Newport Beach, CA - NCCS has announced that NCL V9.0 of their multi-axis machining software contains special features that will benefit makers of tire molds and patterns.  NCL is a powerful Computer-Aided Manufacturing software package which generates simultaneous 2 through 5-axis NC tool paths and provides parametric 3D modeling.  All geometric modeling and tool path functions are fully associative.  A change to the model results in an immediate change to corresponding tool paths.  NCL is ideally suited for environments where design changes are frequent, such as the aerospace industry.  NCL also supports full parametric programming where a family of parts can be machined by simply filling in a form.  NCL is used extensively in the aerospace, turbomachinery, power generation, tire mold, and composite industries.

Features provided in NCL V9.0 that benefit tire mold and pattern manufacturers include:

• Automated 5-axis holemaking
  This feature allows an unlimited number of hole locations to be read from a CAD model.   The NCL software then automatically performs a user specified holemaking operation using 2-1/2 through 5-axis machining techniques at each hole location.

• Automated 5-axis machining of stick letters
  This feature allows curve geometry, which represents lettering to be read from a CAD model.  NCL will automatically trace the stick letters on to specified surfaces in full 5-axis.

• 5-axis flank milling of tire tread profiles
  NCL easily generates simultaneous 5-axis flank milling cutter paths along multiple surface intersections.  NCL supports a variety of flank milling options found in no other system on the market.

• 5-axis sharp corner milling
  This feature allows a sharp inside corner formed by two intersecting surfaces to be machined in 5-axis using a sharp-nosed tapered end mill (pencil cutter).  This operation consists of 5-axis profiling into the corner and then leaning the tool away from the surfaces at a user specified angle and running the sharp point of the tool along the surface intersections.  This complex operation is performed with just a few clicks of the mouse.

• 5-axis area clearance
  This feature allows 5-axis material removal between surfaces which form the groove of the tire tread.  This is critical for pattern makers.  The user simply clicks the surfaces that make up either side of the groove and the system automatically generates a 5-axis tool path to clear the area between surfaces based on a user specified scallop height.

• The last and perhaps most important feature, is NCL's parametric and associative capabilities
  A typical tire mold actually consists of four different sections known as pitches.   The tread design varies slightly in size and shape from pitch to pitch.  The size variance reduces harmonic vibrations in the finished product.  Using a traditional CAD/CAM system would require that a new NC program be created for each individual pitch.  Furthermore, each tread design could appear on multiple tire sizes.  Once again, using a traditional CAD/CAM system, a separate NC program would have to be created for each pitch on each individual tire size.  There could be as many as twenty tire sizes for any one tread design.  That's a total number of eighty separate NC programs; each requiring roughly the same amount of labor.  Using NCL's parametric and associative capabilities allows the user to create an NC program for the first pitch, which can then be applied to the remaining pitches and to the models representing the various tire sizes.  This amounts to an astounding reduction of programming time.

This combination of features makes NCL V9.0 an exceptional tool for the 5-axis programming of tire molds and patterns.