Working on lathes has always been a difficult job for those who make a living out of this occupation. Whenever you eat long, stringy chips, there is a possibility that your fingers will become cut. In addition to surface finish issues, the noise and vibration generated by the bar feeder have been shown to cause premature hearing loss in a small number of individuals. A regular part of the job included constant bending over to change inserts and drills in tight spaces and rummaging through the chip pan for parts that had gotten loose during the cutoff process. Following the introduction of multitask machines, lathe operators are now required to learn about milling in addition to the operation of their respective machines.
For their part, cutting tool specialists and equipment suppliers have extensive experience in providing sound application advice to their customers. Six recommendations for best practices that you may not have heard of before, but which will help you improve throughput while also lowering costs are provided in the following section:Make an effort to maintain your composure.
A marketing gimmick, high-pressure coolant (HPC) is actually beneficial to the engine's cooling system. This technique has been shown to significantly increase tool life while also increasing productivity by a factor of ten. It is currently in use by several companies. Due to the fact that high-pressure cooling (HPC) is extremely effective at removing heat from the cutting zone, it is required. As a result of this discovery, it has been determined that the cutting parameters can and should be increased in order to generate enough heat for the metal-removal process to function properly. The idea of eliminating heat while simultaneously creating more heat appears to be counterintuitive at first glance; after all, why would you want to eliminate heat while simultaneously creating more heat? It's a no-brainer, given that cutting speeds with high-pressure coolant are frequently five times faster than those achieved with conventional flood coolant. It has been proven that using high-pressure coolant to remove heat from the cutting zone is extremely effective. The Sandvik Coromant CoroTurn 300 (shown) is equipped with a port that allows high-pressure cutting fluid to be directly injected into the machine while it is in operation, which is a unique feature.
Please don't be discouraged if your organization does not have the financial resources to purchase a high-performance computing system. Even when cutting fluid is applied at low pressure, it is possible to achieve surprising gains if the cutting fluid is directed correctly, which is not always the case. This is being recognized by a growing number of cutting tool manufacturers, who are developing tool bodies or holders that include built-in cutting fluid ports in order to meet the needs of their customers. In addition to supplying cutting fluid directly above and below the cutting zone, these holders also have the potential to reduce cutting zone heat by up to 50%. All plastic hoses and copper lines have been removed from service! In the crib, take command of the situation.
Consider the following scenario: you are about to receive an order of Inconel shafts that will almost certainly result in problems on your part. You should invite your trusted tooling adviser(s) to make some test cuts with you early on, rather than applying a general-purpose 80° diamond-shaped insert because you don't want to add another cutting tool to your tooling inventory. It is necessary to keep track of the results. Instead of trying to maximize your results, try to optimize them.
Once you've found the turning tool you're looking for, don't use it again until it's completely depleted of its remaining energy reserves. Although achieving maximum tool life is an admirable goal, it should not be pursued at the expense of process stability or process reliability. As long as an insert can be pushed to produce 30 pieces before CNC turning service wears out or breaks, or unless the manufacturer specifies otherwise, the insert should be replaced after 25 pieces, even if the edge appears to have some life left in it. In the case of a cutting tool that appears to be capable of lasting an indefinite period of time, increase the feeds and speeds to the greatest extent possible. Using a tool for 15 minutes at the speeds and feeds recommended for a particular workpiece material will result in the longest possible tool life while spending the least amount of money on it. Consequently, if your tools only last a few hours, you are squandering your investment dollars. It is best to replace all of the tools in the turret at the same time, at regular intervals, if at all possible, in order to maintain consistency.
The ability to change all of the tools in your turret at the same time, at regularly defined intervals, is an often-overlooked aspect of fine-tuning your turret. In such a case, the number of times the door opens decreases, and when properly implemented, the length of time that an operator can leave a machine unattended while performing other tasks becomes predictable as well. It should go without saying that meticulous planning and documentation of anticipated tool life, as well as the cutting parameters that have been tried to date, are essential to successful operations.
Depending on the tool, it is possible that some will remain in the cut for significantly longer periods of time than others, and that no amount of feed or speed tweaking will cause them to wear out at the same time as the others. The changes can be scheduled for a time when all of the changes take place simultaneously if that is necessary.
