30years
of experience
of experience
Nowadays, more and more companies in the small and medium-sized sector are starting to bet on independence. One aspect of this independence is to implement the production/manufacturing of needed parts already in-house instead of ordering them from external more expensive suppliers.
The current market situation allows us to achieve such independence with a very small financial contribution, since we can purchase a used CNC machining center that meets our expectations for the amount of tens of thousands of zlotys, which in the long run, compared to the serial ordering of parts, allows us to save a lot of money and gives us full freedom in the design and manufacture of our parts.
All we need is CAM software such as Inventor CAM or Fusion 360, cooperating with our machine and we are already able to manufacture our own products within our company.
To integrate such software with a numerical machine, a so-called Postprocessor is required.
But what is a Postprocessor?
Looking at the matter from the easiest perspective, we can say that the postprocessor is a kind of translator that translates the language of the CAM program in which we have programmed machining paths into the language of our machine (G-code), thanks to which the machine will perform exactly the previously planned machining and will behave in the way we wish.
Autodesk has come out to meet the needs of such companies and has made available to all users for free an open-sourced database of post-processors for all machines for which they once created one, you can find it at this link .
However, despite its huge size, this database is not able to cover all machines on the market today.
What to do in that case if the machine I have is not on the list of available postprocessors?
One solution may be to undertake the adaptation of the postprocessor on our own, since the fact of being open-source allows us to do so.
Unfortunately, this involves a fair amount of risk, as the adaptation process itself requires a great deal of knowledge of programming and machine methodology, and in the process of creating the postprocessor on our own, we may end up damaging our machine through, for example, an unplanned collision between the spindle and the table.
The second recommended solution is to outsource the integration of a machine like this, and thus the preparation of the post-processor to the professionals that we are.
All you need to provide us with is the machine documentation, G-code table/list and some time with your machine, and the integration will go quickly and smoothly.
At MAT, we have already carried out hundreds of implementations of new as well as older numerical machines on our list, so we are able to guarantee full satisfaction with the services we offer.
Examples of machines with which we have recently worked:
