With simultaneous 5-axis-milling it is possible to produce the contours of complicated 3D shapes mechanically – by means of a milling head that can be pivoted in five degrees of freedom. Material is removed from the work piece in many small adjacent rows.
5-axis-milling also facilitates the production of freeform surfaces in large dimensions with the greatest of surface quality and exactness of form. Even complex parts can often be machined in one piece without further turning. In this case, mostly materials such as expanded polystyrene, Ureol, and polyurethane foam are used.
In the Kunstgiesserei, a team consisting of an airplane mechanic, two IT specialists, and a stone sculptor are responsible for the 5-axis milling robot as well as for a large-scale CNC portal milling machine from the manufacturer EEW with machining dimensions of 10 x 4 x 2.7 meters. The equipment is normally used in the construction of ships and airplanes and is the largest of its kind in Switzerland; Europe-wide, it is the only CNC portal milling machine that is used exclusively in the field of art. The scanned and/or digitally edited 3D data is programmed with a CAM in machine-readable coordinates. In the case of complex geometries, extreme concavities, or dimensions over ten meters, it is possible to model with Freeform. The translation of the digital data into a many-meter-large sculpture in Styrofoam can take a few weeks.
Technical Data:
3 axes: x-axis 10 m; y-axis 4 m; z-axis 2.7 m
5 axes: x-axis 9.3 m; y-axis 3.3 m; z-axis 2.7 m; a-axis ± 270°; c-axis +115°/-110°
Operating speed: up to 150 m/min
Spindle rotation speed: 24,000/min
Precision: ± 0,2 mm
Milling materials: up to and including the hardness of aluminum, e.g. Styrofoam, SikaBlock, wood
Data transfer: .stl; .step; .iges; .dxf; .dwg; .wml
File size: up to a maximum of 2 GB
Layout and side view of our 5-axis milling machine in Engelburg
Images 1–4: Urs Fischer "Clays"