Bigger, faster, better: General Industry Coverage

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END USER: Daman Products Co., (800) 959-7841, www.damanifolds.com. CHALLENGE: Speed the design process and reduce setup time for machining large hydraulic manifolds. SOLUTION: Accurate and flexible workholding system, conceived, designed and built in-house. SOLUTION PROVIDER: Daman Products’ staff

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Daman Products Co., Mishawaka, Ind., designs and builds standard and custom hydraulic manifolds. Typically, the hydraulic manifolds Daman produces include fluid management features, such as threaded and off-axis holes, orifices, cavities, channels and complex valve mounting locations. Tolerances are tight: location and drill depths generally are ±0.005 “, while critical features like those essential to O-ring sealing or valve function can be ±0.001 “.

Until about 5 years ago, the largest custom manifolds Daman produced weighed about 350 to 500 lbs. and measured 10 “×10 “× 30 ” or 7 “×7 “×50 “. Then, in response to customer demand for larger manifolds, Daman determined that manifolds of 2 tons and less would comprise 80 percent of the “large” product market, with most in the 1-ton weight range. To enter the market, Daman needed a way to efficiently and reliably produce high-quality large manifolds.

Workholding was a central issue. The largest manifolds Daman made previously utilized the volumetric capacity of the company’s machines. To efficiently use that work envelope, Daman staff had developed a system of compact “feet” that bolted to the machine table and then to the workpiece. The feet acted as risers that “brought the part up off the table so that we were able to machine four sides,” said Neil Henderson, continuous improvement manager. “They permitted machining of a part that was as big as the machine table and saved the space that would have been occupied by a workholding tombstone.”

However, Thom Sibley, custom department production team leader, said using that workholding setup “involved indicating everything in to get it fitting square and somewhat centered on the table. Sometimes, if you got lucky, that might only take 15 minutes. If not, it might take an hour or more to get it located.” Including time spent on programming and part-location issues, an entire shift might go by without any chips being made.

To machine manifolds as large as 4,000 lbs. and about 18 “×20 “×40 “, Daman acquired a 4-axis Mazak FH 10800 horizontal machining center with X-, Y- and Z-axis travels of 66 “, 52 ” and 49 “, respectively.

With the new machine, Daman staff continued developing the riser-based workholding concept. The most recent version is constructed of ductile iron and begins with a 20 “×30 “×3 ” mounting plate bolted to the HMC’s table. The plate has 54 ¾-10 threaded mounting holes as well as 54 ½ “-dia. holes for pins, spaced 1 ” apart. In the exact center of the plate is a tight-tolerance bore.