Integrating digital tool libraries into CAM software

Part manufacturers must continually increase productivity without sacrificing quality. Several new integrated digital solutions have emerged that support this process.

The demand for integrated, connected manufacturing systems is growing. Shorter product life cycles put pressure on manufacturing engineers and machinists to decrease the time from part design to production while keeping on top of advances in equipment and tools, such as the use of multitask tools that can perform complex operations simultaneously. As the metalworking industry shifts from mass production to mass customization, companies are asking their CAM software to enable more rapid, adaptable and accurate production via machining simulation.

Courtesy of Sandvik Coromant

Three steps to higher productivity and security when CAM programming.

When using CAM for simulation, operators must populate the virtual tool libraries that are part of many CAM programs. This is a time-consuming process that they must re- create at the start of each new project. A problem is the lack of standardized data among different brands of tools, requiring more effort to interpret data from various cutting tool catalogs in different formats and to communicate with various shop floor devices. Sometimes, the lack of standardization can lead to unpredictable results.

Several solutions have emerged which, when applied cooperatively, offer an intelligent, comprehensive and integrated solution.

Standardized Tool Data

There are approximately 1.2 million manufacturing units in the world. Traditionally, all CAM suppliers, machine tool builders and toolmakers developed their own methods of denominating and structuring tool information. The need for a standard way of communicating tool data is apparent to anyone who searches for and maps cutting tool data as part of a project design.

Enter ISO 13399, an international standard for describing tool data. ISO 13399 describes how attributes of each tool, such as length, width and radius, are to be defined, allowing cutting tool data to be consistent regardless of the manufacturer or brand. When all tools share the same parameters and definitions, the communication of tool information between software systems and machines improves considerably. Some cutting tool manufacturers, such as Sandvik Coromant AB, Sandviken, Sweden, are using the standard. Several other large cutting tool suppliers are in the process of moving data to the ISO 13399 format.

Tool Data Libraries

CAM operators typically search for tool data in different catalogs and Web sites each time they begin a project. They have no way of saving their most-often-used tools in a personal collection or database. A virtual library of the available tools provides a solution. One such tool library is Adveon, developed by Sandvik Coromant. It is an open-platform library on which any cutting tool supplier can load its ISO 13399-compliant catalogs. Sandvik Coromant’s initial contribution, already available in Adveon, includes about 12,000 tools within its rotational assortment.

The library enables subscribed users to quickly make updates, additions and corrections, providing them up-to-date data. Plans for adding modules to Adveon to support tool recommendations for process optimization are in the works.