Product category:
Wood machining and woodworking
News Release from: Techno | Subject: CNC routing machine
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 19 June 2006
CNC router improves PVC door-making
quality
CNC routing machine has helped a manufacturer of polyvinyl chloride significantly improve quality and productivity - as manual drilling operations were slow and hole sizes and locations varied.
A new economical, computer numerical control (CNC) router has helped a manufacturer of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) significantly improve quality and productivity D L Manufacturing makes MxVdoors that last longer in loading docks because they can be knocked out of their track without damage
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 15 Sep 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
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Previous manual drilling operations on the doors were slow and uneven feed rates caused hole sizes and locations to vary.
Wendell Moulton, engineering manager, looked at large machining centers but found they were very expensive and much heavier than needed to cut PVC.
Then he located a CNC router for only a fraction of the cost that automated the machining process, took only 20% of the time of manual drilling, and improved quality because feed rate and position were consistent for every part.
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"The new CNC router substantially improved our manufacturing operations by drilling holes in PVC faster and with a much higher level of consistency," Moulton said.
D L Manufacturing, North Syracuse, New York, USA, produces products for the warehouse and loading dock industries.
The company's MxV knockout dock door features durable polymer top and bottom panel brush seals that make the entire perimeter of the door weather-tight yet allow the door to be knocked out without damage if, for example, it should be struck by a forklift.
Corrective slots are built into the MxV's track to form a self-correcting design that allows the doors to be reset into position simply by opening and closing them.
The hinge is designed into the extruded the door panel.
This makes placing each panel easy and the interlocking panels snap together for smooth operation without added hinges or hardware.
Magnets hold the door down by reducing the upward biased effect of the counterweights.
An optional circular porthole is weather-tight and offers the added safety of visible verification of truck activity.
* Manual drilling was slow and difficult - the doors are made from PVC panels and require holes to mount the end cap and a slotted hole for the hinge pin that holds the panels together.
Eight to ten panels are used in each door and each panel has eight holes that need to be drilled.
Doors that are ordered with the optional porthole also require the hole to be cut out.
A lock was not offered until the product was produced on the CNC router, sparing the company from what would have been a very difficult manual machining operation.
The lock required a cavity to be made and holes to be drilled with precise locations.
The company did not offer the lock set option because this machining operation was too difficult to produce by hand.
Moulton felt that CNC would solve these problems by ensuring consistency in accuracy for hole position locations.
He looked at CNC machining centers of a size that could handle the company's largest panels, which range up to ten feet long.
He discovered that the least expensive machines in this class cost in the neighborhood of US$100,000, which was more than he could justify for this operation.
"These were very heavy machines with a cast iron base that were primarily designed for cutting metals," Moulton said.
"I felt that they were a lot more than what we needed for our doors so I looked around for a less expensive alternative.
I discovered the Techno LC CNC router, which turned out to be a very good fit.
This router provides the accuracy, speed and ease of programming and operation we were looking for.
The machine was designed specifically for the materials we work with as well as wood, polymers, and nonferrous metals.
Best of all, we paid less than US$30,000 for the machine, fully equipped with software, automatic toolchanger, and a special extension on the table to support our extra long parts." * Accuracy and reliability in a low-cost machine - the LC Series from Techno-Isel, New Hyde Park, New York, provides a number of critical features that allow it to deliver accuracy and long-term reliability of a level that has previously only been available from machines at a much higher cost.
Techno's LC Series machine is equipped with ball screws on all three axes with closed loop servo motor drives.
This high tech superior drive system provides smooth playfree accurate motion, which requires no adjustments and minimal maintenance.
Despite the fact that this was the company's first piece of CNC equipment, setting up the machine to produce the panels was not difficult.
Moulton used BobCAD computer aided design software to define the geometry of the panels.
The software produced the G-code required to run the CNC router.
Moulton defined the program to produce a series of four panels with each setup.
The machine drills four holes in one side of all four of the panels.
Then the operator rotates the panels and the machine cuts the holes on the other side.
The machine also routes out the irregular cavity required for the lock and drills the mounting holes.
The router also cuts out the optional porthole when needed.
The program includes instructions to change tools automatically when needed to perform these operations.
In addition the LC Series machine interface is very easy to use.
* Improvements in productivity and accuracy - "The CNC router has substantially improved our machining operations," Moulton said.
"The time required to perform the drilling operations has been reduced from ten minutes to two minutes for each part.
The time required to machine the porthole has been reduced by a similar proportion.
The CNC router also accurately produces the lock cavity, which would have been difficult or impossible to machine manually.
The accuracy of the holes has been substantially increased.
The CNC router cuts with the same feed rate and puts holes in the same location every time.
This saves time in our assembly operation and improves the appearance of our product." The machine comes fully assembled and includes Techno's Windows-based CNC G-code interface with free lifetime software upgrades.
The machine is available in three sizes, with work envelopes of 30 by 24in, 48 by 48in and 48 by 96in.
Each of these models provides a repeatability of 0.001in, a resolution of 0.0002in and a maximum speed of 250in/min.
A wide range of optional equipment is offered including a laser scanning module, CNC lathe attachment, Porter Cable router, vacuum blower, and fourth axis rotary table.
The 4ft x 8ft model base starting price is US$16,995.
Moulton also said the CNC router has proven to be an easy to use and virtually trouble-free addition to the company's equipment list.
"We are a small company and this is the first CNC machine that I have worked with.
Despite that fact, I found the Techno LC to be straight forward and easy to use.
I had our programs completed and the machine in production in less than three weeks from the time it was delivered.
The machine has done its job day in day out without requiring any maintenance.
I would recommend it to any other manufacturing company looking for an inexpensive and trouble-free method to improve productivity and quality in machining plastic and wood parts.
I have just received my second machine to process door track.".
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