Software & Digital Solutions

TechDay is a dual-location event June 7 by Datron Dynamics Inc. at technology centers on the East and West coasts to demonstrate new CNC control software. Although free and open to the public, registration is required.

Hypertherm announced the release of ProNest 2019, a major version update of its advanced CAD/CAM nesting software for automated cutting. This new release contains more than a dozen new features and enhancements designed to make customers more efficient and profitable.

Florence, Ky.-based Mazak Corp. hosted the Midwest Technology + Education Event May 1-3 at its Midwest Regional Headquarters and Technology Center in Schaumburg, Ill. The machine tool builder exhibited and demonstrated an array of equipment, including milling, turning, 5-axis and multitask machines, and nine of the company's Value Inspired Partners exhibited at the event.

ANCA Inc., which makes CNC tool and cutter grinders and manufacturing software, invites the industry to attend the opening of its plant expansion May 23 and 24 in Wixom, Mich.

The latest release of Vero Software's WorkNC high-performance CAD/CAM solution for machining complex geometries is said to be the next step on its quality journey. Brand Manager Miguel Johann says the new and enhanced functionality in WorkNC 2018 R2 keeps users at the cutting edge of technology.

CNC Software Inc., Tolland, Conn., developer of Mastercam CAD/CAM software, is partnering with NASA's program High Schools United With NASA to Create Hardware, or HUNCH.

For shop managers considering "lights out machining," Bob Warfield of CNCCookbook.com offers a host of tips to help ensure your success. Watch the 15th episode of the CNC Chef, a collaboration between Bob Warfield of the CNCCookbook.com and Cutting Tool Engineering.

Metrologic Group and Creaform have entered into a partnership in which Creaform integrates Metrologic Group's software suite with its new CUBE-R 3D automated dimensional inspection solution. This laser scanning, all-in-one solution features Metrologic Group's advanced 3D measurement programming and inspection software packages, Silma and Metrolog X4 i-Robot, and combines efficiency and reliability of robotization in an automated industrial measuring cell.

Mastercam is known for precision NC programming, but it also delivers a suite of shop-tested design tools aimed at getting parts on and off the machine as quickly as possible. Powerful modeling tools include not only 3D surfacing and solids, but hole-filling, direct editing without a solids history and geometry repair.

I once worked in the cubicle next to Mike, the shop's estimating guy. He sat there all day using an electronic pen to trace the outlines of parts on paper drawings. He painstakingly determined the length of each journal, the depth of each hole and the number of cubic inches contained in each milled pocket before feeding that information into the company's estimating software. That's all Mike did.

The most fundamental elements of any metalcutting process, cutting tools are by their nature consumable. They wear until they are no longer effective. A traditional approach to metalcutting tool management employs wear analysis alone, focused on manipulating tool materials, geometries and application parameters to improve part output and tool life in a selected operation. To maximize the efficiency of your facility's entire manufacturing process – boosting part-processing productivity and impacting the bottom line – you must go further in the pursuit of optimization.

When Nippon Bearing Co. Ltd. started developing its EXRAIL roller guide, it wanted to strengthen its overall line. The result, according to the company, has 1.5 times the rigidity of a conventional roller guide.