Turning point

For the increasing number of manufacturers investing in mill/turn technology, the advantages are shortened machining cycles, greater accuracy and efficiency and reduced set-up times — which means lower production costs.

Although 3-axis control is the accepted basis for the majority of prismatic machining applications, there is a steadily growing interest in 5-axis machining. Without question, the benefits of 5-axis set-ups can be substantial, especially when coupled with mill/turn-type machining flexibility.

But without the control software to drive the machine axes, and the CAM software that translates the component designs into cutting strategies the machine drives can work with, multi-axis control would be impossible.

'We are seeing an increased use of 5-axis machining in production manufacturing,' said Bill Gibbs, founder and president of software developer

. 'Not only do 5-axis machine tools minimise the number of set-ups required to machine a part, but many of the models being created by today's CAD systems contain geometry that can only be economically machined using 5-axis technology.'