BeachBum wrote:

The value of this, is that the machine is much more accurate, smoother and faster...... To understand more about what is happening, you have to understand that a typical 5 axes VMC utilizes your XYZ linear axes and then via a trunion tilting 2 axes rotary table (A & B axes), you have 5 axes the CNC must control in an Interpolated simultenous method.... what this means is that all 5 axes "have" to be at a constantly changing position at an "exact" specific time. To just position an independant axes is as easy as typing G01 X5.0001 F50, but to get all 5 running a high speed program simultenously on an advanced 5 axes path is a completely different animal.

There is much, much more, but I don't feel like typing all morning, but you do have to understand there is a huge difference between VMC's of just 2 years ago and the VMC's of today.... just like the desktop/laptop PC market, the technology is changing and advancing so fast its alarming. Which is a big problem with the machine they have, it is a Fadal VMC with a Fadal CNC.... the problem with this is that Fadal really isn't a CNC developer, they are a machine builder who originally developed a PC based CNC on a DOS platform, but they just haven't really been able to keep pace with the dedicated CNC manufacturers. Hence, why as of just a few years ago, now offer Fanuc and/or Siemens CNC controls on their machines..... Fanuc & Siemens are the world leaders in sales and probably technology...... thus the Fadal has improved dramatically with this new change. But, that Brodix has an old Fadal CNC on it.....


Don't get me wrong, I am not insulting the Brodix 5 axes VMC.... at least they have one and it apparently works, which is more than many can say. I also know the manufactuer well, have been to their manufacturing plant in socal many times as well as their primary competitors (Haas) and watched the battle between those two that has been dubbed the "Alley War" considering what seperated the two HUGE manufactures of CNC machines was only an alley for many years. But thats another story.