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"Traditionally, only larger organizations have been able to adopt adaptive control due to a greater capacity to experiment with new technologies," said Douglas Peterson, vice president, CNCs and lasers, GE Fanuc Automation. "However, i Adapt can give small and medium shop owners with existing CNC technology the power to optimize productivity, improve the ROI of their CNCs and effectively boost their bottom lines. This is very important, as the vast majority of machining, approximately 92 percent, takes place in small and medium shops."

In general practice, machine tools maximize the material removal rate during roughing cycles by applying all of the available spindle power to the cutting process. When machines use carbide tools for roughing, the available spindle power is usually the limiting factor on material removal rate. i Adapt for Milling maximizes material removal rate and minimizes cycle time by optimizing the cutting feed rate based on a programmed spindle load. By optimizing the feed rate in real time, i Adapt compensates for conservative assumptions and process variations to help reduce cycle times. Every part, including the first, is optimized automatically, eliminating the need for manual part program optimization.

Real-time optimization is an important i Adapt feature because there are so many variables to the cutting process, many of which change from machine to machine and blank to blank. Manual part program optimization is possible for some of the variables, but they have to be reapplied every time a change is made to the part design or to the process. Because of the number of uncontrollable process variables, it is often very difficult - as well as increasingly uneconomical and impractical - for a part programmer to manually optimize a part program, particularly with manufacturing lot sizes continuing to fall. In addition, even when manual optimization is attempted, the part programmer must use a conservative feed rate to protect the machine from overload. i Adapt addresses this concern with limits monitoring to protect machines from damage.

i Adapt works with all material types and requires no special programming for interrupted cuts. All adaptive monitoring is programmable through the CNC and is transparent to the operator. In addition to the shorter cycle times resulting from an optimized feed rate, i Adapt can also increase tool life by applying a constant and predictable cutting load.

i Adapt complements GE Fanuc's suite of machine optimization products. High-speed machining technologies such as AICC increase the speed at which detailed finishing cuts can be processed, increasing precision and surface finish. Bell shaped Acc/Dec for Rapid Traverse increases the speed on non-cutting motions such as tool changes and moving to and from the workpiece. i Adapt enhances the suite by optimizing the roughing cycles where maximum material removal rate, rather than precision and surface finish, is most important.