|
Pro/TOOLMAKER 9.0 Released! |
PTC have just released the latest version of Pro/TOOLMAKER - find out what's new
Pro/TOOLMAKER 9.0 is Now AvailableCurrent trends toward smaller and more stylish products, from blow-molded plastic soda bottles to cell phones, are pushing five-axis into mold making. If your business is mold making, you’ll be glad that the enhancements to the newest version of Pro/TOOLMAKER include the valuable five-axis functions.
Five-axis machining adds two types of motion, pivoting and swinging, to the conventional X,Y, and Z-axes, so a manufacturer can machine any surface—regardless of complexity. In the past, because of the five-axis machines’ high costs, it was not common place in the mold shop. Now, with the reduced cost of the machines and the faster processors available in their control system, it is a viable option for the mold maker.
Typically, mold makers succeed by removing the most material in the shortest possible time, so the focus is on making larger cutting tools do as much work as possible—thanks to ultra-sophisticated toolpath algorithms—before going to the smaller, finishing tools. Five-axis enables mold maker to machine into area’s not possible with three-axis, reducing the time and cost of electrode making and spark-erosion. A key benefit of five-axis machining is its ability to tilt the cutter in ways that let you either gain access, or machine with peripheral spindle speed at the cutter contact point, enabling better surface finish.
The newest release of Pro/TOOLMAKER can now convert existing three-axis tool paths, made with a ball cutter, into five-axis tool paths, adding optimized linking for five-axis, as well as new controls, like Tilt Away, Tilt Through Point, and Tilt Through Curve, for setting the cutter profile. And, with the addition of support for NURBS surfaces, Pro/TOOLMAKER can offer extended five-axis surface-machining strategies for the plastic mold industry.
Pro/TOOLMAKER 9.0 gives you tools for speeding up surface-cutting, as well as for dealing with the ever-deeper cavities and smaller spaces that often go with more complex shapes and surfaces.
- Swarf cutting
- Morph cutting
- Parallel cutting
“With these side-cutting techniques, a tool can generate a much better surface finish by machining with a contact point on the surfaces, away from the tip,” says PTC product manager Rob Hawkins. “Beyond that, side-cutting creates a more polished surface. That’s important for a product like a headlight cluster, where the cluster will have a highly reflective surface.”
Additional Pro/TOOLMAKER functions.
In addition to the five-axis functions, Pro/TOOLMAKER 9.0 features several other major enhancements. For one, the software now runs as a native 64-bit application. That, plus improved memory management and other refinements, may give some companies toolpath calculation speed improvements of as much as 20%. Read more on Pro/TOOLMAKER 5-Axis Option |
|
|
Special Offers
|
Comprehensive and powerful surfacing with ISDX at 50% off list price! |
|
Read more...
|
|
The most powerful CAD extension - Advanced Assembly is now 50% OFF |
|
Read more...
|
|
Buy Mechanica Option at 50% OFF list price! |
|
Read more...
|
|
Pro/ENGINEER
