Delcam has added a CAM Manager to its DentMill knowledge-based CAM system for machining dental industry components. The manager is designed to assist technicians with minimal manufacturing experience in machining caps and bridges in ceramics and titanium.
The manager includes nesting tools to automatically orient all parts within the selected stock. It takes part-used areas of the stock into consideration to reduce costs and allow efficient use of materials, the company says. Users can specify the spacing to leave between pockets/borders of each part, the starting point for nesting and the direction in which parts should be nested.
In addition, the manager includes tools for engraving text and/or serial numbers on each part. Users can control the font, size, position and orientation of the text. Users can also control the order of machining. Parts can be grouped together and output in the same NC program. This allows the establishment of a priority cutting order, with a different machining template applied to each part or group of parts if required.
Based on the company’s PowerMill application, DentMill is an “open” CAM system that accepts data from virtually any dental design system or scanner capable of exporting in the STL format. Similarly, it can output machining tool paths to virtually any CNC machine, the company says.