UNIMAT CNC
Technical Education, TVET, Engineering, ...
For advanced classes, Unimat CNC is a compelling option for innovative education. An almost infinite number of application possibilities result from the modular structure. The mill and lathe's Unimat CNC slides are equipped with 2A steppers.
Some of the characteristics are:
- Cross Slide: travel 50mm (extendable)
- Longitudinal Slide: travel 145mm (extendable)
- Accuracy: max. 0.07mm
- Up to 4 CNC axes controllable simultaneously
Particularly noteworthy are the low costs of this system. Instead of purchasing industrial machines (high entry costs and ongoing expenditures, etc.), to which access is often not availabe to students, with Unimat CNC an entire machine park can be made available at only a fraction. Students can use this machines actively and autonomously.
The machines are controlled via the free software machinekit (fork of LinuxCNC, pre-installed on motion controller TCTCONT4) . This software can also be intalled for free on a common BeagleBone Black for training and simulation purposes.
What has been designed in a CAD application can be converted into machine code in a CAM application.
Machinekit offers a graphical interface as well as insight into and editing options for the G-code. For Fusion360 simple post processors with short manuals are available.
The cool tool CNC Education Set
UNIMAT CNC Complete Set (UNI-CNC-SET)
Includes all parts for the UNIMAT-CNC machine variants setting up UNI-DREH, UNI-FRAES-V3 or UNI-FRAES-4, plus cross plate for bigger parts
All Unimat CNC machine variants can be seen here.
Control Unit TCTControl (TCTCONT4)
Required for controlling the UNIMAT CNC machines
The pre-installed software allows for loading, manipulating and processing of ISO standard g-code files (RS-274). It also offers an editable tool table and tool path simulation. In addition to the manual also a training book for introduction to CNC and g-code programming is included.
Top Accessories CNC
Milling Tool Set 3, 4, 5, 6 mm
HSS milling tools for processing wood, metals and plastic
Milling-Vice MetalLine
Milling - Vice made of tool steel.
Chucking range: 0 - 41mm
Dimension: 88 (109) x 50 x 26mm (LxWxH)
HSS - Turning Tool - Kit - 5 pcs0
E-stop/Relay module CNC
with integrated Motor On/Off-Relay (for use of M3 and M5 commands), triggers/releases software emergency stop and head spindle motor brake
Suitable for TCTControl.
CNC Education, Promotion Video
UNI-Turn CNC instruction and explanation video
UNIMAT CNC 3-axis milling machine - instruction video
User tutorial on using Autodesk Fusion360 with Unimat CNC Machines
BeagleBone Black : MS NDIS Driver for Sandybox and TCTControl
Curriculum example
Curriculum secondary level II specialized grammar school, engineering, Schleswig Hollstein, Germany. pp. 33:
"Knowledge about automated production facilities …planning and processing of selected components ... the emphases must be on automation of production processes as well as on the CAD-CAM combination and quality management. … Processing of parts should be executed automated and students should be integrated in the process chain.”