Titanium mounting plates made in economic batches

Subcontractor is producing small quantities of titanium mounting plates economically using water jet cutting, milling and drilling rather than machining in a machining centre.

Abingdon-based Holifields has found a method of producing small quantities of mounting plates economically for a Formula One team.

In this case, an order for just 15-off was placed.

From 0.9mm thick, free-issue titanium plate, the subcontractor cuts out blanks using one of its Flow CNC water jet machines, then mills the outside profile and a central hole and drills a series of smaller holes.

Said Holifields' Sales Manager, Roy Marshall, " It would have been expensive to produce the part solely on a machining centre, and also wasteful of material.

This is therefore another example of our using water jet cutting in combination with another machining technique to keep the cost down for the customer.

A little over 40mm long and generally oval in shape, the titanium blanks are fixtured on the table of a Hitachi Seiki VS40 vertical machining centre.

The outside contour is profile milled to include four 6 mm radii on the corners and two 15mm radii to form part of the longer sides.

An 0.5mm by 45-degree chamfer is then produced around the top edge.

The central, 24mm diameter hole is also milled, followed by drilling of two 5mm diameter holes at both ends and 2.5 mm diameter holes at each corner that are subsequently countersunk at 120 degrees to 5.2mm diameter.

Positional accuracy of the three hole centres at one end of the component relative to those at the other end is +/- 0.10 mm.

Final operations are to etch part, issue and batch numbers and to inspect the component on a co-ordinate measuring machine prior to delivery.

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