Combined mill/turn centres 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. In general, mill turning therefore makes manufacturing processes more cost-efficient.
The complexity of turning and milling places higher demands on NC programming. The CAM software must therefore make it possible to work safely and efficiently.
MILL-TURN machining is fully integrated in the 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 credit 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.
hyperMILL® MILL-TURN Machining.
Mill-Turn Strategies
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This video shows the machining of an engine case for the aerospace industry on a Hermle C42 MT. It was programmed with hyperMILL® MILL-TURN Machining combined with high-performance strategies from the hyperMILL® MAXX Machining package.
