Spiral Milling

 

Spiral machining gives a good surface without having to use a particularly small tool.
It gives particularly good results for areas that are  relatively flat.
Use this type of operation to optimize machine time by reducing the stepover.

To create the operation you define:

  • the geometry of the part to machine ,
  • the parameters for the machining strategy ,
  • the tool to use . The tools that can be used with this type of operation are:
  • end mill tools,
  • conical tools,
  • face mill tools, and
  • T-slotters . 
  • the feedrates and spindle speeds ,
  • the macros  .
Either:
  • make the Manufacturing Program current in the specification tree if you want to define an operation
    and the part/area to machine at the same time,
  • or select a machining feature from the list if you have already defined the area to machine and
    now you want to define the operation to apply to it.

Below we are going to see how to do the first of these.

  1. Open file gets2.CATPart.


    2. Click Spiral milling .
    A Spiral milling entity and a default tool are added to the program.
    The Spiral  milling dialog box opens at the geometry tab page .
    This page includes a sensitive icon to help you specify the geometry to be machined.

  2. Click the red area in the sensitive icon and select the part in the viewer.
    Then double-click anywhere in the viewer to confirm your selection and redisplay the dialog box.

  3. Go to the machining strategy tab and make sure that Horizontal area selection is set to Automatic.

  4. Click Tool Path Replay to compute the tool path for the operation.

  5. A progress indicator is displayed.
    You can cancel the tool path computation at any moment before 100% completion.

 

Invalid Face

  1. If a tool path cannot be computed because of invalid faces,
    an explicit warning message like this one will appear:

    Each invalid face is highlighted in red, with an arrow pointing on it.

    This visualization is removed when you close the main dialog box or
    when you select Remove in the contextual menu.

  2. Click OK in the Warning box to revert to the main dialog box.
    In the Geometry tab, a message Ignore invalid faces: No is displayed:

  3. You can either:

    • close the dialog box.
      When you reopen it, the Ignore invalid faces: No will not be displayed.
    • heal the defective geometry and restart the computation.
      If it is successful the message Ignore invalid faces: No will disappear.
    • ignore the invalid faces. Click the text Ignore invalid faces: No.
      It will turn to Ignore invalid faces: Yes and the computation will continue.
      The message remains displayed as a warning.
Be very careful when you choose to ignore invalid faces.
We recommend that you ignore only faces that will not affect the tool path.
Otherwise this may lead to defective tool paths.