When is a 5 axis machining center required?
Many companies must simply expose different surfaces (planes) to the spindle for machining. Such would be the case on a very odd shaped workpiece that must be machined on several sides. In one sense, this kind of machining is simply an extension of what can be done with the fourth axis. If this is your area of interest, you’ll want to learn more about “variable plane selection”. This feature is like the standard G17, G18, and G19 (XY, XZ, YZ) plane selection commands, but it allows you to define any plane for machining. This allows you to use many of the standard programming features like canned cycles, cutter radius compensation, and axis rotation, making programming much easier.
