Delcam to show integrated machining and inspection at Control

Delcam’s PowerINSPECT includes support for five-axis inspection

Delcam will demonstrate two new programs to improve machining quality, NC-Checker and NC-PartLocator, at the Control exhibition to be held in Stuttgart from 5th to 8th May. Both pieces of software combine machining and inspection technology to improve the speed and accuracy of production, especially when machining large, complex or flexible components. The company will also show the latest version of PowerINSPECT, the world’s leading hardware-independent inspection software.

NC-Checker provides a quick and easy way to monitor the accuracy of a wide range of commonly-used machine tools with standard probing equipment. It can be used before machining starts to confirm that the equipment has been set up correctly and then applied during the production run to detect any movements out of tolerance that might have been caused by, for example, wear or temperature changes. Clearly, more regular checks will be needed when producing more expensive or more complex components with stricter tolerances.

All the results can be archived to provide a traceable history of the performance of each machine. Any deterioration in performance over time can be detected, possibly signalling the need to schedule maintenance work, even before any out-of-tolerance parts have been produced.

NC-PartLocator gives the ability to adjust toolpaths to the measured position of the part, rather than having to ensure that the piece is in exactly the nominal location specified in the CAM system. This adjustment can be made in the machine tool control much more quickly and easily than placing, and holding, the part in exactly the specified position.

NC-PartLocator can be used for the finish machining of components as well as for the production of tooling. For example, it is often necessary to drill into large plastic or composite components to a set depth to provide fixing holes. By using NC-PartLocator, the surface of the component can be scanned and the data used to calculate the drilling routine. This will give more reliable results than using the nominal surface from the CAD model of the part.

NC-PartLocator can also be used to prevent tolerance build-up when undertaking a series of machining operations. For example, if a series of holes have to be produced around a central bore, the location of the bore can be confirmed before starting the drilling operations. Again, using the actual positions of the features that have already been machined will give more accurate results than using the nominal positions from the CAD file.

The latest version of PowerINSPECT includes support for five-axis scanning with Renishaw’s REVO probe. It also features the ability to use multiple alignments within parts or assemblies, additional GD&T features, more flexible best-fit algorithms, improved CMM connectivity and more versatile report generation.