Derbyshire subcontractor HPC services has invested in a sliding head machine with special low frequency vibration technology to speed the machining of difficult materials.
The Citizen Cincom L20-VIIILFV turn-mill centre from Citizen Machinery UK, incorporating Low Frequency Vibration (LFV) machining technology will give the business a lead in the market by revolutionising the production of materials such as 321 corrosion resistant and 416 chromium steel alloy stainless steels and plastics type materials, says the Managing Director of HPC Paul Cobb.
He said: “This machine will enable us to competitively quote on new work which we would normally decline and will give us additional capacity as we build up production on our in-house developed water-based fire suppression system.”
The patented LFV process enables selected operational sequences to be programmed at the machine control to control the size of chip. LFV is now being used to transform production over a wide range of material types from plastics, aluminium and copper to high tensile stainless and other high grade steels.
The ability for the operator to control the size of chip produced eliminates problems such as ‘bird-nesting’, improves depth-of-cut and surface finish, delays the onset of built-up edge on tooling and dramatically aids the management of swarf. It can be applied to turning, profiling, facing, taper and interrupted cutting sequences plus drilling and even thread cutting.
Mr Cobb said: “Swarf control is a bugbear on certain materials and needs constant attention to prevent birds-nesting and swarf being picked-up with the part as it is transferred to the sub-spindle of the machine. On some highly critical workpieces we even have to allow for a grinding operation to remove marks caused by swarf. This is where LFV will transform our operations.”