Product category:
Machine spindles and spindle attachments
News Release from: CTL Centreline | Subject: Bespoke, right-angle milling head
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 24 November 2003
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.
Plymouth, UK-based Kawasaki has increased production of its C200 and C270 hydraulic motors 10-fold from the 1984 level of 30 per month, so by the end of the 90s the company needed to find a way of streamlining the time-consuming job of machining the internal drum aperture The process used to be carried out on a manual slotter in a 2-hour cycle that required constant supervision, but is now completed automatically in 45 minutes on a vertical machining centre fitted with a bespoke, right-angle milling head manufactured and supplied by CTL-Centreline, UK
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.
A limiting parameter in the design of the toolholder is the 125mm x 150mm aperture of the smaller C200 drum, which means that there is not much space in the head to assemble the gearing.
Moreover, the forging is tough 709M40T steel (formerly EN19T) and the 40mm diameter Tizit cutter has three coated carbide button inserts that take aggressive, intermittent cuts as only one is in contact with the component at any given time.
The gearing in the head therefore had to be robust to withstand the stresses.
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.
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.
Said Kawasaki production engineer, Mike Wadey, "Despite the rigorous machining and the design constraints imposed by the application on the Centreline head, it has performed reliably for four years with little or no trouble.
It is testament to the build quality of the tool." A Brown and Sharpe 1000VC vertical machining centre is devoted to this job at Plymouth, forming part of a 6-machine cell for drum production.
The head never leaves the BT45 spindle and is permanently held in place by the pull stud.
However, for added rigidity to counteract the horizontal thrust of milling, three pins around the end of the tool body locate against a plate on the underside of the spindle head.
Clearance of 25 microns is left for the drawbar to pull the tool into the spindle and at the same time seat the pins firmly against the plate.
After turning of the outside diameter, the component has its aperture roughed out on another machining centre before being mounted in a fixture on the 1000VC equipped with a 1-degree indexing table.
The Centreline head rough- and finish-mills both sides of each of four profiled corners in the aperture, taking a total of 16 cuts, to provide relief so that the shaft clears the corners during motor operation.
Four flats are then finish milled, first on the two short sides which are machined to size.
Then the more critical shaft location flats are milled on which 0.15mm allowance is left for grinding.
Subsequent grinding of the outside diameter on a mandrel and subcontract heat treatment complete the production process.
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