The Power of FIVE: The Definitive Guide to 5-Axis Machining

The Power of FIVE: The Definitive Guide to 5-Axis Machining book was officially released this month at an industry conference, Top Shops, in Indianapolis. The author, Michael Cope, is a machinist and works at Hurco as a product technical specialist.

Cope said he wrote the book because the adoption of five-sided machining processes is the most efficient way for job shops to instantly increase productivity and profitability. While there are other books about 5-axis CNC technologies, he saw a need to write a book specifically for machinists.

Cope said: "I’ve always seen myself as a machinist first and wrote this book with the intention of educating machinists and shop owners on the value of 5-axis machining because I truly believe it is the future of our industry and the most efficient way to produce parts. Making the transition to 5-sided machining on a 5-axis CNC machine solves many of the problems so many shops face: finding qualified machinists (the skills gap); excessive setup costs due to inefficiency; and reacting to pressure from customers, both pricing pressure and delivery pressure. To be blunt, 5-axis saves time and money. Since time is money in our industry, 5-axis makes each part more profitable. It offsets the skills gap issue because you can do more with fewer machines, which means you won’t need to find as many skilled employees. The technology makes the process more efficient, which means shops increase productivity because they don’t waste time flipping parts. Making the transition to 5-sided machining on a 5-axis CNC also helps job shops respond effectively to pressure from customers because they can switch from one job to another quickly and efficiently. Basically, you can do more with less if you select the right 5-axis CNC machine."

The idea for the book was realized as Cope was preparing for a conference where he was asked to speak on behalf of Hurco about 5-axis CNC machines and control technologies. Maggie Smith, marketing manager at Hurco, said, “Hurco identified 5-axis as a critical initiative in 2006 because we realized it would help our customers be more profitable. We focused our attention on what we do best: building rigid and reliable CNC machines equipped with the most flexible control that supports both NC and conversational programming, and developing software features that are intuitive and easy to learn. Our software engineers made sure the conversational programming of the 5-axis control makes the transition to 5-sided machining easy. So easy, in fact, that no CAM system is required.”