The recent Farnborough Air Show proved a significant success for OPEN MIND Technologies UK Ltd with considerable interest being shown in its technology leading 5-axis CAD/CAM system hyperMILL. The hyperMILL system provides UK manufacturers with a major competitive edge through faster setups and increased machine tool productivity unrivalled in the industry.

hyperMILL is ideal for almost every machining operation, including hole and pocket milling, feature based solid machining, freeform surface machining, deep cavity, dome and tube machining as well as demanding turbine components such as blings, blisks, impellers and blades. The aerospace sector is currently demonstrating considerable growth for OPEN MIND and this was apparent at Farnborough.

At Farnborough OPEN MIND registered orders from the world's largest manufacturer of blisks plus an order from Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery (both companies are UK based). In addition to this, the company generated a significant amount of interest from show visitors with some good quality leads, something that undoubtedly confirms hyperMILL's technological position in the aerospace sector.

The high performance geometry oriented CAM software offers 2.5D, 3D and revolutionary 5-axis machining strategies under one uniform interface. It is these attributes combined with the 40 dedicated 5-axis cycles (11 of which are 5-axis drilling cycles) that enables manufacturers to select the operation best suited to the job in hand. This ensures the user does not have to rely on the 5 or 6 generic 5-axis operations typically offered by other CAM vendors.

"Many people are surprised that with hyperMILL you also have industry leading 2, 3 and 4-axis cycles. hyperMILL's advanced collision avoidance technology gives customers a new level of confidence not just in 5-axis, but also 2, 3 and 4-axis," says Richard Nolan, Sales & Marketing Director, OPEN MIND Technologies UK Ltd.

Encompassed within the forty 5-axis cycles is what OPEN MIND calls 'Logic Cycles'. These logic cycles are dedicated to single and/or multi-blade machining and tube machining, taking ease-of-use to a completely new level. If you are a competent CNC control programmer or have good CAD or CAM skills (2D or 3D), with less than two days training with hyperMILL's logic cycles, you can be cutting highly complex 5-axis, simultaneous parts.