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Machining 28 MoldMaking Technology August 2015 By Randy Pearson Images courtesy of Siemens Industry. Advanced, integrated processor geometry eases processing and predicting of turn-mill contour operations and residual grinding stock allowance. Machining Complex Contours T he technical term is "intelligent kinematic transforma- tion," but all it really means is that today's CNC should be able to maintain the proper orientation of the cut- ting path, even in a mold's deep pockets and on its contoured surfaces. This applies whether milling a mold surface in a rotated plane, or turning the front face or peripheral surface of a turned insert. If you've become attached to your pocket calculator, or to sophisticated and expensive CAD/CAM post-processor pro- grams, you can still keep them, but they might soon become as obsolete as that appliance repairman from the old television commercials. Here's why: The advanced integrated processor geometry of today's sophisticated CNC allows the assignment of specific position patterns such as lines, circles or grids for milling and drilling cycles with just a few inputs from the keyboard. It's actually the algorithm scale that enables the look-ahead feature and contour smoothing of the high-end CNC, based on NURBS (non-uniform rational B-spline) technology. The kinematic transformations in the CNC enable these position patterns to be called up without any calculation or other programming steps, even on inclined workpiece surfaces in milling, or the end faces and peripheral surfaces of turned parts. Kinematic transformations are made by the CNC to speed up or slow down the cutting path and adjust the tooltip based on the orientation of the workpiece and the anticipated chang- es in direction needed to cut a contour or pocket most effec- tively. It's basically the control's ability to orient the cutting path to the position of the workpiece in space versus to the position of the tooltip. The control can take a 3D scan of the workpiece in real time and maintain the proper orientation of the tooltip to affect the proper cutting path. This is especially useful on very large, contoured mold paths. VIDEO Access video at end of article. Intelligent kinematic transformation is how the CNC maintains proper orientation of the cutting path, even in a mold's deep pockets and on its contoured surfaces.