Industrial Insights

“If the fabric doesn’t work with you, don’t work with it”. In manufacturing industry, we are always exploring better ways and pursuing higher efficiency to manufacture parts. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. When the structure is extremely complex that CNC machining may not achieve desired specified geometries, metal 3D Printing solves the issues. When the part requires high rigidity and intensity that 3D Printing may not provide, CNC metal cutting becomes the right solution. Furthermore, different processes in one manufacturing technology can compensate each other. Therefore, what we are looking for is a more affordable and faster solution to make custom parts. While we can make a good combination and seek breakthroughs amongst existing processes and technologies to create innovative and unique solution for a specific part.

How to Manufacture

We made a custom solution to manufacture the part in such complex geometry. That was to split the manufacturing processes based on the challenges of final parts, while not sacrificing tolerance, precision, and cost.

Image Source: Valeo

Challenge 1: The part has a great number of geometric tolerance requirements.

To achieve desired tolerance, we used a 3-axis CNC machine for roughing and a 5-axis CNC machine for finishing. At this particular case, we removed the workpiece allowance on the flat plate, leaving a margin of about 1mm for the workpiece. At the same time, applied stress-relief treatment to eliminate deformation for the rouging workpiece. Therefore, there was only 1mm allowance left to remove. Internal stress of the part was reduced and dimensional stability was guaranteed. Geometric tolerance was thus assured as well.

Challenge 2: The part requires high precision.

In CNC machining process, there is one important factor that affects accuracy largely: cutting tool wear. As the we split the process and the workpiece was not completed on the same machine at one time, which means the tool wear can be controlled and the accuracy can be guaranteed.

For example, if 100% of the part is machined on a 3-axis machine. The tool is working from the very beginning to the last moment. During the process, due to the friction between the tool and the workpiece, the tool will have different degrees of wear and tear. These losses are not acceptable for the high precision part.

But what if we can separate the process: 80% of the part is machined by a 3-axis machine, the remaining 20% is finished by a 5-axis machine. The continuous working time of the same cutting tool will be much shorter than if 100% of the machining is done on a three-axis machine. Besides, cumulative error is another issue if 3-axis CNC machining is used for the whole process. The split solution ensured high efficiency and high quality for sure.

Challenge 3: We need to reduce the cost.

As 3-axis machining could not fully meet the needs of tolerance and precision and the cost of using 5-axis machining for the whole process was high, splitting the machining process reduced the cost greatly but also guaranteed accuracy. It was a win-win solution.

What to Offer

“We are pleased with the high-quality parts and the great services that you delivered.”, said by the customer. Due to the dedicated solution, we manufactured the parts with fast lead time. We apply strict quality control to each part in order to ensure high precision. We fulfil scalability and flexibility in the manufacturing process. “We are looking forward to working with you for the new projects in the future. It’s a good start and we seek for more cooperation for other projects.”.