Robotic foam milling of a llama-head sculpture on a 7-axis KUKA cell

From a 25 cm clay sculpture to a large-format foam piece. MecDATA machined an enlarged reproduction of a llama head sculpted by Natalia Ferré, taking the original clay model through a full digital pipeline — 3D scanning with 3DeVOK, geometry preparation, CAM programming, cell simulation and robotic milling of an EPS block.

7-axis cell driven by ENCY CAD/CAM software. The toolpaths were programmed in ENCY Robot, which handles the real kinematics of a 6-axis KUKA arm working with a rotary table as an external axis. MecDATA scaled the model inside the digitised stock to extract the largest possible part, then produced roughing and finishing passes with a single tool.

Simulation before the first chip. The whole process was simulated to validate robot and table motion, check trajectories and catch collisions before sending the program to the controller. The finished piece reproduces the scanned geometry at the target scale.