EdgeCAM V11.75 and wireless DNC to be exhibited

Simon Lee, international sales director, says: "The oil and gas industry is a large manufacturing sector that relies on EdgeCAM for production quality. The machining has to be correct first time, as the component parts are very often one-offs, very expensive and likely to be placed at the bottom of the ocean where having a look to see what is wrong is out of the question.

"The industry is expanding, with more subcontract and global companies purchasing machine tools just to service it. It was stated that by the end of 2008 there would not be enough machining capacity in the UK to produce the parts required.

"The cost per barrel of crude oil and the GPS satellite navigation for driving drilling heads form oil pool to oil pool now makes it worthwhile extracting oil from the smaller fields. This vast investment makes it a sector within which EdgeCAM must continue to play a leading role."

Expanded capability

EdgeCAM version 11.75 expands its four- and five-axis machining capabilities and delivers improved CAD data management, faster graphics and machine programming. Building on EdgeCAM's established multi-axis machining strengths, V11.75 adds fast and accurate machine simulation and toolpath generation for rotary head/head machining configurations. The latest release enables five-axis positional and simultaneous milling to be combined in a single process - thereby further speeding programming and reducing manufacturing downtime.

New five-axis roughing strategies have been added to the system's operations, further streamlining five-axis programming. By using an intuitive graphical interface, both new and experienced users can create multiple cut toolpaths for five-axis swarf, curve, finishing and four-axis rotary machining - in seconds.

Turning

Additional enhancements for turning operations include a bar pull command, enabling the sub-spindle to grip the component, reposition and machine it as part of a single cycle. New dynamic imaging allows EdgeCAM users to quickly edit or update existing programs on demand.

According to the company, the introduction of a Unigraphics File Loader reinforces EdgeCAM as the standard in intelligent solid-based manufacturing. The loader provides true associativity to the native UG model, thereby virtually eliminating the risk of data loss through file translation and ensuring automatic updates to the toolpath for any changes to the original model. V11.75 also allows for the direct loading and processing of Step files with toolpath associativity previously only achieved through native solids data.

Also featured at the Offshore Europe show will be EdgeCAM DNC (direct numerical control), a system designed to use the latest Ethernet technology for fast and robust wireless communications. Whether it is communicating with machine tools, managing data or monitoring machine tool production, EdgeCAM DNC is described as the next generation of shop floor communication. It is configured to meet the exact requirements of each machine tool, and whether customers have one or 1000 machine tools connected, EdgeCAM DNC gives reliable and fast communications.