By David A. Stokely, SpeedGrip Chuck guest posting One of the most vexing problems in machining today is how to most efficiently make an out-of-round part round. In the days of thick-walled tubing or cut slugs, this manufacturing task presented little difficulty, but with today’s thin walled near-net-shape parts, the difficulties mount. Fortunately, we have developed several ways to make this task much easier. It takes three points to define a plane. This fact of geometry is why a three-legged stool or table will never tip. No matter what uneven shape the floor beneath may have, three points of leg contact will always be able to find a flat plane defined between them and therefore not tip.
After the clamps actuate, the push-on collet retracts out of the way, so that the full part bore may be turned and the outer face can be machined inside of the clamps for a second operation flat locating face. This is a custom-designed mechanism. We have many different styles of clamp and centering devices. The style of chuck can be configured to virtually any required configuration. Other common options included in this design are through the spindle coolant flush, part air confirmation circuits, and carbide or diamond coating of the clamps or work stop pads.
The latest entry into our non-rounding arsenal is the finger collet. Having similarities both to a diaphragm chuck and a collet chuck, this mechanism is an economical alternative to a multi-jaw chuck.
Of special importance, we require to know the maximum out-of-roundness that may be encountered in the part as it comes to this operation, and the required roundness and flatness of the machined surfaces. Figure 4 is an internal gripping finger collet. The part was a 13-inch ID 4340 forging. The forging coming to the operation, was roughly 0.100 out of round.
The same issue that exists with non-rounding during machining is also an issue during the part inspection process. The same 13” 4340 casting part that we held for machining on the first operation also needed to be inspected on a gear checking inspection machine. (Figure 5)
Not totally confident of such a new and easy method of checking their parts, the customer had the first hundred or so parts indicated after being chucked in the push-on collet. When no misloads were discovered, the push-on collet was trusted with a very important operation. The comment was made by the customer that this was the best tooling investment that they had made in a long time.
They can be splined to check concentricity and squareness of a gear’s pitch, minor, or major diameter.
They can be polymer-coated and have been used in sizes ranging well under an inch to more than 20 inches in diameter.
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Looking for an end mill with unsurpassed performance in high-efficiency milling of Titanium? The new Fullerton 3116 TiMill end mill may be just what you need. Titanium is half the weight of steel and twice the strength of aluminum: It's a high strength, light weight material with excellent fatigue performance, super durable in high stress environments and corrosion resistant. As a result of titanium's material properties it's making it become evermore popular in the aerospace, defense, shipbuilding, medical adn dental industries. It's also what makes it considered a "more difficult to machine" material. Let's dig into that a bit more.
The trick to machining titanium has always been to keep consistent coolant flow to evacuate the chips and maintain a consistent chip load. Again, rough to your finish size. Don't let it work harden. That's what we've learned about titanium over the past couple of decades. There has been a ton of research on titanium's properties and that research has led to further refinement of the cutting tool geometry at Fullerton. The design of Fullerton's 3116 TiMill is based upon over a decade of aerospace testing and developmentand addresses many of the machining issues that Titanium presents. It's a 6-flute tool built with a 38°helix. The increased number of flutes allows for the tools to remain "in the cut" longer and more consistently. It doesn't induce as much heat as a lower number of flutes tends to do. instead, it's consistent. The 38°helix evacuates the chip at a more optimum angle than a 35°, 37.5° or 40° helix that predecessors made by competitors have tried.
It has an extremely high hardness, toughness and heat resistance which makes it ideally suited to keep the heat out of the core cutting tool in titanium applications. The 3116 TiMill 6-flute high-performance 38°helix end mill is stocked with FC-13 coating. Speeds and Feeds are Critical* IT'S MADE FOR TITANIUM! So that means it is NOT Recommended for High Si Aluminum (>10%), Low Si Aluminum (<10%), Composites, Plastics, Brass & Copper, or Graphite. NOT Recommended! Choose your Sizeedited by : Bernard Martin Creating a niche product has put Steiner Technologies on the CNC machining map. Company President Andy Nolan, who purchased the company from inventor Rudy Steiner in 2008, parlayed his knowledge of machining tools to become the guy who saves people time. “We help automate their processes by eliminating secondary operations and making the workplace safer,” Nolan said. Steiner’s flagship product, the Autofacer back spot facing tool, is designed to be a time saver. It counter-bores without the need for a change of cutter head from a manual system, reducing operating time from 48 minutes per hole to less than five minutes per hole. “Our goal is to help our customers eliminate secondary operations and make the workplace safer for their machinists,” Nolan said. “In the end, we save them 80 percent of their current process time.” Gleason Works, a gear manufacturer for industries such as NASCAR, has worked with Steiner Technologies for three years. “Andy helped us cut down our work time from six hours to 15 minutes,” said Gleason Manufacturing Engineer Logan Watson. “The support he provided was incredible, as far as getting down to our specs. Everything we’ve ever asked for, he’s been right there for us.” Nolan, whose sons Ryan and Tyler also work for the company, invested more than $1 million in manufacturing equipment and software. “The investment will allow us to have the capacity and capability to continue to be the leader in the marketplace,” said Nolan. The company has invested in the future by establishing a mentoring program for aspiring machinists. “We brought in two young guys who have no experience in manufacturing,” Nolan said. “Our hope is to help them learn the business.” Partnership with German Manufacturer Hermann BilzIn 2017 Steiner Technologies expanded its portfolio with a back counterboring product line. Offered in partnership with German manufacturer Hermann Bilz, the Bilz line offers manufacturers a variety of standard reverse boring solutions reverse counterboring, reverse deburring and reverse chamfering. Reverse boring and back counterboring solutions are varied and unique to each application, generally requiring custom solutions that take weeks to produce and ship, the company says. The availability of the Bilz line from Steiner addresses both concerns with a catalog of standard components. The addition of the Bilz line also completes Steiner’s counterboring portfolio. While the company’s Autofacer is well-suited for high-volume applications, the Bilz line suits shorter production runs and less demanding applications for shops large and small. Portions of this article are from Steiner Technologies focuses on saving clients time and Standardized Back Boring Tools Available
HAIMER, an innovative global player in tool management for machine tools, is convinced that production engineering will be determined by automation and digitization in the future. This development is an established part of the company's own production and has accordingly also found its way into the product range from i4.0-capable machines to the HAIMER Automation Cube robot cell, which can be scaled according tocustomer’s request and is suitable for automated shrinking, presetting and balancing.
But it is not simply a marketing slogan – there are many years of experience behind it. HAIMER started off 45 years ago as a machine shop for the aerospace industry and soon started to develop high-precision toolholders for their own use. HAIMER also has many years of experience in automation. The Bavarian family company made the decision to equip their first machine tools with robots for loading and unloading over 20 years ago. Since then, automation at HAIMER has advanced swiftly, as evidenced by their manufacturing facilities at their headquarters in Igenhausen or in Motzenhofen, just 5 km away. The Motzenhofen production plant in particular, which has been operating since 2018, has been equipped from the beginning with numerous automated machining centers in recent years. Automation is a necessityAndreas Haimer stresses: “If, like us, you depend on a very high level of in-house production completely ‘made in Germany’, there is no way you can avoid extensive digitization and automation. Otherwise we would not be able to keep up economically with our global competition.” Soft machining of the tool holders is carried out in Motzenhofen alongside all precision components for shrink fit and balancing machines including accessories. Up to 4,000 rotating tool holders can be turned and milled there per day before heat treatment, followed by µm-precise grinding at the headquarters in Igenhausen. Fine balancing is also carried out in Igenhausen – using systems that have been developed in-house and are fully automated. Not every automation is complexBack to Motzenhofen: Amongst others, HAIMER operates a fully automated manufacturing cell with several five-axis DMG MORI MILLTAP 700 machines. These highly dynamic vertical machining centers, which were installed at the beginning of 2019, are perfect for boring and milling components such as the BT30 or the SK30 steep taper tool holders. Manfred Mayr, who completed his apprenticeship at HAIMER over 40 years ago and is now responsible for around 100 machine tools as the plant and production manager, explains: “Here we use a simple plug & play complete solution, which includes a fully automated loading and unloading system using a KUKA robot. Blanks and the machined parts are placed in three drawers, each of which has around 78 positions. This ensures that unmanned production is possible for a minimum of eight hours up to 20 hours.” The automation of four identical DMG MORI NHX4000 machining centers, which are equipped with a pallet pool FMS system, is considerably more demanding, as Manfred Mayr describes: “There are twelve pallets, each with 400 places, ready to process various components. This provides us with ideal flexibility, also when it comes to smaller batch sizes and short-notice changes in the production flow.” The machines generally work highly productively and trouble-free in a 3-shift operation, supervised by just one employee. In order to operate the machines as autonomously as possible with a large variety of products, HAIMER had the machines equipped with a tool magazine with 183 tool pots. Manfred Mayr considers the fact that all tools for these machines are equipped with an RFID chip on the tool holder to be a key factor of success. They are read in at a dedicated station when they are changed into the magazine. This means the control receives the correct tool data digitally from the HAIMER Microset VIO linear presetter. This completely eliminates any input errors or mix-ups. Digital data flow between the tool room and the machining centerA key basic requirement for economic operation of the NHX and all other machine tools – according to the plant manager – is a perfectly operating and well organized tool room: “This technology represents a central component of our expertise. Of course we use our own products here – from shrink fit, balancing and presetting machines to tool holders and cutting tools. This enables end-to-end digitization all the way to the machine, which is an essential component for automated, economic manufacturing operations.” This means that all tools for milling and turning machines are centrally prepared and managed in the tool room. They are mounted, shrunk, measured, and balanced – and all data is digitally recorded. This either takes place on the aforementioned RFID chips, by means of digital interfaces, such as post processors, or via a QR code. Only then they are packed onto special tool wagons as required, where the machine operator can pick them up for their machine. This eliminates extra walking throughout the shop. “Only with optimal tool presetting room, the machines run and not the employee,” is Plant Manager Mayr’s credo. The tool must fit into the digital production environmentThe digitization of the production processes represents a key factor for success not only for HAIMER but for every company. “As the tool with its specific data is a central component of the process chain for machining, it needs to fit into the digital production environment,” explains Andreas Haimer. This includes the consistent implementation of all digital options – from the tool itself, the tool holder including the clamping process, the balancing to the tool presetting, and the use on the machine. Especially when making new investments, the user should ensure that every element in the tool environment is Industry 4.0 capable and can be incorporated into the digital workflow, advises Andreas Haimer: “Our products are fully prepared for digital production. We have even developed our own tool management software, the HAIMER Data Analyzer and Controller (DAC), which establishes and manages the exchange between the actual and target values along with other tool data between the individual stations in the tool room and the company network. Our equipment in the Industry 4.0 series are prepared for automation with modern digital features and interfaces. Moreover, they have been designed to be robust with a long service life, which is a guarantee of the highest process reliability – a decisive factor for successful automation.” HAIMER supports a wide range of automation models with its products. The range starts with individual machines which combine several work steps, such as the presetter HAIMER Microset VIO linear toolshrink. It is capable of shrinking tools with a length adjustment on the μm scale and at the same time measuring the tool. Amongst other things, it is ideal for sister tools, which always need to be shrunk to the same dimensions. Their use in series production or in multi-spindle machines promises to increase process reliability and minimize setup times. One robot cell for shrinking, presetting and balancingJust last year at the EMO Milano, HAIMER presented a much more far-reaching solution: the HAIMER Shrink Automation Cube. This automated shrink station contains a cobot, that supports shrinking and unshrinking of tools with highly accurate length repeatability. The cell is scalable according to the customer’s requirements. This means the cube is controlled by the HAIMER DAC Tool Management and HAIMER presetting and balancing technology can be integrated in the Automation Cube. A scanner for reading out unique tool combinations and a conveyor belt that is variable in lengths are also available.
Such equipment allows the following procedure to be carried out, for example: The operator places the worn complete tool assembly (consisting of tool holder and cutting tool) on the conveyor belt and provides a new cutting tool. The cobot picks up the complete tool holder assembly and identifies it via its unique data matrix code (optionally via RFID). It then picks up the new cutting tool and measures the cutting edge. In the meantime, the coil moves onto the worn complete tool holder assembly, unshrinks the old cutting tool and then shrinks in the new one to the required projection length. After air cooling, the new complete tool is ready for use. The old cutting tool is disposed of. Andreas Haimer is convinced: “This automation solution is suitable for companies that perform a very large number of shrink operations every day.” Especially if there is only limited automation expertise in the company, a complete solution like this from a single source is a good idea. Andreas Haimer also points out that HAIMER components can be integrated into almost any existing automation environment: “We are also happy to partner on larger automation projects.” Developed for lighter, faster cutting, capitalizing on modern high-feed machining principles Dapra Corporation announced its new high-feed indexable milling platform, “Vapor powered by TRI-X2.” It's a new double-sided high feed milling series to the market. As part of our "Dapra New Technology" innovations, VAPOR™ is a high feed indexable mill that maximizes metal removal rates. Utilizing light depth of cut (DOC) combined with extreme feed per tooth (FPT) to increase productivity. The Vapor platform features elements in body design and TRI-X2 insert geometry for higher metal-removal rates and extended tool life. Vapor is said to be ideal for extreme machining with modern machine tool technology. Dapra Corporation is a U.S.-based, multi-generation, family-owned parent company to multiple brands which provides high-quality engineered solutions for various manufacturing and industrial markets. From indexable cutting tools to permanent part marking equipment Dapra Corporation says it continues to develop and invest in solutions to empower the success of manufacturers across North America and beyond.
For over 65 years Dapra Corporation has provided workholding, indexable milling and power tool solutions to a wide array of manufacturing segments including aerospace, automotive, mold and die and more.
Steel Punches cost $3134.70 per machine compared to carbide punches which equaled $196.48 per machine in the case study. Endurance Carbide is a manufacturer of tungsten carbide precision wear parts, their name, Endurance Carbide, makes a lot of sense because carbide lasts a long time – much longer than steel.
Expansion in the consumption of cemented carbide continues to grow. The World total of 10 tons in 1930; to 100 tons in the mid 30’s to a 1,000 tons in the early 40’s to 10,000 tons in the early 1960’s to 30,000 ton today. Endurance Carbide started in 1961, shortly after carbide’s initial growth in prominence following the late 1950s. Before then, steel had quite the monopoly throughout the World War II era. Compared to carbide, steel is less expensive. While you may save on the upfront cost with steel, it doesn’t last as long. You’ll be replacing steel products multiple times before you have to replace one of carbide. Endurance Carbide has a customer that previously used steel punches in their operation. Each machine used two punches, and with working around the clock, they were using six steel punches per day ($34.83 each punch), per machine. Additionally, they were losing a half hour of production per each punch change. When they switched to carbide punches ($98.24 each punch), the machines ran for 15 days around the clock before they required a change. In Comparison. Steel Punches = 2 punches per machine $34.83 x 2 = $69.66 x 3 times a day = $208.98 x 15 days = $3134.70 per machine compared to carbide punches which equaled $196.48 per machine for 15 days with no hour and half per day downtime. Carbide is tremendously effective and lasts longer. You may pay a little more in short term, but it’s a cost-savings measure in the long term. The longer tool life not only eventually saves you money, but also increases production since you’ll have less machine downtime. And carbide has only improved since it first arrived to the scene. When it first started getting used, there were only a limited amount carbide grades – ranging from C-2 through C-19. There are at least 5,000 different grades of tungsten carbide sold under more than 1,500 different trade names by more than 1,500 different companies. Carbide’s certainly changed a lot since our company first started, and is growing more and more in use over steel. Mark Porath, Endurance Carbide’s General Manager, said to convince a customer in switching from steel to carbide still takes some doing because they worry that it will bust. Many are still hesitant, but it is getting so much better. Steel can be very forgiving in that regard, but we’ve found once someone does make the change, they never return to steel. Tri-Angle Precision Reamer can make extra length, piloted and threaded shank reamers with a 24 hour turnaround time. Tri-Angle Precision Reamer are High Speed Steel Chucking Reamers, Cobalt Chucking Reamers, Dowel Pin Reamers and reamer sets are all available off the shelf. But what happens when you have some special requirements on a reamer for a specific job? You can rely on Tri-Angle Precision to meet those needs!
A new, heavily automated facility helps Tool-Flo supply new customers with grooving, threading and other indexable cutting tools. by MATT DANFORD Senior Editor, Modern Machine Shop In addition to consolidating operations from four facilities to one, Tool-Flo’s new 88,000-square-foot indexable cutting tool manufacturing plant in Houston, Texas offers room to grow. More specifically, it offers room to automate. As seen in the photos here, many investments have already been made. Lines of new insert grinders incorporate robot-arm tending so that one person can supervise multiple machines. Processes previously performed manually have also been automated, and new machining resources are available to cut tool bodies. Much of the company’s recent growth has been driven by diversification into new markets, says Charlie Mendez, advertising director. He credits membership in the IMC Group, a 13-member conglomerate of carbide cutting tool manufacturers, for helping the company expand its focus beyond energy and its customer base beyond Houston, and for helping facilitate investments in facilities and equipment. Consolidating the operation brings benefits as well. Productivity, lead time, quality and service are expected to improve, as are internal communications between sales, engineering and manufacturing. Scroll through the photo gallery above for a look inside the new plant. This article originally appeared in Modern Machine Shop 3/18/2019
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