Maintaining a constant cutter load during rough milling prevents tool deflections
that serve to diminish accuracy, surface finish, and tool life. A constant cutter load
also eliminates the need to reduce feeds and speeds through corners.
ESPRIT optimizes cutter load by analyzing the amount of material in contact with
the tool at any given time. The shape of the cutting path is adjusted to maintain a
constant material removal rate and eliminate sharp changes in tool direction. By
knowing that parameters will not exceed a specified amount, the feed rate is easily
optimized to the maximum potential.
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The benefits of controlling the load on the cutter are numerous:
Full engagement of the tool can also occur when moving from a straight cut into areas
where there is a sharp transition in the cutter path, such as a corner.
Full engagement with the material puts additional pressure on the tool, which can result
in damage to the tool or cause the tool to break. Conservative feedrates must be used
along the entire toolpath to avoid tool damage.
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ESPRIT has a machining parameter for 'Engagement Angle' that lets the user control
The ProfitMilling strategy combines an offset of part boundaries with trochoid motion
to maintain a consistent tool engagement angle. Instead of a standard offset, the
system performs a smoothing of boundary offsets to produce long consistent offset
moves and places rounded moves in corners to maintain the programmed feedrate.
The ProfitMilling toolpath manages chip load and side-cutter force in the calculation
of toolpath while keeping the engagement angle and material removal rate within a
specific range.
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The Trochoid strategy is ideal for rectangular-type shapes or shapes without islands
Irregular shapes or shapes with islands yield better results with the ProfitMilling
strategy.
In both types of tool motion, trochoidal moves are linked by straight transition moves
that lift the tool slightly in Z to prevent it from dragging on the machined surface.
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The minimum radius is expressed as a percentage of the tool diameter. For example,
When the minimum radius is too big to fit into an area, the system will automatically
convert to slot machining. In that case, the user can define a slotting strategy that uses
a separate cut speed, feedrate, and cutting depth for areas that cannot be machined
with the desired engagement angle.
For Contouring operations, a trochoidal strategy can be enabled to create loops in the
toolpath in any area where ESPRIT detects that the tool is in full engagement with the
material. The same technique can be applied to pocketing toolpath when tool motion is
unidirectional, zigzag, or offset.
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Feedrates for opt imized machining
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An alternating (or zigzag) trochoidal motion eliminates lengthy retract movements to
DP Technology Corp.
1150 Avenida Acaso
Camarillo, CA 93012 USA
North America
+1 800 627 8479
esprit@dptechnology.com
International
+1 805 388 6000
esprit@dptechnology.com
About DP Technology
DP Technology is a leading
developer and supplier of
computer-aided manufacturing
(CAM) software for a full range
of machine tool applications.
ESPRIT, DP Technology’s
flagship product, is a powerful,
high-performance, full-
spectrum programming system
for milling, turning, wire EDM,
and multitasking machine
tools. ESPRIT embodies DP
Technology’s passion for
excellence and its vision of
technology’s potential.
©Copyright DP Technology
All rights reserved. ESPRIT is
a registered trademark of DP
Technology Corp.
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