10 seminars across Japan introduce the country's engineers to WorkNC V21

Sescoi has just completed ten seminars in Japan as part of the release schedule for its latest WorkNC V21, the latest version of its automatic CAD CAM software. With events in Tokyo, Saitama, Hiroshima, Osaka, Aichi-Nagoya, Fukushima, Gunma, Niigata, Toyama and Shizuoka, the company welcomed 230 users from all over the country.

Partner companies, including Hermle agent - Aichi Sangyo, Mitsubishi Materials Corporation, Hitachi Tool Engineering, Mori Seiki and OSG Corporation presented their machine tools and tooling at each of the venues, and illustrated the benefits of integrating advanced CAM methodology within a manufacturing environment for faster cutting speeds, longer tool life and improved part quality.

At the Tokyo and Aichi-Nagoya seminars, Koichi Zama, Chief Engineer, Computer Integrated Systems Department from Honda R&D Co., Ltd. (Automobile R&D Center), a WorkNC user, gave a special lecture on current developments in the Japanese Automobile Manufacturers Association and the new manufacturing challenges at Honda.

Sescoi’s CAM engineers demonstrated the advances in WorkNC V21. 64 bit processing in the new version makes full use of the latest generation of multi-core computers, delivering speed improvements of up to 70% while giving the user full control of the number of processes to run simultaneously.

Automated flat surface machining recognizes flat surfaces and machines them in the most effective way, improving surface finish and reducing machining time, while adaptive roughing and semi-finishing algorithms reduce calculation times for these processes even more. New Continuous Finishing routines cut steep and shallow areas in one operation, minimizing retract movements, tool changes and duplicated cutterpaths to produce a smooth and even trajectory, which minimizes cutter load and reduces overall machining times.

A significant number of companies anticipated that they would be implementing 5-axis machining in the coming months. The advances in WorkNC V21 will make this even easier, with the simplification and rationalization of toolpaths from 12 down to six. WorkNC users said that they already appreciated the totally reliable holder collision checking and avoidance in WorkNC, and that they could see how important this would be when they make the move to 5-axis CNC machining in the future.

WorkNC has been the top CAD CAM system in Japan for toolmakers for many years, and has been used by skilled Japanese engineers to produce winning entries in CNC machining competitions. With engineers at the seminars agreeing that the new features in WorkNC V21 would improve their productivity even further, the software is set to maintain its dominant position in the country.