Combined mill/turn centers are a very sophisticated type of CNC machine as they link two different types of machining technologies. The advantage is that the workpiece can be milled and turned on one machine and one setup. This means even highly complex workpieces can be completely machined in a single setup. The combination of milling and turning is therefore becoming more and more important in CNC programming.
Mill turning has enormous potential when it comes to manufacturing a particular range of parts. For example, when a typical milled part has a rotationally symmetrical outer contour, it is not necessary to clamp the part again on a second machine with credit to one-hit machining. The manufacturing time is reduced and greater precision is achieved. Therefore, in general, mill turning makes manufacturing processes more cost-efficient.
hyperMILL® now offers convenient programming for two-sided machining on machines* with a main and counter spindle. The machining jobs are simply programmed under the “Main Spindle” and “Counter Spindle” containers, and thereby assigned to the respective machining side. The component or bar material, with or without parting, is simply transferred with the new transfer job. NC output from the main side, opposite side, and component transfer are realized in one end-to-end NC program with a machine model and a post-processor.
*Type DMG MORI CTX machines are supported in release 2022.1 and up. More manufacturers and machine types will follow.
The complexity of turning and milling places higher demands on NC programming. The CAM software must make it possible to work safely and efficiently.
MILL-TURN machining is fully integrated in hyperMILL® CAM software. The user can equally use mill/turn strategies as well as all 2.5D, 3D and 5-axis milling strategies in a single user interface. Even demanding mill/turn tasks can be programed very conveniently in hyperMILL® using the MILL-TURN Machining module. This is due to all turning and milling strategies being freely combined with each another. This means that the NC programmer can be very flexible when choosing the best possible machining strategy.
Another advantage of the MILL-TURN Machining module is the fully integrated tool database, stock tracking, collision checking and postprocessor in hyperMILL®. These features can be used jointly for all milling and turning operations.
Intelligent algorithms calculate toolpaths that correspond to a trochoidal shape. The individual paths are perfectly connected and the approach and retract movements are optimally harmonized. Optimized feeds provide maximum speed. Machining takes place in a uniform direction or in a zigzag pattern. The infeed takes place in a linear or ramp-like movement. Depending on the machining case, the inserts are always utilized to the fullest.
hyperMILL® MILL-TURN Machining.
Mill-Turn Strategies
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This video shows the machining process of a turn-mill demo part machined in collaboration with CERATIZIT. It was machined on a DMG MORI CTX1250 including part transfer from main to sub spindle programmed with hyperMILL®’s new transfer job. This part in particular shows a whole lot of different operations from drilling, turning to 5-axis milling.
In this video you can see an impressive HPC Turning demo part made in collaboration with CERATIZIT. It clearly shows how efficient and flexible it is. It can be used for OD turning, face turning, grooves of all sorts and ID turning. All this without any additional programming efforts.
This video shows the machining of an engine case for the aerospace industry on a Hermle C42 MT U dynamic. It was programmed using hyperMILL® MILL-TURN Machining strategies combined with high-performance strategies from the hyperMILL® MAXX Machining package such as High-Performance Turning and High-Performance Milling.
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