Aluminium base plates machined at high speeds

Aluminium base plates and face plates having high degrees of flatness and parallelism are high speed machined and used in a wide range of products such as mould plates and printer frames.

A specialist contract machining service, established by Hemlock Manufacturing of Sandiacre, Nottingham where base plates and face plates are machined using high speed technology, is now processing some three tonnes of aluminium a month on its five Haas VF vertical machining centres and a twin-pallet, 100-tool Kitamura H400 horizontal machining centre.

The components, up to 300mm square, are produced out of Honsel HE30 and Alplan proprietary aluminium blanks which have high degrees of flatness and parallelism.

Once machined by Hemlock they are used in a wide range of products such as mould plates and printer frames, face plates and fascias.

These are then assembled into printers, packaging machinery and electronic equipment.

The company also supplies black anodised finish machined fascias for use in upmarket hi-fi systems.

By using its up to four-axis and 12,000 rev/min spindle machining capability, batch quantities range from around 25 parts to continuous 24 hour production.

Some parts are highly complex with up to 200 holes, slots and special profiles having tolerances as tight as 10 micron and 0.05mm on feature positions.

Inspection is carried out on a Brown and Sharpe DEA co-ordinate measuring machine.

Explains managing director Paul Cobb: "We are set up to supply a complete service from raw material through to surface treatments such as anodising and bead blasting.

We also provide a stockholding service for customers where we hold finished parts that are individually wrapped and protected for immediate call-off and delivery direct to assembly lines.

This service has particularly proven to be a key attraction for customers.".

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