4 & 5 Axis CNC programming

One of the reasons that finding good, reliable programming services for your 4 & 5-Axis machine tool is not easy, is the fact that  the machine tool manufacturers have come up with so many different ways of achieving the axis movements, some choosing to rotate and swing the table others choosing to swing and rotate the head and others a combination of both.

This means that setting up some CAM software to handle different configurations can be tricky - Not for us though, as our software takes care of all the hard work allowing us to concentrate on creating reliable and efficient cutter paths.

Postprocessors for 4 & 5 Axis machines can also be very tricky to set up. At Alphatech we are totally competent at writing a postprocessor for your machine if we don't already have one available. Therefore avoiding the usually high prices charged by most CAM software vendors for custom postprocessor writing and, in turn, allowing us to keep our prices low.

Full Machine Simulation
 
It is extremely important when programming for 5 axis machine tools that you are sure that the program will not cause a clash between any parts of the workpiece, holding fixtures or clamps and the machine and the machine head.

It is also important to keep within the movement limits of the machine - This is  easily done with a 3 Axis CNC machine because all you have to worry about is keeping the table and head movement within certain X, Y & Z limits.

With 5 axis programming this is not nearly so easy a task.  When you start to rotate the cutter axis relative to the workpiece the resulting table and head movement are almost impossible to predict without help from your software.
Fortunately our software enables us to enter in all of your machines dimensions and limits and fully simulate your machine running our programs. Our software will warn us if any collisions or travel overruns occur. This means that you can be confident that our programs will be problem free and totally reliable.