly developed product, the AlteraC 10.7.5, which is the first of three sizes planned.”
For further information www.lkmetrology.com

Firms unaware of AIA increase

The MTA and Close Brothers Asset Finance have published a new survey which reveals that many manufacturing and engineering firms are not planning to take advantage of the increase in the Annual Investment Allowance (AIA).

In fact, only 42% of manufacturing and engineering companies were aware that the Government had made an increase to the AIA. From 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2020 a temporary increase in the AIA has been introduced. The idea is to enable faster tax relief for plant and machinery investments between £200,000 and £1m.
For further information www.mta.org.uk

Scanners win Red Dots

Creaform’s recently launched HandyScan Black and Go!Scan Spark have won Red Dot Awards for product design.

Marco St-Pierre, Creaform’s vice president – innovation and technologies, says: “These are Creaform’s fourth and fifth Red Dot Awards in the past few years, which attests to how much we believe in the crucial role that design and ergonomics play in the overall user experience.” Each year, over 5000 entries to the Red Dot Awards are received from more than 50 countries. Entrants are judged on several criteria, including degree of innovation, functionality, formal quality and ergonomics.
For further information www.creaform3d.com

APT invests

AS9100 and ISO9001 accredited APT Leicester, a subcontract machining specialist, has invested in a Keyence dimension measurement system.

The Keyence IM-7030T has increased productivity by speeding up the inspection of components, says the company. APT’s new machine has the ability to measure multiple parts in seconds, enabling the company to spend more time on the production process itself. This strategy ensures that APT customers are consistently and rapidly provided with quality products.
For further information www.aptleicester.co.uk