Product category:
Miscellaneous machine tools, gear cutting machines and equipment
News Release from: CTL Centreline | Subject: Three-way, right-angle milling head
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 14 September 2005
Milling head raises flange output
four-fold
International manufacturer of wheels has achieved a four-fold increase in production efficiency using a bespoke, three-way, right-angle head to mill 40 flanges/h instead of 10/h.
Back in full swing following its rescue from administration last year, Centreline, under its new owners, Coventry Engineering Group, continues to deliver cost-effective solutions to customers' machining problems For example, Kidderminster-based Titan Steel Wheels, a premier international manufacturer of wheels for off-highway vehicles, has achieved a four-fold increase in production efficiency using a bespoke, three-way, right-angle head from CTL Centreline to mill 40 flanges/h instead of 10/h
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 27 Jun 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
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Heavy-duty head mills tough materials
A very heavy-duty, right-angle head weighing 750kg for a nuclear energy equipment manufacturer in the USA transmit 13kW of power at just 50 rev/min to machine tough metals.
Right-angle machining heads stored in ATC magazine
Two right-angle heads - one for milling-intensive work and the other for drilling and tapping - can be exchanged automatically from a machining centre's tool magazine.
At the same time, tooling costs have been reduced by over 95% and there is now no loss of production due to scrap, which was previously running at unacceptable levels.
A subsequent deburring operation has also been eliminated.
Although traditionally known for its single-spindle right-angle heads, the CTL Centreline team, drawing on over 30 years' experience in designing standard and special units, suggested to Titan that a 3 x 120 deg angle-head would solve a longstanding production problem at the wheel factory.
Further reading
Mill/turn investment halves toolholder lead times
Users of high-speed machining may be interested to learn that Coventry Toolholders is halving the lead-time from order to delivery for its flange- and taper-contact HSK toolholders.
Angle heads and speeders to be introduced
New and improved angle-heads and speeders will be unveiled at MACH 2004 alongside a range of multi-spindle drilling / tapping heads and rotary coolant adaptors for prismatic machining.
VMC with angle head reduces time from 2h to 45min
Using a right-angle milling head on a VMC to machine internal drum apertures in hydraulic motor parts in 45min has replaced a time-consuming 2h cycle manually operated slotting process.
In the previous process, three equi-spaced slots were milled around the inside of a driven loose flange by hand using a single-spindle, right-angle head on a manual mill.
The purpose of the slots is to provide a keyway on the loose flange to engage the drive dogs on the wheel, effectively creating a one-piece rim and thus preventing 'tyre wind' and other stresses on heavily loaded tyres.
Commented Titan's chief production engineer, Neil Vivash, "Underlying our previous difficulties was that we needed only a relatively small number of driven flanges".
"The low production volume did not justify much investment in plant so we refurbished the milling machine and the original 3 x 120-degree indexable fixture".
"Even so, the machine was unreliable and a milling cutter would often lock up and cause the flange to spin in the fixture, scrapping the component and the GBP 30 tool every time." By 2005, production volumes at the Cookley factory had risen by nearly 50%, owing in part to the need for more off-highway vehicles in areas ravaged by wars and natural disasters, not to mention burgeoning construction in China.
The irksome problem of driven flange production was exacerbated by the need to produce half as many again, prompting the purchase of the CTL Centreline head to use on an existing Cincinnati Sabre vertical machining centre in the factory, on which there was spare capacity.
The higher speeds and feeds of which the machine is capable enable the use of indexable-insert carbide tooling instead of high-speed steel (HSS) cutters.
For this application, Seco's 25mm diameter Nano Turbo 7-insert carbide end mills with highly positive geometry were chosen.
After a one-off GBP 400 investment in three cutter bodies, 300 mild steel flanges can be milled per set of carbide insert edges, costing GBP 31.50, according to Vivash.
So the tooling cost for one month's production of 1,000 flanges is now GBP 105, whereas GBP 2,400 of HSS cutters used to be scrapped during the production run in addition to the cost of the cutters used in successfully producing the parts.
It now takes a 46s dry cutting cycle to mill the three 52mm long x 3.4 +/-0.1mm deep, burr-free slots in two passes using a 2,500 rev/min spindle/cutter speed, the ratio of the angle head drive being 1:1, and 600mm/min feed rate.
Floor-to-floor time is four times faster than previously.
Concluded Vivash, "CTL Centreline designed the new angle head around the application, providing not only the 3 x 120-degree configuration but also female threads inside each spindle, rather than the usual collet or side-lock tool holding system, as the Seco cutter we wanted to use has a screw back-end".
"We have been very pleased with the result.".
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