West Manufacturing News • July 2015 • DP Technology Releases CAM Solution ESPRIT 2015

CAM industry provider DP Technology has announced the release of a new version of its flagship product ESPRIT 2015. “ESPRIT helps increase productivity for a full range of machine tool applications by generating more efficient tool paths while also saving time by providing substantial improvements in CNC programming productivity,” said a company spokesperson. “The release also provides many new and improved features specifically in the areas of intelligent machining, strategic machining, CAD-CAM data exchange and Cloud-Enabled CAM.”

Intelligent machining features in ESPRIT 2015 are designed to accelerate the machining process by providing new and unique 5-axis cycles that reduce cycle time. “This makes it possible to completely machine blades in a single set-up,” said the spokesperson. “ESPRIT’s 5-axis blade roughing tool motion is morphed across the blade from any size stock shape to uniformly offset stock allowance so it can be immediately followed by a finishing cycle.”

“ESPRIT 2015 offers unique features in 5-axis to make complex machining more efficient, allowing users to have more tool path options with features like blade roughing and chamfering,” said Cedric Simard, Global Marketing & Communication Director of DP Technology. “ESPRIT 2015 blade roughing enables users to remove material down to uniform stock around the blade and eliminates the need to follow semi-finish cycles. Users in the aerospace, energy, medical and automotive industries will benefit the most from these time-saving operations for precision parts.”

The Port Roughing cycle, another intelligent machining improvement in ESPRIT 2015, is a brand-new 5-axis cycle. It creates a 5-axis roughing operation to remove the material inside an area where the tool must enter through a restricted opening. The shape of the tool path is an offset of the port surfaces, starting at the surface and proceeding inward at a constant step over.

ESPRIT 2015 also includes features designed to increase machining productivity. “The new bottom-up roughing strategy helps take ESPRIT’s Profit Milling high-speed material removal cycle to the next level,” said the spokesperson. “The new bottom-up strategy lets you attain a small residual stock height during the stock removal process. Even more, it can be combined with Profit Milling - our high-speed machining roughing technology - for a major improvement in overall productivity. Profit Milling optimizes tool paths with engagement angle, chip load, lateral cutter force and material removal rate to reduce cycle time and increase tool life.”

The strategic machining capabilities of ESPRIT 2015 have been expanded with redesigned stock automation capabilities for multitasking machines with mill, turn and drill capabilities. Available for the Facing, Contouring and Pocketing milling cycles, the new stock automation function maintains awareness of the stock removed by previous operations to generate cutting passes only in areas where stock remains. “This function reduces air cutting which, in turn, reduces cycletime,”said the spokesperson.

Additional strategic machining improvements have been made by providing support for slot mill tools in the Port Milling and Composite cycles. Slot mill tools are designed to save machining time on operations as tee-slotting and square shoulder milling and their geometry generate lower cutting forces in soft materials and unstable set-ups, which increases tool life. Barrel-shaped cutters are now supported in 5-axis blade and composite cycles. “Barrel shaped cutters provide a much better surface finish than ball end mills because their geometry provides a larger effective radius of engagement, resulting in smaller cusps between tool paths,” said the spokesperson.

New data exchange features in ESPRIT 2015 facilitate the moving of information from a CAD system into the CAM environment. Three new geometry types - sketches, feature profiles and curves - are now available through ESPRIT FX data exchange from Dassault Systemes CATIA, Parametric Technology Pro/ENGINEER and Siemens NX/UG. “The additional information obtained from these geometry types can be easily manipulated to cover complex areas for roughing operations or extend surfaces to get a better finish on edges,” said the spokesperson.

ESPRIT 2015 provides another improvement to shorten programming time by increasing the accuracy of automated feature recognition. “The enhanced Auto Chain support for solid faces, loops and edges lets you create chain features directly on solid models,” said the spokesperson. “In addition, a redesigned wall feature recognition command automatically recognizes the upper and lower limits of walls, even tapered walls, in a solid model.”

“ESPRIT 2015 allows you to select tools based on the features of your parts in minutes - saving you the drudgery of flipping through catalogs to find ideal tooling,” continued the spokesperson. With the ESPRIT Machining Cloud Connection, programmers have access to complete and up-to-date tooling product data, cutting programming time by eliminating manual tool creation. ESPRIT 2015 is designed to simplify the selection of cutting tools and automatically obtain the recommended ones.