Category: Aerospace

OMG BAH Series: Big Angle Head Series for Big Industry

The BAH Series of Angle Heads from OMG srl, Italy are designed and built to satisfy the tooling requirements of very large machines used in a variety of industries: Heavy goods vehicles, Aeronautics, Shipping, Military, Railroad, Energy, Moulds and Automotive.

To build these types of products, one needs design expertise, thorough knowledge of the product itself and related problems, investment strength, specific machine tools and equipment as well as highly qualified personnel. The applied technology, the materials, the parts and assembly all ensure top levels; the certified static and dynamic
tests guarantee the best possible performance over time.

They are usually special products, tailor-made for the specific requirements of the manufacturer of machine tools or for retrofitting machines already at work in the specific industries. The main features of these products may be summarised as follows:

  • Body made of cast iron or obtained from the full piece to ensure maximum precision and stability
  • Motion transmitted by means of Gleason ground involute gears. The transmission ratio is normally 1:1, but it may be in both multiplication and in reduction based on torque transmission requirements
  • Standard tool-holder couplings: DIN69871 – DIN 2080 – BT – HSK – Coromant Capto or others on request
  • Tool holder can be locked on the spindle in two ways: manually or automatically. If automatic, it is locked mechanically and released hydraulically
  • Coolant may be supplied in the centre of the tool holder. The pressure currently reached is 70 Bar and the tool holder is cleaned with air. Whatever the case, there are always some turning nozzles around the spindle

Furthermore, the spindle is always pressurised to avoid intrusions

  • Spindle oblique contact precision bearings lubricated with long life grease
  • Gears normally lubricated with grease separated from the grease of the bearings. For high speeds, the lubrication system is oil circulation
  • The axes of the heads with automatic rotation are locked by means of Hirth crowns, with standard division of 2.5° and 1° on request
  • All the electrical control devices on the axes and the spindles are inside the head and are easily accessed.

These products are tested statically on 3D measuring machines and dynamically, at the agreed rates, on our BP05 test bench that fully simulates the conditions of use in compliance with the product standards.

 

MAPAL: Milling Fibre-Reinforced Plastics

The High Requirements of Milling Fibre-Reinforced Plastics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Machining Task

The machining of CFRPs (carbon fibre reinforced plastics) places high requirements on the tools used, their geometries and coatings. Due to the abrasiveness of carbon fibres in relation to the cutting material, standard tools very rapidly become blunt and the end of tool life is reached after only a few parts. To be able to cut carbon fibres that are laid in a matrix form, increased performance at the cutting edge is required. This statement applies above all if the carbon fibre content is more than 60 %. On milling the peripheral contour on a 21 mm thick structural part for a sports car, the customer had a clear requirement to double the tool life from the previous 10 parts to 20.

The Challenge

The challenge is to keep the milling tool sharp and therefore to prevent delamination at the part edges produced. In this way expensive, manual re-work is saved. At the same time, the issue is to reduce the machining time and to realise long tool lives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Mapal Solution

The eight cutting edge, diamond coated solid carbide end milling cutter OptiMill-Composite-Speed has a high performance geometry with a serration. This serration makes possible improved chip removal and therefore an extremely high volume of chips in one machining step. As a result the machining is undertaken using only one tool in one step and the roughing step necessary previously is saved. With twice the feed and three times the material removal rate the tool life is increased fourfold and the quality requirements in relation to surface roughness reliably achieved. As a result the customer’s expectation in relation to tool life were exceeded by a further 20 parts.

The MAPAL Effect

  • Four times the tool life reduces the tool costs
  • Doubled feed halves the machining time
  • Only 1 machining step

 

 

 

Horn Mini 108: Targeted Chip Breaking

We are pleased to showcase the HORN Mini system 108 with threading geometry suitable for turning ISO metric internal threads in partial and full profile. The chip breaker geometry enables the production of short chips, even with hard-to-cut and long-chipping materials. This reduces the risk of chip build-up and prevents swarf from becoming entangled around the tool holder, increasing process reliability. Targeted chip breaking also makes it easier to handle chips.

 

Click here for the full range of Horn Grooving Solutions.

Please contact us for any information you would like to have on any of the products showcased in this video.  Depending on your location, we have the possibility to offer a demo of Horn Tooling solutions.

 

MAPAL – Machining of Unstable Structural Parts

 

Thin-walled parts are used in a wide variety of applications. These components are often manufactured close to the net shape, but nevertheless require a great many machining operations. The particular challenge for these machining processes is that due to their design, these parts are very unstable and susceptible to vibration. That creates special demands upon the design of the process and the tools.

These parts are preferably machined in a single clamping system. In order to meet this demand and to make as many of the surfaces to be machined as accessible to the tools as possible, certain allowances have to be made in the clamping system. As a consequence, the workpiece is not optimally supported and tends to vibrate. Thin webs, voids and interruptions to be machined and widely fluctuating stock removals from the cast blank also call for special tool solutions. For large parts with many machining steps, this would require a huge number of tools. The merging of these steps using combination tools in order to reduce the non-productive times and the number of tool slots is an ideal solution.

Thanks to its vast understanding of the processes for the machining of unstable structural parts, MAPAL is able to offer cost-effective and reliable processes. Three aspects are of particular importance here. Firstly the adjustment of the cutting rate is a factor for reducing or avoiding rising vibration. Both vibration of the tool – which would result in short tool lives and poor machining results – and vibration of the workpiece have to be prevented. The latter would result in a recoiling of the part against the cutting edge and could cause damage to the tool. The second important adjustment in the tool design is the evaluation of the tool body. Vibrations can be reduced here by an appropriate design and choice of material. Furthermore, an intelligent arrangement of the cutting edges in form and position helps to keep the cutting forces low. And finally the machining process itself offers possibilities for reliable machining of parts susceptible to vibration. Reorganization and the choice of alternative sub-processes create a change in the distribution of forces that can increase the process reliability. For example, the use of a circular milling operation instead of a solid drilling operation can help to stabilize the process.

Please contact us for more information on machining of Structural Components.

– This article is an excerpt from Mapal Innovations – Process Solutions