High-Performance Toolpath Engine with Active Chip Thickness Control Interface

Celeritive Technologies, a developer of innovative competitive manufacturing solutions through high-speed machining technologies, announces the release of VoluMill™ v4.0. The latest version of the ultra high-performance toolpath engine includes the Active Chip Thickness Control (ACTC™) interface, which makes it easy to achieve even greater reductions in rough milling cycle time, and the new Non-Concentric Milling technology, designed to reduce tool load and improve chip clearance.

“Radial chip thinning has been a common topic of discussion over the past decade or so,” states Glenn Coleman, chief product officer of Celeritive. “It is a real phenomenon, easily defined and illustrated, but one whose benefits have proven elusive. ACTC now makes those benefits attainable by moving beyond the concept of chip thinning and giving our customers direct control over the actual chip thickness throughout their rough milling programs. This active management of chip thickness is producing reductions in cycle time up to 35% over current VoluMill toolpaths – which were already up to 5X faster than typical toolpaths.”

“We have reengineered VoluMill 4.0 from the ground-up to improve machining dynamics during arc moves,” says Dr. Evan Sherbrooke, chief technology officer of Celeritive. “Toolpaths have always contained arc moves that share the same center point and entry angle as arc moves on previous passes. Unfortunately, when the tool enters these arc moves, the tool load increases quite suddenly. Our new Non-Concentric Milling technology locates arcs at different center points, so that each successive pass begins its arc move sooner than on the previous pass. As a result, the tool load changes more gradually, and the chips evacuate more easily.”

VoluMill has proven itself time and time again as the fastest, easiest and most economical way to increase the competitiveness of machining operations. CEOs and CFOs see increases in profitability and greater return on capital assets. Sales people have found they can be much more competitive with bids. Operations Managers enjoy increased shop throughput and scheduling flexibility, plus reductions in cutting tool costs and inventory. NC Programmers benefit from the quick learning curve and ease of use. And machine operators just plain love how it sounds when cutting.

VoluMill runs as an integrated solution inside many industry-leading CAM systems. The standalone VoluMill Universal™ product, designed to work with any CAD/CAM system, is also available.