Chip Thinning Calculations in CAM

[zodiaceng]

Considering we use HSM toolpaths quite a bit which result in chip thinning, it would be nice if there was a setting to toggle on/off chip thinning calculations to give us an accurate chipload given specific radial/angle engagements. The calculation is pretty straight forward, and I assume a formula with the correct expressions can be put in place in the feedrate entry however I don't think it being a default would be the best solution. 

Having the ability to turn it on and off, and adjust automatically based on radial engagement settings and specific desired chiploads would be great, especially in roughing passes. This would most likely override your tool library settings though, and you'd need to fill in your passes tab before speeds & feeds tab. I'm not entirely sure what the best way to implement this would be since the flow from left to right in the tabs would be skewed, but we need to be able to take full advantage of the HSM toolpaths we have and get accurate results without having to do the calculations outside of CAM. 

There has been some debate whether or not this is useful for finishing passes, but for roughing passes (2D & 3D Adaptive) its absolutely necessary. Implementing it into those two toolpaths would be a huge improvement and give full advantage to these great toolpaths. 

I've attached a PDF of the calculations and some information regarding this from the Helical website. 

[NYC_CNC]

Absolutely agree.   We have to at least know this information - or better, be able to implement it in our CAM toolpaths.  We spend a lot of time doing this in excel or tooling specific app's (e.g. Sandvik calculator). 

[Anonymous]

I have just started in fusion 360 and noticed that It would be nice to have rapid chipping thinning formula to adjust the federate.  Coming from a long time mastercam user, they just have a tick box to apply it to feed rate.  This doesn’t seem like it would be that hard to add. 

[Anonymous]

I whole-heartedly agree also.  It would definitely help folks who are new to machining.  When I started a few years ago with my hobby-grade machine, I didn't know what "chip thinning" was or why I should care.  Now that I'm doing more aluminum parts, I absolutely care because it means the difference between a good part or a clogged endmill!  The chip-per-tooth calculation in Fusion is a little misleading, as-is, since it really only applies for stepovers or optimal loads that are 50% of the cutter diameter.  I would at least like to see a real-time calculation of the actual chip thickness with chip thinning, and even better would be to have a checkbox/dropdown to either increase the feed rate, or slow the spindle speed accordingly, so that the target chip thickness remains the same.  There should also be a warning that alerts the user if this results in speeds that are outside of a pre-set range.