Penta Machine Demos
- John Allwine
Penta Machine Products
Pocket NC V2
The Solo
Our newest machine. We’ve made several Alpha prototypes and are transitioning into building Beta machines that will go out to early customers this year.
Tentative specifications:
NYC CNC’s IMTS coverage of the Solo at the Penta Machine booth:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NONBln6c0Xk&t=3635s
Kinetic Control
More info about our web-based control:
https://www.pentamachine.com/software
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETxW-hOEIME
Web-based Simulator
Our web-based simulator can be used to help preview programs before running them on a real machine and can be used on any device. Jesse Trinque helped us program these demos for IMTS2022:
Solo Carabiner Demo - Penta Simulator
V2 Impeller Demo - Penta Simulator
Metrology
Interactive 3D Probing Interface
The Solo will have a probe and we’ve been experimenting with leveraging the simulator to create an intuitive way to program probing routines:
Kinetic Control I++ Integration
We also have been developing a calibration routine for our Pocket NC machines that leverage a Mitutoyo CMM. The Pocket NC commands the the CMM with G code programs to gather information from the CMM using our own I++ client library. Longer term, we could leverage the simulator for planning out CMM probing routines similar to applications such as MCOSMOS or CMM Manager.
Automation
We leverage automation in our shop to manufacture our machines. We developed our own automation cell for tending parts on our Doosan using a Universal Robot. We designed our own rack and software for managing what parts are loaded. We’ve taken some of what we’ve learned from that process and integrated it into the Solo. The Solo has a Vero-S module and door that are pneumatically controlled for ease of integration with a robot.
Simulator Use Cases
Kinetic Control w/ Integrated Simulator
We’re working on integrating Kinetic Control with our simulator to display a plot of the currently running program in a 3D virtual environment. We demoed this at IMTS2022.
NYC CNC’s coverage at IMTS 2022 - Impeller Demo
https://youtu.be/NONBln6c0Xk?t=3680
Simulating non-Penta Machine machines
We have long term plans to support other machines than our own in the simulator and Kinetic Control. We’ve experimented with a DMU 95 monoBlock in our simulator, as we’re in the process of using one to manufacture our Solo machines:
DMU 95 monoBlock 3+2 - Penta Simulator
DMU 95 monoBlock Full 5-axis - Penta Simulator
Post Processor/G Code Proofing
We encountered issues with the Mastercam post processor and figured out the issue using the simulator. The programs below were causing nicks in the parts and we were able to track down the issues to a specific line using the simulator.
Education/Training
As you’ve seen above, the simulator can be added into the flow of a document. We see value in using this in a training/tutorial context. The tutorial can also be guided from within the simulator itself:
Community Engagement
Our community forums also have integrations in place so our users can upload G code programs and models so we can help diagnose issues. The simulator can even be embedded directly into a forum post:
Simulator Embedded in forum post
Dental Aligner Application
This was a project we released about 3 years ago, but stopped offering not long after due to the lack of resources to pursue it. We didn’t have the resources to handle the support calls or to make the whole process easy enough for non technical users. It provides a fairly simple interface for drawing a cut line on a vacuum formed dental aligner.