ACT Tooling Meets Stainless Parting-Off Challenge

An Advanced Carbide Tooling product story

Edited by the Manufacturingtalk editorial team Apr 23, 2004

Specialised parting-off tooling from Advanced Carbide Tooling is being used successfully by R W Brown Engineering to produce high volumes of components, many of them in stainless steel.

Specialised parting-off tooling from Advanced Carbide Tooling is being used successfully by R W Brown Engineering to produce high volumes of components, many of them in stainless steel, on a new CNC sliding-head lathe.

The tools are used on a Citizen L20-V11 with 20mm bar capacity bought by the precision engineering subcontractor in order to increase its ability to produce large batches of small components.

The company also operates seven other CNC turning and milling machines at its factory at Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, where around 60 per cent of output is in stainless steel, much of it for the food processing industry.

Having used ACT tooling in the past, owner Bob Brown called the company in to advise on two particular jobs to be performed on the new lathe one involving 20mm solid 303 stainless steel bar and the other 8mm 304 stainless steel tube.

For both jobs the company uses L121C toolholders with 12mm square shanks and 13mm reach.

Two features are a flush-fitting mechanical insert clamp and strong side reinforcement, which together hold the insert rigidly in position.

The solid bar is parted-off at a spindle velocity of 85 metres/minute and a feed rate of 0.05 to 0.08 mm/rev, using TiAlN-coated carbide inserts with a cutting geometry that optimises chip control.

The tooling consistently achieves the clean square surface required by his customer, and each insert produces at least 2500 components, according to Mr Brown.

For the second application, which involves parting-off 8mm diameter 304-grade tube with a 1mm wall, ACT advised high speed steel TiN-coated inserts with a 250 positive high-shear top rake.

The sharp edge of the HSS inserts reduces cutting pressures, minimising distortion, and also avoids burring.

Parting-off is performed at a velocity of 45 metres/minute and a feed rate of 0.03 mm/rev.

"The specialist knowledge and personal attention we have received from ACT has been extremely valuable in solving these machining problems and enabling us to meet our customers requirements efficiently and economically" said Mr Brown.