Delcam believes that the latest release of its PowerMILL CAM software offers the quickest-ever return on investment for companies that are looking to replace their existing programming system with faster, more productive software. The company claims that many manufacturers could cover the cost of changing to PowerMILL within three to six months as a result of time and money saved in both programming and machining.

Delcam undertook a series of trials to confirm the added productivity that is possible with the latest release, PowerMILL 8. These showed reductions in the average programming time of 30% and in the average machining time of 15%, when compared to the results obtained with the PowerMILL 7 version. On this basis, a typical sub-contract or toolmaking company, programming and machining an average of 300 different parts per year, could recoup the cost of a PowerMILL licence in just over three months.

"We know from benchmarks undertaken by our prospective customers that PowerMILL 7 offered faster programming and machining than most other CAM systems on the market,'' claimed PowerMILL Marketing Manager Mark Forth. "With the productivity gains we have added into PowerMILL 8, we are even more confident that we can offer the most productive machining solution, especially for companies using high-speed and five-axis equipment.''

For the trials, three components were used to represent typical jobs that would benefit from using the Delcam software; a 0.25 metre square forging die, a 0.5 metre square injection mould cavity and a two metre long press tool. A comprehensive sequence of machining strategies was calculated for each part, including roughing, rest-roughing, semi-finishing and finishing programs, all using realistic stepovers, stepdowns and tolerances. All the calculations were undertaken on a 64 bit Windows XP computer, with 4GB RAM, 2 AMD 2.6 Ghz processors and Quadro FX540 128 Mb graphics card.

Mr. Forth highlighted two major areas responsible for the improved results. "The faster programming is mainly the result of improved memory management within PowerMILL 8 that gives significantly faster calculation times,'' he explained. "The improved machining times have been achieved by more efficient ordering of the toolpaths, especially in rest-roughing and rest-finishing. This means that air time is minimised and the cutter spends the maximum time possible on the job.''

"Both these factors are most significant for large, complex components, like press tools for automotive bodywork, and for smaller, highly-detailed models, such as moulds for fine-tolerance and high-accuracy parts,'' added Mr. Forth. "However, companies making smaller, less complex components tend to produce more different items during a year so the overall time to recoup the investment in PowerMILL would be similar.''

Full details on the new PowerMILL release and the trials can be found on the website www.powermill.com/releasecentre. The site also includes a savings calculator so that companies can work out how quickly they could recover their investment in PowerMILL.