HOW TO HANDLE STEELS OF HIGH HARDNESS ON CNC MACHINING

The competition in the industrial world requires one to constantly come out with the newer, the better, and the more efficient technology which solves the problems of various production processes. Moreover, new materials are being worked with in various production processes, which one would have never imagined could be used for that purpose. In order to put such materials in various applications different methodologies are required.

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REQUIREMENTS FOR MACHINING HARD STEEL

Hard materials like S7 steel and H13 steel are many a times required in molds due to their remarkable properties like impact resistance and temperature resistance. Although these hard materials improve the performance of the final products, but these materials require tough machinability. Machining hard materials seem almost impossible for many manufacturers. For machining hard materials one requires – A rigid tool system of high precision, tough and hard tool material, tool holders of high stiffness, proper and appropriate tool geometry and cutting conditions, etc. There is a huge difference in the machining process of hard materials and normal materials used for making molds. Working with hard steels requires the application of the right tools, right strategy and the right technology at right production stages.

TOOLS FOR MACHINING HARD STEEL

The right tools are required by productionists to machine hard steels. Working with hard steels requires one to have all the tool parameters accurately and precisely calculated. It is a must to consider well the sharpness and the edge measurements of the tool.

Square end, ball end and bull nose mills are used at different production stages. The mill with ball end does roughing and finishing operations. The mill with bull nose end is operated on large and flat surfaces. This tool is not so perfect as it gives rise to chipping. The corner parts of the material are processed by the mill with square end. These tools should be occasionally oiled and dry machining should be done with air to maintain their optimum performance.

RIGHT STRATEGIES

Working with hard materials requires the application of right strategy too. For instance, these days hard turning of the parts is done prior to the grinding to the final finish. Grinding process is specifically expensive and needs to be done in accordance with different shapes of materials. Now manufacturers are using various strategies to easily and swiftly turn a prehardened part. Insert selection plays an exceedingly important role in the process of hard turning. Selection of suitable insert is complementary to the process. For materials with much higher ranges of hardness, CBN inserts are used. Wear and tear of tools will necessarily require its maintenance like sharpening and hence the edges of the tool are varied. This variation needs to be accounted in the CAM programming. The best strategy used is the elimination of sharp turns and rather introducing small arcs at the corners in the program. This helps in the machining of corner parts and avoids the wear and tear of the machine. A sudden change of direction by 90 degrees slows down the machine.

RESOURCE BOX

Klarm is one of the leading CNC machining shop in china. Different types of processes like CNC Milling China are employed in production of various goods. Contact us to get good milling services and quality machined parts.

The original source of this article is from http://www.cncmachinings.com.

DIFFICULTIES OF MACHINING PLASTIC PARTS COMPARING TO METAL PARTS

Plastic has overtaken metals in the majority of the object manufacturing. Its feature like softness and expansion ability has increased its demand from customers. It can be molded into complex featured objects. Difficult holes and unbelievable curves can be carved out from plastics.

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Not all plastic is favorable for molding and precision machining parts. Plastic which has a high tensile strength and high compression strength can only be chosen for molding. For example, Nylon, Peek and Ultem are good choices, but Teflon is a complete no. Customers chose plastic keeping in view their requirement and cost.

Machining is a one of the various manufacturing process specializing in cutting plastics and giving them definite shape and size. Though plastics are soft and flexible it is not easy to mold into any specific part or object. In comparison to metal machining, it poses some challenges to the Chinese machining manufacturer. Let’s discuss some of these problems.

1. Plastics have a varied range of features – Unlike metals, plastics are man-made material. It is created by combining different components into a different ratio. All plastics are different with each other in consistency, strength, tolerance and color. Every customer wants to manufacture a different part with different characteristics which actually increases the technological complexity and cost while machining. Machining has to be set in the proportion of varied features each time when a customer demands something specific. Whereas metals have fixed characteristics where machining becomes fixed and easy with no variation required in design tools and customers also adjust with the features of metals making machinist’s work easy.

 

2. The plastic is soft making it difficult to mold – Metals are rigid and that is why they are easily compatible with machining as it (machining) is favorable to rigid materials providing more resistance to deformation. Plastics, whereas, are soft and pose a threat to machinist of going out of shape while machining it. During mold temperature and pressure is set very precisely as a minute difference in setting could lead to deformation in plastics and if there would be any dis-shaping of parts then it couldn’t be assembled properly in a final stage.

 

3. Handling is difficult – Plastic components are very sensitive, unlike metals which are rigid, tough and strong. So there is always a chance of mishandling the plastic components while machining which poses a danger to surface and corner damage. To avoid any such damage, machinist should be an expert in handling and manage the whole process in an excellent way.

 

4. Creates a large amount of scrap – Machining of plastics is different from metal machining as it produces a huge quantity of scrap while machining. It is easy to cut by tools and that is why complex designs are created by product designers. Complex designs have more curves, joints, holes which, when put into machining creates many pieces to be cut off from the plastic creating a huge pile of scrap. Metals are not easy to cut and therefore simple designs are carved out while machining which leads to less scrap creation.

Original source is from http://www.cncmachinings.com, which is a leading china cnc machining parts manufacturer. CNC machining services are best in China. Click the link given above and explore the best options available.