Tuesday 29 August 2017

Important Details Regarding CNC Precision Machining

By Jeffrey Walker


Machining is used to create parts from metals normally but also with ceramic, plastic, wood and composites by manufacturers of different products. The raw materials are cut into certain shapes and sizes with the subtractive manufacturing process or controlled material removal. They use machine tools instead of hand or power tools.

This is done with the help of digital instructions from computer programs that can translate CAM and CAD files. It would then be translated by the CNC precision machining and create what was designed with these software applications. This makes the cutting process automated resulting to an improved speed and accuracy when creating the prototype parts.

These processes often need to use multiple tools in making your desired cuts such as having drill bits with different sizes. Machines usually combine tools which basic ones can move in two axes while advanced ones could do so laterally, longitudinally and rotationally. The latter is capable of rotating parts automatically which lets them remove those that were previously below.

Doing this could make workers manually flipping stock materials an unnecessary task as it can now rotate itself automatically to let others side be cut. These are normally more accurate when compared with manual inputs but doing the finishing by hand is sometimes better. This includes etching and simple cuts which becomes tedious when an extensive computer program is needed for them.

These machines are categorized into two with conventional and novel technologies and the former using drills, lathes and milling machines. Drill bits would spin and move to contact with the block while lathes spin the block instead until it touches the cutting tool. Milling ones are possibly the most common among them and use rotary cutting tools.

Novel technologies are using specialized techniques like photochemical, electrochemical, electron beam, ultrasonic, and electrical discharge machining. Most are intended for producing mass quantities with particular material type used in these special cases. Other cutting mediums that this technology has includes plasma, oxy fuel, laser and water jet.

Using these machines would increase efficiency for manufacturing parts because the aforementioned speed and accuracy is improved. You would need also to hire fewer workers but can accomplish more still due to the devices. The manufacturing costs is greatly reduced because human error has been removed but precise parts will be made instead.

Some also have automatic assembly features that removes manual assembly which allows companies to take larger or more projects because of reduced production time. Waste of these highly expensive materials is also reduced which could save the business some money. They can now utilize effectively all materials without wasting most parts of it which usually happens when an error is done during production.

Companies are looking on how to increase bottom line, boost efficiency and increase productivity which makes precision machining in demand. These are usually compared with 3D printing and they contemplate on which could be a better choice between them. This normally depends on the available materials, economic factors and complexity with 3D printing capable of creating complex shapes more easily while conventional ones are limited with the available tools.




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