| By :
Nadine Davis
Copyright (c) 2010 Nadine Davis Unless a business is performing badly in other areas, increased productivity usually results in a corresponding increase in profit. There are many ways this can be achieved depending on the type of business, but in the case of Precision Machining Townsville, looking at better ways to utilise their engineering capabilities was at the top of the list. While the technology and equipment for performing multi-axis machining has existed for many years, the applications are different for different industries. 5 axis machining is one method that reduces production time, by machining complex shapes in a single set-up. This ability provides a number of benefits to a production workshop as summarised below: > Increased productivity by only having to perform one set-up and usually with one set of fixtures, in comparison to other methods which require multiple set-ups at different angles to get the same result. This saves, not only on the cost of the machining itself, but also the time and cost of preparing additional fixtures, as well as reducing the possibility of incorrect alignment by having to move the part more than once. > Higher cutting speeds because shorter cutting tools can be used, as the head can be lowered towards the job. This alleviates some of the load on the cutter, which reduces breakages, thus increasing tool life. Also reduced is the reverberation that tends to occur more often on 3 axis machines, removing the requirement for time wasting and expensive manual mill work in order to clean up kellered surfaces. > The ability to machine solid metal as opposed to castings - when producing complex parts this is an inexpensive and quick option, especially for small runs. It allows for much shorter led times e.g. one or two weeks as opposed to a couple of months that would be required to wait for a casting. > Saves large amounts of time when drilling holes. This may not seem like a major benefit but time is money, and drilling a series of holes with different compound angles is very time consuming. The 5 axis machine gives allowance for the head to be aligned to drill each hole with automatically, where as with a 3 axis machine the holes need to be drilled separately. The combination of reduced set-up times, savings on fixtures, reduced error rates and higher cutting speeds enables the job to be delivered to the client in a much shorter time frame, with little possibility of late delivery because of errors requiring re-machining. The client's business benefits because the components produced using 5 axis machining are available to them, on time and as a quality result, for the next step in their processes.
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