High Performance Motion Control Software

In today’s competitive manufacturing landscape, producing components on a large scale—from thousands to millions of parts—is fundamental to industrial operations. Efficient manufacturing is crucial for economic viability and optimized throughput.

Figure 1: The Eyeglass part in PolarisCAM 2D shows a curvature graph with transition curves between drawing primitives.

To achieve this, many facilities increasingly rely on advanced automated machinery that dynamically adjusts speeds along the tool path. This capability lets machines accelerate on straight sections and decelerate at corners, optimizing production time.

Variable speed motion is suitable for applications where precision is less critical, such as rough cutting with CNC machines where the exact surface finish is not a priority, or pick-and-place operations that require speed over precision.

However, many manufacturing processes rely heavily on constant-speed toolpath execution to meet specific quality metrics. Some of these include (1) consistent epoxy dispensing (2) better fusion in seam welding, (3) uniformity of laser energy deposition for glass scoring.

Other constant-speed manufacturing processes significantly benefit surface finish and form accuracy including high-precision metal milling, grinding, waterjet cutting, and single-point diamond turning.

Skilled applied scientists and developers have responded by developing new techniques and algorithms to optimize throughput in constant-speed operations, providing cutting-edge performance. These advancements allow easy integration and adaptation.

By adopting this technological innovation, manufacturers can significantly enhance their production capabilities, meeting current demands and preparing for future manufacturing challenges.
 
The integrated workflow provided by the new, optimized constant-speed process is easy to use:

• Input the CAD drawing
• Input the contour displacement tolerance
• Configure the kinematic ability of the CNC machine tool
• Output the constant-velocity-ready G-code file
• Execute the G-code file on the CNC motion controller

This new constant speed process provides important advantages, for example:

• Fastest constant feed rate
• Least constant feed rate variation
• Better surface finish
• Easy creation of G-code part files
• Guaranteed part completion

Performance for Constant-Speed Laser-Scoring of an Eyeglass Part

Figure 2: The x-axis, y-axis and the net constant commanded velocity generated from PolarisCAM 2D.

Figure 3: Histogram illustrating the deviation between setpoint and desired constant velocity of 500 mm/s.

Figure 4: Constant speed trajectory marked at 500 mm/s with PRR 2750 Hz and 50 % duty cycle at 20 kHz setpoints.

Polaris Motion has provided innovative consultation in engineering that includes design for signal processing and data acquisition with electronic systems manufacture in a timely and professional manner to Sigma Labs. There have been times when we needed Polaris to pull in some critical customer deliverables and every time they rose to the challenge.

Darren Beckett, CTO
Sigma Labs, Inc.

The following words come to mind when working with PMDI, innovative, responsive, resourceful and flexible. They are ready, willing, and capable to solve your problems with great follow through.

Reg Maas, Principle Engineer
Coorstek

PhotoMachining has implemented the Precision Micro Dynamics Infinite Field of View (IFOV) platform into our capabilities for Laser Micromachining.  The PMDI team works hand in hand with our engineers to ensure the system meets our exacting needs.  We are pleased with the timely support that PMDI has provided and will continue to further promote the IFOV platform for our needs.

Mike McNeil, Senior Systems Engineer
PhotoMachining, Inc.

Professional, efficient and committed: this is Polaris. Their expertise makes you feel you are in the right hands and no matter how challenging your task is, they will do their best to take you successfully to the finish line.

Engr. Mattia Zamboni, Researcher
University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI)

We’ve used Polaris Motion Controllers and drives on a fairly complex piece of equipment.  The hardware is of the highest quality and has been easy to integrate into the rest of our system.  The included development environment also enables our engineers to customize the controller software for our specific application.  The standard API provides more than enough flexibility to add or modify functionality to the default motion server.  Their customer support both before and after we acquired our hardware has been excellent

Kevin Monroe, Control Systems Engineer
S&P 500 COMPANY