party CAD/CAM software. 3D simulation of the entire grinding process and the finished part is possible as well as detection of any potential mechanical collisions and calculation of production time. Such features allow parts to be designed and verified, as well as the production process optimized, entirely within the software environment. Tool and cutter grinders can be adapted to manufacturing precision machine components. The machine, when used for these purposes more likely would be called a CNC Grinding System. CNC Grinding Systems are widely used to produce parts for aerospace, medical, automotive, and other industries. Extremely hard and exotic materials are generally no problem for today's grinding systems and the multi-axis machines are capable of generating quite complex geometries. Radius grinder A radius grinder (or radius tool grinder) is a special grinder used for grinding the most complex tool forms, and is the historical predecessor to the CNC tool and cutter grinder. Like the CNC grinder, it may be used for other tasks where grinding spherical surfaces is necessary. The tool itself consists of three parts: The grinder head, work table, and holding fixture. The grinder head has three degrees of freedom. Vertical movement, movement into the workpiece, and tilt. These are generally set statically, and left fixed throughout operations. The work table is a T-slotted X-axis table mounted on top of a radial fixture. Mounting the X axis on top of the radius table, as opposed to the other way around, allows for complex and accurate radius grinds. The holding fixtures can be anything one can mount on a slotted table, but most commonly used is a collet or chuck fixture that indexes and has a separate Y movement to allow accurate depth setting and endmill sharpening. The dressers used on these grinders are usually quite expensive, and can dress the grinding wheel itself with a particular radius. D-bit grinder The D-bit (after Deckel, the brand of the original manufacturer) grinder is a tool bit grinder designed to produce single-lip cutters for pantograph milling machines. Pantographs are a variety of milling machine used to create cavities for the dies used in the molding process; they are largely obsolete and replaced by CNC machining centers in modern industry. With the addition of accessory holders, the single-lip grinding capability may also be applied to grinding lathe cutting bits, and simple faceted profiles on tips of drill bits or end mills. The