I was wondering, I am attempting to figure out a way to mark a part along its circumference with text that can be either roll stamped or milled, but I cannot figure out how to get the text to revolve around the part in a manor that will allow me to make a extruded cut to make the lettering appear on the final 3D part.

I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions.

Thanks in advance.

Dimitri

I believe what you need to do is: Insert, Cosmetic, Groove then it will prompt you for surfaces and refrences. At that point it puts you into the sketcher to place text and script. When machining you just select the script as a sequence.
Toad

I would design that feature OUT if I were you. They are always expensive to make.

However if you MUST have it, the wrap command may also work.

Thank you I will give them a try, this is a educational not work related exercise.

Mind you I must ask, if one has a roll stamping machine the cost cannot be too great can it?

Dimitri

A place I worked years ago had a similar need to mark a part around the diameter. If I remember correctly the part was such that they where able to put it on some parallels on a mill table with a stamp holder in the spindle and moved the table to move the stamp accross the part using the quill to account for pressure and depth.

one way i have done this is use sheet metal, unroll it, cut the text and reroll it.
the extrude a solid rod through the center to make a solid body again.

or is there a wrap feature, like SolidWorks?

Should have qualified my statement a bit.

1. The roll stamp equipment is high cost (if you have it already that's great - subtract purchase cost then)

2. The dies are VERY expensive and long lead time if custom ones are needed.

3. The dies generally do not last long on mild steel. If the work is softer than mild steel, of course they will last longer.

4. Setup time can take a while if you need perfect impressions to a specified depth.

Re - using a mill as a rool stamp press - It will be very hard on a milling machine to use it as a press. It is not designed for roll stamping duty. I would never do that to a mill.

Any way you can laser engrave the text? easier all around and no tooling.

Mentioned roll stamping to get the idea across a stamp on the circumference, this is educational not producing the part. We did some roll stamping for a customer where I was working that is why I went to that term. Sorry if I confused anyone.

Dimitri

I dont know anything about the software, but I do know that this is never a cheap or easy process in the real world.
They used to make these rolls manually, with machines like a Deckel GK21 or a Gorton engraver, with a roll engraving attachement, which was basically an right angle indexable rotary table type thing.

The machines to do the actual marking are not cheap or small, either-
Hydraulic Roll Marking Machines - Schmidt Marking Systems

I have had my eyes on one of these for a while-
Embossing - hebö

Which is a roll embossing machine for steel bars- feed a 20 foot piece of 1/4" x 2" flat bar, or 1" square tube, thru, and get pebble grain, or wood grain, or squiggly patterns on it.
Depending on the euro/dollar rate, off the shelf standard rolls for these are close to a grand a pair. Custom patterns, of course, would be much more. I am sure them make these on something like a 5 axis DMG, though- after all, they are german.

in proe there are a few versions of wrap.

wrapping a text curve on the surface is relatively simple, but you only see a curve, no cut.

wrapping the cut letters into the surface is more tricky. I think it's a version of WARP that has the functionality, but it's unfreindly, and is part of an optional advanced surfacing licence I think.

I shall give it at try and get back to you. - I did try. I did it successfully!


what proe are you using? wf4?


sketching a text then using EDIT, WRAP will easily put the sketched text around your part (provided you make it so it does not wrap past 180 degrees in either direction from the first point thta would "touch" the surface.

-but I dont see a direct way to make a cut feature in your origional part from the wrapped sketched text. you can't extrude it, sweep it, etc....



my inelegant solution woul be to extrude my text as a solid in a seperate part. then use Insert, Advanced, Spinal Bend to wrap it to the desired radius.

then subtract that part from my other part by using a copied surface (Insert, Shared Data, Copy Geom from another model, Surfaces, Solid surfaces,) into my origional part and then using Solidify with Remove material


it does a dandy job. but you'll be limited to flat bottom stuff, I think V-bottom text representation would be too much trouble. you would have to chamfer the individual letters.


i could provide you my part files if you need an example.

Another way of doing it in pro-e is to do the cut into a flat surface and use a toroidal bend to wrap the modeled surface. You can do the V bottomed features by using a swept cut to remove the material. This tends to work better than the wrap feature or at least seems to fail less. Insert > Advanced >toroidal bend if memory serves. FWIW This is also a good way to model tires with very complex tread patterns.