The CAD/CAM software known as Mastercam, from CNC Software Inc., has been updated as X2. Based on Mastercam X, X2 will look largely familiar to its users, but the things that have changed are intended to make machining easier.

More toolpaths have been added to X2. Finishing options now include high-speed spiral and radial toolpaths, for example. Toolpaths available in previous versions have been updated and refined. Finishes can now be made finer, and machine tools will last longer, the Tolland, Conn., firm said.

GE Plastics says its new Extem resin performs well to a continuous-use temperature of 230°C, yet is easily melt-processible in conventional equipment and resists chlorinated solvents.

New functions include change recognition and file tracking. This feature allows users to compare two files. The screen will show what features the two files have in common or what features are unique to one file or the other. X2 can recognize and delineate changes to Mastercam, SolidWorks, Solid Edge, and AutoCAD, as well as to other CAD files.

Other new functions include an easier ability to extend both trimmed and untrimmed surfaces.

The mill and router now have two new tools, an engraver and a brad-point drill. Automatic toolpathing has been entirely redesigned with a new dialog box and a greater ability to make changes. New surface textures can be made using randomized textures, by distorting, overlapping, or randomizing patterns of ellipses to create symmetrical or more organic textures. Quick masks are a new kind of shortcut that lets programmers choose entities by type. And to help users get a better handle on the new X2's capabilities, there are now detailed multi-axis tutorials.

GE Plastics has launched a new family of high-temperature engineering resins. The new polymers, branded Extem, combine outstanding heat resistance with very good processability, the company says. Potential applications range from semiconductor wafer handling and oil and gas processing to aerospace, automotive, and electronics manufacturing.

Extem is a high-heat, amorphous, melt-processable thermoplastic polyimide that users can run in conventional molding equipment now running other engineering resins, according to GE's global product manager, Rob Costella. It performs well from below zero to a continuous-use temperature of 230°C.

GE Plastics says its new Extem resin performs well to a continuous-use temperature of 230°C, yet is easily melt-processible in conventional equipment and resists chlorinated solvents.

According to GE, the material's amorphous nature gives it good dimensional stability, creep resistance, and strength at elevated temperatures (although these properties fall off sharply as it nears its 311°C glass transition temperature, where it turns soft and rubbery). The amorphous structure resists chemicals, especially chlorinated solvents. It is also inherently flame retardant.

Extem is rated for 50°C higher continuous-use temperatures than is GE's Ultem melt-processible resin. Ultem does not stand up as well as Extem does to chlorinated solvents and other chemicals. GE claims that Extem retains its strength and stiffness above 200°C better than polyetheretherketone or polyethersulfone.

Solvay Advanced Polymers' Torlon polyamide-imide has better heat resistance, but usually needs annealing for prolonged periods following melt processing. It is often machined from solid blocks.

"There are only so many people who can process Torlon," Costella said. "Our customers usually can't bid on those applications because they can't meet the heat profile. With Extem, they can offer an injected molded part or stock shape that meets those requirements."

Starting in the first quarter, GE will offer two Extem grades. The first, Extem UH, has the higher glass transition temperature (311°C) and better chemical resistance. Extem XH has a lower glass transition (267°C), but better flow and creep resistance. GE will make both materials available in glass and mineral-reinforced grades.

GE says the two grades are the start of a family of as many as 75 new Extem grades. By blending Extem with PEEK, PES, Ultem, and other engineering resins, the company hopes to be able to produce resins with price and performance optimized for specific applications.

When it goes to trade shows, National Instruments Corp. of Austin, Texas, can draw a crowd with its machine vision demonstrator. Why? After all, the device does exactly the type of simple, repetitive jobs usually reserved for trade show exhibits: It sorts three sizes of ball bearings, each 1/16-inch larger than the next, into three buckets.

What grabs passers-by is how it sorts bearings. Random ball bearings pass a camera as they fall down a chute. NI software images each bearing, determines its diameter, and pivots a steel plate so that the ball bounces into a bin of similar-size bearings.

National Instruments' new Vision Builder for Automated Inspection is designed to help engineers program machine vision systems. Here, a system inspects eyedroppers for caps and fill level.

According to product engineer Matt Slaughter, it took only a few hours to program the visual inspection routine using NI's new Vision Builder for Automated Inspection version 3.0. He spent several months looking for a motor fast and accurate enough to pivot the plate. Even then, the motor can handle only six or seven balls each second compared with the 100 bearings the software can measure.

The new software, like NI's other products, uses drag-and-drop graphical techniques to emulate the flow charts and state diagrams engineers typically use to define visual inspection routines. The company claims that any visual inspection engineer could use the system without programming knowledge.

That's good news for engineers seeking to harness the power of machine vision for quality inspection. In the past, workers eyeballed products for conformance while engineers pulled representative samples for mechanical inspection. If they found an error, they might stop the line and send workers scurrying to resample thousands of products.

Machine vision systems are fast enough to scan every single product coming down a manufacturing line.

Instead of sampling one out of 100 or 1,000 computer chips, for example, they inspect every chip for cracked packaging, improper pin spacing, and other flaws. Errors are caught immediately with no need to recheck products that have already come off the line. "The biggest advantage of machine vision is throughput," Slaughter said.

NI's latest version of Vision Builder introduces a new state-machine process model. According to NI, engineers define what the inspection program does next based on the condition, or state, of the object being inspected. Conditional branches and iterative loops allow a single inspection to adjust dynamically with each new image.

"First, it checks to see if the part is present," said Slaughter. "Then it might check the number of pins, pin alignment, and distance between pins. If it fails at any point, it does not go to the next level."

Vision Builder AI also includes new algorithms to compare parts with templates, recognize optical characters, and identify quality errors earlier in production. The system is designed to work with thousands of off-the-shelf cameras and more than 100 machine image processing tools.

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