Product category:
General Machining Subcontracting Services
News Release from: Unicut Precision | Subject: Machining
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 17 May 2007
'One-hit' machining of complex
components
Unicut Precision has won a long-term contract to produce batches of 250 flow control bodies that caused concern even to the supplier of the machines on which the parts would be processed.
Unicut Precision's production engineering culture of implementing 'one-hit' single machining cycles on very complex components has won it a long-term contract to produce batches of 250 flow control bodies that caused concern even to the supplier of the machines on which the parts would be processed But the final process developed by Unicut's Unit Business Manager Martin Branch, on the twin-spindle Miyano ABX-64 TH2 multi-axis mill/turn centre, has resulted in a fully-deburred part, washed and supplied to the customer, along with other components ready for final assembly
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 13 Sep 2002 at 8.00am (UK)
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From planning to first-off production of the part took a week and the part - made from 60 mm diameter, 316 stainless steel bar - was produced initially in 18 minutes.
It was then developed into a 15.5 min cycle time to result in a fully-deburred component that is subsequently ready for washing on the company's Durr programmable wash ready for despatch.
Mr Branch maintains that to produce the part using a CNC lathe and machining centre at best, would require two turning operations and four machining centre operations if they had the availability of four axes.
Conventionally, the part would need at least a dozen operations and the holding of special, tighter, operational process tolerances for successive locations and positioning to meet the required tolerances.
Included in the Miyano cycle are turning, milling, grooving, counterboring, recessing, drilling, boring, reaming, pocket milling, screwcutting, profiling, thread milling, tapping and parting-off.
There were four 1 mm diameter holes that were more like grooves by 8 mm deep.
These were required at quadrants around a frontcounterbore so the holes had to be pitch drilled then the counterbore machined to leave half of each hole in the wall of the material.
He explains: "The tool would be too weak to effectively endmill the holes if the counterbore was produced first".
There were also two sets of three holes set in an arc in the counterbore at 9 degrees to the centre line.
These holes have to break into each other in two kidney shaped slots machined in the main bore.
"We drilled the two outside holes first to prevent wander, then produced the centre hole.
However, the difficult part was these holes and the slot had to be fully deburred in-cycle by interpolating around the profile of each intersection to remove rags and sharp edges," he says.
The centre bore is opened out and an oil groove trepanned in the face and then, using two adjustable angle head drill holders set at 13 degrees, a ballnose cutter is used to produce spot faces followed by two more at 9 degrees with two 4 mm diameter holes also drilled.
Two further cross holes are drilled opposite each other on the square by drilling partway, indexing the main spindle 180 degrees and drilling to break through, followed by the production of a counterbore on each side ready for thread milling 1/4 BSP threads at each position.
Initially the outside diameter is rough and finished turned in the sub-spindle, the part-off face machined to length and four 1 mm diameter holes drilled on a pitch circle in the face.
The counterbore is then drilled and bored to leave a section of half of the 1 mm holes in the wall of the material.
A 30 mm stub Acme thread is milled followed by the use of a slitting saw to radially mill a blunt start and run-out of the thread.
A face groove is then milled, internal scollops milled, the clamping holes counterbored to 8 mm diameter and an M12 internal screw threadmilled.
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