Industrial Engineering Case Studies Collection
PLASTICS MACHINING SPECIALISTS INVEST IN SLIDING-HEAD LATHE WITH NOVEL CHIPBREAKING SOFTWARE
2020
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2020
Gloucester subcontractor Stratos Precision Engineering has substantial quantum of work in machining plastics. It acquired sliding-headstock lathe, a Citizen Cincom L32-VIIILFV and installed it in September 2019. The twin-spindle, 35mm capacity, bar-fed turn-milling centre was an addition to five fixed-head, single-spindle chucking lathes for turning parts up to 650mm in diameter.
Purchase of the 7-axis CNC Swiss-type lathe (Sliding-Head Lathe) was part of an investment of more than £1 million. The machine has extensive driven tooling on the machine and one-hit production often supersedes two or three operations on different machines. Earlier, the company could not go operator less production on plastic machining as the stringy swarf that is produced when machining plastic and it needs to be manually cleared by an operator. In 2016, Citizen invented and patented its LFV (low frequency vibration) software. It vibrates the servo axis in the cutting direction so that the tool tip leaves the surface of the material being machined for regular, ultra-brief periods. The effect is to break the long strands of swarf normally generated when turning plastics into short lengths of just a few millimetres, preventing it from birds-nesting in the machining area and melting back onto the workpiece, which normally means scrapping the part.
Aluminium machining also results in stringy swarf forming around the tool and workpiece and therefore machining aluminium also benefits greatly from using Citizen’s chipbreaking software.
The benefit of improving the turn-milling efficiency was realized when Stratos was able to produce 2,000 parts over a short period and satisfy the customer need. The existing machines would only achieve 400 per day. However the new sliding-head machine and LFV technology produced produced the 2,000 parts in 48 hours.
The Cincom machines are built from the ground up to withstand the high-frequency, low-amplitude vibration caused by the intermittent, chip-generating cutting action. A major benefit of a twin-spindle lathe is the ability to produce components machined at both ends in a single cycle that would otherwise require two separate operations. This is assisted by the availability of a multitude of tools including driven cutters that enable the inclusion of extra operations such as deburring, eliminating further subsequent processes.
Another recent example of accelerated production was the machining of 5,000-off steel pins for a chain conveyor, which was completed in five days working a single shift for a good margin. The machine was operated unattended around-the-clock with LFV, with coolant running to keep the temperature stable, and produced 3,000 Ultem® Polyetherimide thermoplastic parts for a customer. They required -0 / +0.05 mm tolerance band. The machine's performance was impressive. It achieved be difficult to achieve tolerance without having to make any adjustments whatsoever to the machine. The company observes "The new machine has enabled us to be a more competitive subcontractor for plastic and metal machining and is contributing towards the impressive growth of our business.
About Sliding Head Lathes
Citizen LFV Cutting Technology – Reduced Chip Sizes
What is Low Frequency Vibration Cutting?
The servo axes are vibrated in the axial direction and cutting is performed while synchronizing this vibration with the rotation of the spindle. Because “air-cutting” times are provided during cutting, it is characterized by intermittent expulsion of chips. Programmable chip control!
This widely applicable cutting technology – able to handle a broad range of machining shapes and materials – is ideal for cutting difficult-to-cut materials like inconel, stainless steel, copper, and plastics, among others.
The case has a facilities selection and acquisition decision. Also it has additionally, improving the process with LFV.
Updated on 15.6.2023, 12 May 2020
Pub 31 May 2020
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