Cutting
Cutting
cncKad cutting creates programs for your cutting machine from CAD files and designs.
cncKad cutting turns CAM files into NC code for your cutting machine. In a few clicks you are able to generate efficient programs while optimizing material utilization and machine runtime.
The cutting solution can be influenced by factors such as head, gas, lens, corner treatment, cutting optimization, and MicroJoints. You can modify the proposed parameters and edit the cutting tables as required.
You can easily control common line cutting, cutting part-by-part, cutting order, and any other specific way of processing the sheet.
cncKad always optimizes the chosen methods to minimize the production time, taking machine capabilities and limitations into account. The post-processor then converts these actions into efficient NC programs.
Cutting features include:
- Automatic cutting
- Material-based cutting parameters
- Collision avoidance between cutting head and sheet
- Defining beam width and auto compensation
- Corner treatment
- Z axis control
- Full support for common cuts
- Cutting speeds determined by geometry and material
- WireJoint, MicroJoint, and MicroWeld support
- Vaporization options
- Marking and/or engraving before cutting
- Bridge cutting and chains
- Support for multi-head plasma, flame, and water jet machines
Automatic Cutting
Based on predefined rules, Automatic Cutting solutions are influenced by factors such as lead-in, corner treatment, part handling, cutting optimization, MicroJoints, material, and thickness.
AutoCut processes parts efficiently and consistently, saving time and giving standard solutions for production. You can control all the parameters in one place:
- Select automatic cutting of holes and/or parts
- Determine cut entry and exit preferences
- Automatically allocate MicroJoints
- Designate corner treatment
- Optimize cuts
- Avoid collisions
- Preset part handling
- Set special processing
- Use common cuts for nested sheets
AutoCut parameters are defined per machine. This means that a workstation with several machines can have different settings for each one.
Z Axis Control
The Z options handle the distance between the head and the sheet; i.e., the movement of the head along the Z axis. You can define these parameters globally or set them specifically for the current entity/chain/contour:
- Laser head sensor – for piercing and for cutting
- Height of the head when it moves between holes or parts
- Height of the head when marking
cncKad supports head-down cutting, minimizing the cutting head movement along the Z axis, for these Trumpf machines:
- SprintLas, where the head rises only slightly and moves at an angled trajectory from one cut to another
- SprintLas+, where the head does not rise above the cutting height but remains at the cutting gap
Part Handling
You can define default settings for handling parts, thereby streamlining their automatic cutting with AutoCut by cncKad.
You can add an unlimited number of contour sizes defined by X and Y dimensions, and for each defined contour size, you assign an action for a part or a hole, depending on your machine’s abilities. You can preset defaults such as
- Place MicroJoints/WireJoints
- Set MicroJoint/ WireJoint width
- Assign Push Out
- Pick up the part or hole (scrap)
- Slice holes
- Stop the machine after specific processing
All part handling settings pertain to a specific material and thickness combination for a particular machine.
Hole Slicing
cncKad allows you to slice the interior part of a hole before cutting it, thereby preventing a large cut hole from tilting and damaging the machine.
You can perform this operation manually when creating a cut, or performing automatic cutting with AutoCut, using the Part Handling tables
WireJoints and MicroJoints
cncKad AutoCut provides many possibilities for automatic and manual placement of MicroJoints and WireJoints on entities to be processed.
You can place them:
- At corners and on part sides
- At designated intervals
- Using specific tools and approaches
You can then show/hide them, edit them, and delete them.
Cutting Direction (CW/CCW)
cncKad supports two directions of cutting: clockwise (CW) or counter clockwise (CCW). This is useful for plasma machines, when you must determine which side of the processed part should be straight.
You can also instruct cncKad to choose the best direction.
Corner Treatment
Cutting corners is often problematic; corners can be easily damaged if not handled carefully, ruining the entire part.
cncKad has several strategies to handle this issue and avoid burning the parts:
- Rounding: Rounds the sharp corners while cutting them.
- Loops: You can define the size of loops in the cutting tables and then add loops to the outer corners of the contour.
- Slow Down: Decelerates the head movement.
- Cool Down: Stops the machine for the specified time period to allow the material to cool down.
While running automatic processing, cncKad checks for conditions that need to be met in order to determine whether to apply corner treatment, and executes the treatment accordingly.
Corner treatment can be defined on three levels:
- For a corner
- For a cut
- For the entire sheet
This part was processecd using loops, rounding, and cool down (marked in brown)
Fly Out
cncKad supports fly cut (also known as fly line and F-Cut), where the head does not make additional pierces between holes, so the parts are cut faster. This feature is useful for thin material.
Vaporization
When the sheet is covered with protective coating or rust, cncKad can program the machine to make a low-power pass over the parts to burn it off, and then passes a second time with actual cutting. This provides cleaner cuts and less debris from the coating.
You can choose whether to perform all the vaporizations on a sheet at once, per part, or per cut.
Text Cutting and Engraving
cncKad lets you engrave the metal by burning it with the laser beam at low power.
cncKad supports cutting and engraving entities and texts written with Windows and True Type fonts. You can cut and engrave text such as part number or manufacturer name when placed on a part.
The example shows a part with both cutting and engraving of text.
Marking
You can use marking to pinpoint drilling or piercing positions, bend lines, or denote undersized holes or points you are not interested in cutting.
The picture shows bend lines and undersized hole markings.
Special Processing
With this type of processing you can create special cutting for particular cases of unusual round or polygon-shaped holes, which may be very large or very small. This causes the holes to be cut differently, according to geometry definitions.
The picture shows both round and polygon geometry with smaller cut holes.
Beam Compensation Solutions
cncKad provides two types of beam compensation solutions for laser or plasma machines:
- By machine controller – The machine controller provides the compensation code.
- By cncKad – The program performs the compensation during post-processing.
The first picture shows no cut offset when using controller compensation, whereas the second picture shows the offset when using cncKad compensation.
Cutting Technology Tables/Import External Tables
The Cutting Technology Tables allow you to define, view, and edit cutting technology parameters. The tables contain charts that cover all aspects of a material’s cutting:
- Cutting feed rate
- Cutting speed for different sized entities
- Lead-in and exit definitions for different sized entities
- Corner angles
- Overlap for holes/parts
- Detailed piercing parameters
- Detailed gas parameters
- Minimum and maximum diameters
The cncKad Cutting Technology Tables are material-based and machine-specific. Different selections of gas, head, and lens can be defined for each combination of material and sheet thickness.
cncKad comes with standard tables, appropriate for the installed machine model. In addition, cncKad allows you to import external cutting technology tables from your machine environment into cncKad, then edit and use them. This is possible from selected manufacturers including Mitsubishi, Durma, Amada, Bystronic, Boschert, and Yawei, for both punching and plasma cutting.
Common Cuts
cncKad’s common cut feature allows you to process the edges of two adjoining parts with the same cut, thereby saving material, cutting gas, and time. Instead of cutting each part individually, cncKad checks if adjacent part contours are at a distance that enables using common line cutting. This powerful feature saves material, cutting gas, time, and also avoids the need to pierce the sheet again.
Advanced Technologies
cncKad supports advanced technologies, compatible with your cutting machine. Advanced cutting technologies enable the full use of machine capabilities.
Art Parts
You can create artistic parts, texts, and crazy contours, called Art Parts.
Adding processing for this type of part can take a long time due to compensation calculations. Sometimes, very small contours are not processed at all because the lead-in size is bigger than the contour size.
cncKad offers two options for processing such parts:
- Process the part with no compensation calculations
- Apply a minimal lead-in size
CatEye
The CatEye (known also as OVS for Amada machines) is an electronic sensor on the machine that measures the sheet placement on the machine table, even when the sheet is not aligned with the pins. This is useful when you use two machines to process a part:
- A punching machine for standard holes
- A cutting machine to cut non-standard holes and the outer contours
The picture shows options for measuring the sheet
When you select one of these options for your part, the sensor on the machine measures the holes/corners and calculates how to cut the sheet.
The picture shows how CatEye measures two round holes
Bridge Cutting
Chain Cutting
cncKad lets you determine the order in which to cut the parts by chaining them to one another.
Tool Path Optimization
cncKad provides a powerful tool path optimization function for improving the efficiency of the cutting tool path. You can adjust the processing path of the holes in the part and on the part’s outer contours.
Tool Path Optimization
The auto entry point feature optimizes the machine’s cutting path to minimize passes over prior cuts.
cncKad positions the entry\exit point of a contour to be towards the next cut. This lessens the chance of passing over the cut you just made.
Minimum Tool Rotation
cncKad‘s automatic path finder calculates a path from one hole to another, while avoiding passes over processed holes and avoiding collisions.
The pictures show the path that was calculated by the Auto Path Finder between contours within a part and when several parts are processed.