Articles

Articles • February 1, 2016 • William Leventon

A machine for dry grinding gears

Italy-based Samputensili S.p.A. unveiled a machine that eliminates the need for cutting oils when manufacturing gears, thereby reducing grinding costs. During grinding, oil-based lubricants cool the workpiece, as well as reduce friction and help evacuate chips. On the downside, however, oil use accounts for a significant amount of a grinding operation's total cost. Expensive equipment is required to supply, chill, catch and wash away oil in grinding processes. In addition, Samputensili estimates that oil-treatment equipment accounts for 75 percent of the energy consumed by a grinding machine.

Articles • February 1, 2016 • Evan Jones Thorne

Aluminum can be hard to drill, despite its easy rep

When drilling, perhaps no variable is as important as the workpiece material. It dictates drill geometry and substrate, tool coating, coolant application, and speeds and feeds. While known for its relative softness and ductility, misconceptions abound among those who regularly drill aluminum.

Articles • February 1, 2016 • Kip Hanson

Horizontal machining centers’ enhanced capabilities shorten payback periods

At roughly twice the price of a vertical machining center, do horizontal machining centers make sound financial sense? Absolutely, according to Scott Baldus, product specialist at Okuma America Corp. The Charlotte, N.C., machine builder offers both VMCs and HMCs, yet, Baldus noted, HMCs provide, on average, more than three times the spindle utilization of VMCs.

Articles • February 1, 2016 • Evan Jones Thorne

Overcoming five common challenges when turning

While it's nearly impossible to quantify the most common challenges or most important considerations when turning, experts agree that the five aspects of turning discussed below should be considered. It's important to note that each factor has the potential to impact the others. So, instead of looking at each issue individually, it's recommended machinists take a holistic best-practices approach to turning.

Articles • February 1, 2016 • Doris Schulz

Component cleanliness requires effort throughout manufacturing process

Specifications for particulate and film-residue cleanliness are a matter of course for many machined components. In addition to the parts cleaning procedure, manufacturers must consider the entire process chain when seeking to efficiently achieve and maintain the required level of cleanliness.

Articles • February 1, 2016 • Christopher Tate

Reaming can be most cost-effective way to produce accurate holes

Technological advances in cutting tools, machine tools and toolholders have allowed machinists and manufacturing engineers to increase holemaking efficiency by eliminating the number of tools required to produce accurate holes. High-performance drills are the best example of these technological advances. In the past, it was common for a machinist to spot-drill, drill and then ream to achieve accurate hole geometry. Now, the same hole can be made in a single operation using a high-performance drill.

Articles • February 1, 2016

Enhancing machining efficiency

Multiple machine tool builders offer equipment for machining the helicopter transmission components Northstar Aerospace Inc. produces at its Bedford Park, Ill., facility, but not all are equally efficient in handling the task. The parts weigh up to 350 lbs. (159 kg), have diameter tolerances as tight as 0.0003" (0.0076mm) and are made of aerospace-grade superalloys typically hardened from 50 to 60 HRC, said Brian Cheek, vice president and general manager at Northstar.

Articles • January 1, 2016 • Kip Hanson

Conventional thinking

Anyone who's drilled a deep hole on a CNC lathe or mill knows it's not easy. Go much deeper than 10 or 20 diameters and out-of-tolerance hole straightness, chip packing and premature tool failure become real concerns. Some machine shops turn to gundrilling houses, where specialty machines and tools make easy work of holes hundreds of diameters deep or more. Unfortunately, this means shipping the parts, incurring additional costs and increasing lead time to customers. Surely there's a better way.

Articles • January 1, 2016 • Alan Richter

How Angle Heads Streamline Multi-Axis Machining Operations

The array of configurations is vast, but angle heads typically serve a common function: eliminate having to perform a separate operation to access a part feature when thenworkpiece can't be indexed.

Articles • January 1, 2016 • Kip Hanson

Hold tight, and right

Your shop just bought its first 5-axis machining center. Now what? Not only are there new and more complex programming techniques to learn—never mind the mind-boggling variety of part processing options to contend with—there's also the pesky problem of how to grip workpieces. With the ability to tilt, rotate and position parts in ways never before possible, machining five sides of a workpiece in a single setup is a challenging but straightforward exercise—provided clearance between the workpiece, machine table and spindle head is maintained.

Articles • January 1, 2016 • Matthew Jaster

Closer inspection

Metrology is evolving to allow inspection to be moved closer to the production area. Is it time to remove your inspection lab and retire your old, reliable coordinate measuring machine? Has portable metrology equipment reached a point where all your parts can be measured directly on the shop floor? The answer to both remains a resounding, "Not quite yet."

Articles • January 1, 2016 • Don Nelson

A long view on innovation

The view from Jungfraujoch inspires awe. So does the railway that transports visitors to the site—a ridge located 11,332' above sea level in the Swiss Alps. I was exposed to another example of commitment while in Switzerland, during a visit to the Mikron Group. Company vice president Markus Schnyder recounted his attempts in the early 1990s to develop a drill for a customer that used Mikron rotary transfer machines to drill holes in stainless steel watch bracelets.