ToolRoom Software Supports Manufacturing of Complex Endmills

Photo Credit: ANCA

ANCA Inc. showcases the support of the barrel shape ballnose (BSB) tool type in its up-to-the-minute ToolRoom RN34 software for machining. The software’s latest enhancement also comes with revamped double corner radius (DCR) endmills, and support four tool types, including taper form, barrel, oval and lens shapes, which are predominately used in die mold, aerospace and general machining applications.

With the support of these forms, ANCA says, the ability to create endmills with a larger radius edge has been made possible, thus permitting greater step over increments, which in turn improve productivity, longer tool life, faster cycle times and improved surface finish. 

According to ANCA, the combination of the endmill and its upgraded wizard-based BSB design in ToolRoom enables manufacturing of complex, sophisticated endmills and is suitable for catalog production. It provides the option to scale tools and add various other operations like roughing or chip breakers. For example, a special fluting operation ensures a constant hook angle all the way along the trajectory of the cutting edge resulting in vibration-free tools, with less wear and tear during machining. ToolRoom also supports custom forms for specials. A static view is available, to give parameter inputs for geometry description and a dynamic view enables visualization of the geometry as parameters are entered.

Other software features include compensation methods for high accuracy, which ANCA supports with manual, iView and LaserPlus compensation for all geometry. These finishing cutters are said to have very tight tolerances; LaserPlus can maintain a tolerance within +/-0.002 mm on both the ball and form radius. According to the company, this accuracy can also be maintained in batch grinding with automatic in-process compensation for large volume production on machines. 

Additional tool functions are offered with ToolRoom. Tool balancing minimizes the influence of eccentric weight distribution on uneven tools, and designer edge ballnose is offered for aggressive cutting.