PhiladelphiaMachining.com

A specially designed tooling package for honing operations, along with live, on-board gaging, allows critical honing operations to move to HMCs, thereby eliminating several separate steps on multiple dedicated machines. 

For GKN Aerospace to overcome tool-related variations on its largest milling machines, it had to confront error sources that go unnoticed in many shops.

By the very nature of their business, contract machining shops are constantly looking for ways to sharpen their capabilities and reduce costs to quote jobs more competitively. Price, along with quality and delivery, can contribute to a winning recipe.

This greeting card giant leverages hand-engraving competencies, digital media and high speed machining to produce press-ready dies so its cards are ready for the consumer’s viewing pleasure.

“Lights out” doesn’t require an intense commitment. This job shop achieves flexible unattended machining when it needs it using palletized HMCs.

This shop needed a CNC machine to produce aluminum guitars. Equipped with probing capability and the visual quick code (VQC) programming system, the Hass VF-3 VMC has the flexibility to product not only guitars, but also a range of other components, including aerospace tooling, nautical components and automotive parts.

Axial chip thinning is often associated with high speed machining, but this shop uses the same effect to increase metal removal rate with a standard-size end mill run on a moderate-speed machine.

By integrating twin-table, bridge-style machining centers, this shop virtually eliminates spindle downtime during job chang-eovers. An operator can safely set up a new job on a table located outside the machine’s workzone while the machine mills a workpiece fixtured on the other table.

Constant Velocity Technology uses high speed computer hardware and creative algorithms to enable machine tools to achieve fast, consistent feed rates across complicated 3D surfaces.

This shop specializes in very large components such as rotor hubs and support bases for wind turbines. Its lineup of large horizontal boring mills can handle parts weighing 40,000 pounds and 12 feet on a side. However, the shop’s success also lies in other manufacturing resources and strategies. These include material handling equipment, customized tooling, special fixtures and wireless, portable measuring systems.