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Turning centres improve aircraft part quality

A Leader CNC product story
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk editorial team Jun 23, 2008

Three CNC turning centres have reduced cycle times and improved surface finish and product quality in high volumes of batch produced aerospace components.

Avon Valley Precision Engineering recently purchased three DMC turning centres from Leader CNC of Nuneaton, UK, to machine parts of 10mm to 300mm (3/8in-12in) diameter in small batches from 10 to 10,000-off.

Located in Bitton near Bristol, UK, Avon Valley Prec ision serves many local global aerospace manufacturers with high quality work delivered on short lead times.

To carry out aerospace work Avon Valley Precision has ISO: 9001:2000, AS: 9100 and Airbus Supplier accreditation and searches for machine tools offering exceptional productivity, which is why it chose the DMC 6GL, DMC 8GL and DMC 210TM turning centres.

Leader CNC delivered the three machines over a six month period up to February 2008.

Since installation, Leader CNC told manufacturingtalk that Avon Valley Precision's DMCs have reduced cycle times and improved surface finish and product quality.

Avon Valley Precision Engineering's director, Barry Damsell said that the company is always looking to increase its capacity and update some of its machine tools.

He said: "We looked around the marketplace for flexible turning centres to work in the 10mm to 12in diameter capacity range that could comfortably produce small batches from 10-offs up to 10,000-off".

He added: "Whilst some of our work is quite complex, a percentage of the work only requires a small amount of processing but volumes are high and machine reliability is paramount".

* Gang tooling-type CNC lathe - the first of the three machines delivered, a DMC 6GL gang-type CNC lathe, arrived in November 2007.

Operating with a 1.5m barfeed system and 44mm diameter capacity, the slant bed machine accommodates up to six turning tools.

Damsell commented: "We found the slant bed tooling set-up was significantly faster than the turret type tooling.

This is because the tooling always remains close to the workpiece as opposed to turret tooling that continually moves in and out to change tools, something that extends non-cutting times considerably".

The DMC 6GL was specified to reduce production times on small, relatively complex aluminium components.

* DMC 210TM high speed turning centre - the DMC 210TM turning centre followed in December 2007.

This powerful high speed turning centre has 12 live tooling stations on a turret with a 165mm turning length.

The machine includes a hydraulic chuck and powerful Fanuc CNC.

Damsell said that while the DMC 6GL was specified for smaller more simplistic parts, the DMC 210TM complimented the smaller machine.

He added: "The 210TM is a rigid and robust turning centre that enables us to comfortably machine difficult to cut materials such as titanium, stainless steel and additional exotic materials, commonplace in the aerospace sector.

It not only gives us rigidity that improves surface quality and tolerance levels but also gives us remarkable capability".

* Second operation work eliminated - the live tooling stations on the DMC 210TM have removed a large amount of secondary processing previously transferred from the turning centres to the milling section.

So more capacity is now available in the milling section and has enabled the company to allocate staff to other tasks.

Leader CNC told manufacturingtalk that the ability to manufacture parts complete on the DMC 210TM has cut production times and improved repeatability on complex batch work previously transferred to machining centres for completion.

* DMC 8GL gang tooling-type CNC lathe - completing the turning cell was the arrival of the DMC 8GL gang tooling-type CNC lathe in January 2008.

Like the 6GL, the larger 8GL uses a collet chuck and 1.5m barfeed with six tools on a slant bed for highly productive manufacture of batch work.

Similar to the smaller DMC 6GL with six tools, but with a larger bar capacity of 51mm diameter, the DMC 8GL enables Avon Valley to be more competitive on high volume batch work on larger components by significantly reducing 'chip-to-chip' times.

Damsell said that many components only require turning, drilling, boring and parting operations and that the gang tooling-type machines are ideal for this.

He added: "Cycle times are improved considerably and these reductions are even more significant when working with large batch sizes and the savings are making us more competitive.

Machines can be run with a minimum of operator intervention".

The three new DMC machines in Avon Valley precision's turning cell are all fitted with barfeeds and part catchers to achieve additional capacity.

Damsell concluded: "The new cell has made an immediate impact upon our business and the future may see us looking at further turning centres from Leader CNC.".

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