hyperMILL® : Customised Process Features

The customised process feature, or CPF, is a special feature technology built into the hyperMILL® CAM system. CPFs allow companies to define individual corporate standards for automated programming. Possible applications extend far beyond conventional features.

OPEN MIND Technologies AG has enhanced the 2011 version of its CAM software, hyperMILL®, adding an expanded and improved feature technology. This enables the definition of company standards for CAM programming.

Even complex machining sequences, once defined, can be programmed easily and with automation support using this technology. The method is based on process-oriented linking of characteristic geometry sequences with freely defined machining steps.

Without limits

“CPFs allow the linking and naming of any number of geometry selections and associated parameters in one element, and you can also add images and documentation”, explains Peter Brambs, head of the Global Engineering Service Group at OPEN MIND. CPFs enable the creation and use of macros. A curve for example can be a machining contour or a boundary curve, and that manufacturing purpose can also be stored in the CPF.

One example is a pocket comprised of a hub surface, a lateral cut-out, an upper edge curve, etc. The user can select these individual surfaces, assign a name to them (e.g., contact surface), add an image if necessary so that another user also knows what it is, and then combine it all into a CPF. Other parts that share the same geometric structure can be described and machined using the same CPF. Filter schemes within the CPF technology allow for automated selection of geometry, especially when consistent rules (colors, layers, etc) are used in the creation of smart designs.

The initial steps are to conceive the structure of the CPF, and define the machining steps. With this stored information, complex geometry with a similar structure can be programmed with a few mouse clicks, and with reduced chance of programming errors. Once tested and stored, the CPF is recalled and consistently applied with knowledge of the end-user manufacturing processes.

The software thereby enables the creation of a truly complex customer-specific element that can be selected as a single CAM entity and automated on this basis.

John Hart provides consultation and training to assist a customer to define their own CPFs.