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The Slot piece is design to form part of a frame that could be part of a vice or used to apply compressive stresses in a frame
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The raw material was already cut to the correct length and was supplied for this product already at the correct width, so firstly the
height of the material needed to be adjusted. The machine used for this was a Horizontal cutting mill, the part was loaded into a vice and the safety screen put in place. The mill was activated. Using a flat end mill bit the top surface of the material was shaved off to the correct height. The 2 dimensional cutting vice surface was used to manoeuvre the piece under the bit.
2
The Piece was then transported to the second workstation where the three holes were drilled through using a Pedestal drill using a slot drill bit. To find the location of the holes on the piece, the piece would have to be measured and scored with odd leg callipers, and then marked with a centre punch. To save time and to increase efficiency a Key was created by a skilled engineer that slipped over the top of the piece exactly (when placed in the vice), the piece was secured to the key/vice using an Allen key. The holes could now be easily by cut with more accuracy and speed than before. Only a semi skilled engineer is needed now to operate the drill.
3
The central drill hole in the piece requires a threading for a screw axle this was applied using a tap. The tap is a specially designed hand cutting tool, which bores a thread into a hole at a single spacing and diameter. The same worker whose cut the three holes at the second station cuts the thread using the tap before sending the piece to the next workstation.
4
The third workstation was a vertical milling machine, using a multipoint-end mill bit to bore into the material at the two different sides to create slots up to where the two outer drill holes where located. Much like the job using the Pedestal drill the location of the slot drilled would have to be marked out using callipers, but to save time and money a key was designed to direct the Mill to cut into the right section of the material. This means that a semi-skilled engineer can be used to operate the machine.
FINAL PIECE
This is the last process in this manufacturing chain. In a real life factory situation the piece may be surface finished and then packaged to be delivered to order. In our laboratory class the piece was shown and discarded.
The other manufacturing method we were introduced to in the lab is the flexible manufacturing system. This involves a lot more of using computer programs and automated commands to make robots and Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machines to manufacture the piece. The VMC 1000 e is a Flexible Machining Centre, it is a suitable for use in flexible manufacturing systems (FMS), and this is the machine we used to create the lock-in slot piece. Several of these machines can be operated by just 1 skilled engineer; they can be controlled from one central computer. The process is a lot faster than the traditional machining method. The CNC machine can move in 4 dimensions: height of drill, X and Y directions and pitch of the milling table. The VMC can select from many different drill bits that are loaded into a jig, that are held in accordance to what is required next in the program cycle. These have to be rearranged for each different type of program cycle by a skilled engineer, but bits can be used 1000 times on the same cycle without having to be checked or altered. The technician showed us the program of commands he had described to the CNC machine so it could manufacture the slot piece, These are created using a CAM program (Computer Aided Manufacturing) this takes models from a CAD software (Computer Aided Drafting/Drawing)( i.e. SolidWorks) and translates them into jobs for CNC machines. This takes around about 10minutes to complete. A skilled Engineer will then need to set up the bits in the jig to correspond with order of the different type of cuttings made in the program; this takes less than 5 minutes. The drill bits then need to be set at the right height in the jig; this takes a skilled engineer another 5 minutes. Once this is completed the cycle can be run multiple times, It just needs to be selected from a database of command cycles it has on its memory. To begin the cycle the technician loads the blank material into the clamp on the milling table to prepare for machining. The blank material is same size and shape as the one use in the traditional method. The technician closes the door and activates the program. The VMC machine selects the first drill bit required, a coolant is sprayed onto the part, the bit and cutting surface at all times. The coolant helps to stop the aluminium piece from melting during machining and deforming or sticking to the bit, it also helps to prolong the drill bits life span and carry away debris from the cutting surface and also helps to give a better surface finish. The coolant is water based with soluble oil added in a ratio of 20:1. The first operation is using a shell mill which shaves the top face off the blank so that the piece is of the correct height, the bit used is 100mm diameter, spinning at 800rpm, the Depth of cut was 0.5mm The second operation is using the slot drill to cut the two slots at either end of the piece. The slot drill had a diameter of 5mm and took 10 cuts of 1.25mm, Speed 4000rpm, feed 75mm/min. The third operation was to put a centre hole for the larger drill in the next operation, the drill bit used was a centre drill bit - speed 1000rpm, feed 150mm/min, Depth 4mm The fourth operation was to bore the centre hole in the piece, this was done with the 8.5mm HSS Drill on a pecking cycle - Speed 800rpm, feed 75mm/min, Depth 16mm, peck depth 4mm (A pecking cycle means that the tool periodically withdraws from a drilled or tapped hole to allow clearing of cuttings while also allowing coolant to access the tool and hole being drilled or tapped.) The Fifth operation was a tapping down the central hole to create the screw threading, this was done using a 10mm x 1.5mm Tap on pecking cycle, Speed 60rpm, feed 90mm/min, Depth 16mm, peck depth 4mm The final part took about 10minutes to run through the production cycle, the runtime could be potentially halved however as the system was not optimised, using different bits that reduced the amount of turns needed to make each cut would greatly improve time efficiency. Even the un-optimized cycle took less time than the traditional machining methods. Making the FMS a more attractive choice for companies, as less men are required to operate the machinery, cutting costs and human error in production.
CLASSIFFICATIONS AND SPECIFICATIONS OF MILLS AND THEIR CUTTERS VERTICAL MILLING - DRILLING
FACE MILL
This kind of tool comes in many shapes sizes and materials, its purpose is to shave flat surfaces, A lager face mill consists of a cutter body that is designed to hold several disposable often carbide of ceramic, often golden in color. The tips are designed so that when the cutting edge diminishes, a low skilled engineer can undo the tip using an Allen key and rotate the tip. The tip is then refastened, creating a new cutting edge. This improves the life of the tip and thus their economical cutting life. Different materials can be chosen for the tips to suite different materials or finishes. The bodies are expensive but last a long time, the tips are relatively cheap and easy to replace, smaller face mills have no removable tips as the lack the space to allow for a screw fitting from the body to the tip. These are usually disposed of after use.
MMR EQUATION:
MRR = Vol.Removed = D2 fr N CT 4L Where CT is cutting time, D is drill diameter, fr is drill feed rate and N is the RPM of the cutter
smaller in diameter, and come in different shapes and sizes making them ideal for cutting grooves, wedges and slots from a material, they have a very good material removal rate: Blade cutting wheel cutting slots more accurate these are usually made from high speed steal Vee Cutters common for cutting standard angles like 45 60 and 90 degree slots into a material