Sort, Select, Start Up: Drilling Performance
Choosing a multitask machine from a bewildering array of options can be challenging, but the right one can be a shop game changer.
Author
Kip Hanson
Kip Hanson is a contributing editor for Cutting Tool Engineering magazine. Contact him by phone at (520) 548-7328 or via e-mail at [email protected].
Contributing Editor
Phone: 520-548-7328
Published content
Trending to turning
Holding a few tenths tolerance on a piece of 60-HRC steel was once the domain of expensive grinding equipment. Today, it's no big deal.
Making it manufacturable: Medical Manufacturing
New tools help parts makers design for manufacturability, which reduces machining costs and improves part quality.
Fueling improvements: Turning Performance
Using continuous improvement to reach automotive fuel-economy goals.
Train up
Many workers — from newbies to experienced machinists — can benefit from CNC training.
Vertical challenge: Medical Manufacturing
Can vertical machining centers go toe-to-toe with horizontals on performance?
Part makers get a better angle for multiple-axis work
Say your machine shop just received an order for 316 stainless fuel-injector nozzles requiring angled holes to be drilled on the workpiece face. Or perhaps your best medical customer needs miniature blood-pump impellers with complex 3-D blade geometries like those on a jet-engine turbine. How are you going to make them?
Raising the Bar
Bar feeders, once known as slow and inefficient 'rattle tubes,' are now high-speed, automated units.
Zeroing out Swiss: Turning Performance
When turning 2mm-dia. and smaller parts on a Swiss-style machine, it only makes sense that the radius on the tool should be equally tiny. After all, you can't cut a 0.5mm bone screw with a TNMG-431 insert—the tool's nose radius is nearly as big as the part.
Horizontal Autopilot: General Industry Coverage
Manufacturers are using unattended horizontal machining cells to improve productivity and quality.
Doing it the Hard Way
Thinking about taking the leap into milling hardened steels? Why would you? After all, if your shop has been successfully grinding, jig boring and EDMing hardened materials, why change?
Mighty Fine: General Industry Coverage
Fine finishing with a wire EDM eliminates need for secondary operations.
