TRUEMill: Explained
Increase your Milling Machining Productivity – GUARANTEED!
Have you ever wondered if it is possible to achieve greater machining productivity out of your existing CNC machines in your shop? Does it seem that every time you need to cut a part you are pressured for time and need more speed to get the job done? Do you wish you could achieve more life out of your machines and tooling?
If you have found yourself asking these questions…so have we. We all live in a day and age where every minute counts in your shop and every dollar needing to be spent wisely. Did you know that you can reduce cycle your times, increase machine & cutting tool life and achieve higher material removal rates? You can, with a patented toolpath called “TRUEMill”.
What is TRUEMill?
TRUEMill is quantum leap in CAM toolpath technology. A TRUEMill toolpath controls the tool’s engagement in the material being cut to maximize the material removal rate (MRR). TRUEMill allows a cut that is both faster and deeper than any other 2 & 3 axis roughing toolpath on the market today. TRUEMill’s effectiveness and speed is especially evident in difficult or exotic materials such as titanium, inconel and hard steels. TRUEMill’s superior toolpath is not dependant on the geometry to be milled, so no guesswork is required to see which pocketing routine is best. TRUEMill toolpaths have proven to increase material removal rates by up to 10 X and increase tool life anywhere from 30% to 100% while at the same time decreasing cycle times and reducing the stress on CNC machines.
TRUEMill is developed by Surfware, Inc. and is a patented Engagement Milling technology (US Patent 7451013).
What is the difference between a TRUEMill and Traditional toolpath?
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TRUEMill operates by maintaining the tool’s engagement with the material regardless of the geometry being milled. One might ask how this differs from keeping a constant stepover in a traditional CAM system. The answer is that in traditional systems, toolpaths are generally created to follow the general shape of the area being machined. After each pass is made, the tool then steps over by some user-defined value and repeats the shape until the area is machined. A common problem with these toolpaths, however, is that when the tool enters the corner, the tool's engagement with the material increases dramatically as seen on the left below. Depending on the user defined stepover, engagement of the tool with the material varies substantially. |
Traditional Toolpath |
Tool Engagement ExplainedQ: How is tool engagement defined? A: Tool engagement is 120° in this example. |
Problem: Tool Engagement increases as the tool enters a corner in a traditional step over toolpath. This results in increased tool load and stress - poor cutting. Solution: TRUEMill eliminates this problem by adjusting the step over everywhere to control Tool Engagement instead. |
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To counteract the increased load on the tool in corners, traditional toolpaths typically take shallow cuts and reduce the feed rate so as to avoid tool loads that can cause tool breakage. By taking these steps, traditional toolpaths reduce the MRR, increase the cycle time, and increase machining costs. In a TRUEMill toolpath, all of the sharp directional changes have been effectively eliminated. As a result, the tool never plows or exceeds the predetermined engagement in a corner or any place in the entire toolpath. This greatly reduces the load on a tool. TRUEMill accomplishes this by creating toolpaths based on the principle of maintaining the tool's engagement angle (TEA) with the part. |
TRUEMill Toolpath
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By allowing the tool to cut faster and deeper, TRUEMill allows for a higher MRR for any material along with reduced cycle times. In addition to these benefits, the reduced wear on the tool has been proven to dramatically extend tool life. The strength of TRUEMill is its ability to rough at speeds, feeds and depths of cut previously thought impossible because the toolpath maintains: • Constant Engagement of Tool in the Material |
TRUEMill provides control over all four of these conditions, keeping them constant to achieve the highest material removal rates possible. For example, what might take a traditional toolpath four passes to get down to full depth will only take a single pass with TRUEMill. See and hear the difference… |
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Traditional toolpath – 4 passes to depth |
TRUEMill toolpath – 1 pass at full depth |
he below chart is an example of results which can be achieved by using “Tool Engagement” controlled toolpaths by TRUEMill.
TRUEMill toolpaths as machined on a Haas VF-2SS CNC Machine
| Material | Aluminum 6061 | Titanium 6AL4V | Steel - ToolOx (45 Rc) | P20 Tool Steel |
| Endmill | .500” Dia . | .500” Dia . | .500” Dia. | .500” Dia. |
| Depth | 1.000” | 1.000” | 1,000” | 1,000” |
| Speed | 10,000 rpm | 3,438 rpm | 10,000 rpm | 10,000 rpm |
| Feed | 320 ipm | 115 ipm | 180 ipm | 252 ipm |
| Max SO* | .315” | .035” | .058” | .056” |
| TEA** | 105.o | 30.7o | 40.0o | 39.0o |
| MRR*** | 100.71 im 3/min | 4.03 in3/min | 10.53 in3/min | 14.04 in3/min |
* Maximum equivalent (true) step over
**Tool engagement angle
*** Material Removal Rate