MecSoft Corporation

Hello. What is the purpose of the "plunge feed" parameter? At first impression I thought it was the rate at which Z would plunge into the material but this is not the case. It seems to be just the speed at which Z moves down but before starts cutting. Why is this important?

Why not instead make plunge feed the rate at which Z moves down while cutting? That would certainly ease that operation which I find it to be one of the most difficult for an endmill. I could then set plunging very slow but speed up when cutting horizontally. Maybe I got this whole thing wrong so I'll wait for your comments.

Thanks,
JR

Hi JR,
The plunge feed rate is used to control the pluge moves into material during transfer motions when the tool picks up from one area and moves to another before starting to cut. It is not used to control the speed of Z moves. This however is a good suggestion. I will add it to our enhancement requests.

I would like to add that in most horizontal operations (rouging and finishing) that it would be helpful if some feedrate specification (perhaps the engage feedrate) would be used in all cases where the tool is engaged, or may be engaging material. There are cases in horizontal roughing, and in horizontal finishing where I have problems because the cutter plunges at the cut feed rate, instead of the engage rate.

In general, I feel that there are inconsistincies in how the feedrates (approach, plunge, engage, cut) are applied across the different machining strategies. Maybe there is a general pattern that I haven't picked up on. I have become good at getting certain operations to behave well, but some operations seem to not consistently apply the engage and approach rates where I think they should be.

Again, particularly in horizontal operations, it is always potentially disasterous for the cutter to plunge at the cut rate. If I could always be assured that the cutter will plunge at the engage rate when material is below the cutter it would be a huge help to me.

There are cases, such as parallel finishing, where I would like to have the option to slow down the feedrate when the tool is moving in the plunge direction.

Hi all, hi Mecsoft,

I want to join JAKE´s wish to control feed in parallel finishing.
Ballmills need to reduce feed if the area becomes steep (in Z).
A good control could be to give in an angle and reduce cutfeed in percent
(i.e. normal=100%, >50°Feed=80%, >75° Feed=50%, >85°to 90° Feed=30%)

I would like to see a possibility to give in an approach and engage FEED in Horizontal Roughing. Tool goes down in Plunge Feed, which sometimes could be to high (to avoid timeloss). Tool should stop and then engage in lower Feed near Z-Level.

Thanks

Robert

[Edited by Happy VM5 User on 04-Apr-05 09:54]

Okay,
We have added this to our enhancement list. It should show up in V6.

Constant chip load is what would solve these, as well as many other, potential issues regarding engage, angles, arcs, endmill geometery. The ability to define a chip loading that is maintained during the MOP.

We, like others I assume, edit G-code to address these issues.

Robert