Mastercam 2018 was recently introduced at EASTEC where attendees were impressed with the tools the software has available to get parts off...

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Educational initiatives, company news, acquisitions and people in the industry are all featured this issue.

Free form milling of gears becomes more and more important as a flexible machining process for gears. Reasons for that are high degrees of freedom as the usage of universal tool geometry and machine tools is possible. This allows flexible machining of various gear types and sizes with one manufacturing system. This paper deals with manufacturing, quality and performance of gears made by free form milling. The focus is set on specific process properties of the parts. The potential of free form milling is investigated in cutting tests of a common standard gear. The component properties are analyzed and flank load-carrying capacity of the gears is derived by running trials on back-to-back test benches. Hereby the characteristics of gears made by free form milling and capability in comparison with conventionally manufactured gears will be shown.

Big Data Expands Process Capabilities for Multi-Axis Machining.

Exciting new machine, cutting tool and software technologies are compelling many manufacturers to take a fresh look at producing their larger gears on machining centers. They're faster than ever, more flexible, easy to operate, highly affordable - and for any type of gear.