The 190-employee Knarr Group, located in Helmbrechts, Germany, is a tool and mould maker that manufactures standard parts through to complete mould bases using the HyperMill CAM system from Open Mind Technologies.

Head of department Marco Mergner highlights the importance of HyperMill to the business: “HyperMill not only meets our requirements but plays a decisive role in ensuring that we keep pace and continue to develop. The technical performance of the individual machining cycles with options for multi-axis and five-axis machining, deep-hole drilling, automation and measurement technology, is and remains a decisive factor. Another factor is the user-friendliness of the system, plus the service offered by Open Mind.”
Today, the Knarr Group has a double-digit number of HyperMill licences in various departments. Employees use the software to program mould plates, which can include complex features and freeform surfaces. The mould plates are often machined complete from six sides in two set-ups.
Knarr has demonstrated the significant benefits offered by the tangent machining strategies within HyperMill’s MAXX Machining package using conical barrel cutters at a number of recent invitation events. For this purpose, the company constructed a 96 mm-thick mould plate with a rectangular, conical breakthrough featuring a 1 mm corner radius. Mergner and his team used all three modules from the MAXX Machining package for complete processing on a five-axis DMG machining centre.
“Typically, line-by-line milling with a ball mill would have taken 12 hours, but using the CAM strategy and conical barrel cutter we were finished in just 60 minutes and still achieved optimum surface quality, even in the corners,” concludes Mergner.
For further information www.openmind-tech.com