Professional Documents
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AUTHOR
AMBARISH A. WALIMBE
(B.E. MECH)
(PGD TOOL DESIGN & CAD/CAM)
Recent Trends in Manufacturing.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Why High Speed Machining?
1.2 Need for HSM Development
3. HSM APPLICATIONS
3.1 Die and Mould Making
4. CONCLUSION
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Recent Trends in Manufacturing.
ABSTRACT
In recent years large amount of research has taken place to improve productivity in
machining. One such research area developed to increase the metal removal rate is High
Speed Machining (HSM). Machining of materials at four to six times the cutting speed
used in conventional machining is called as High Speed Machining. The high speed
machining technique has great economic potential due to high metal removal rate, better
surface finish and ability to machine thin walls. The newer materials such as composite
materials, heat resistant and stainless steel alloys, bimetals, compact graphite iron,
hardened tool steels, aluminum alloys etc., needs this new machining (HSM). High speed
machining offers a means to shorten delivery times boost productivity and increase
profitability.
The aim of this paper is to give an overview of HSM and related technologies used in
production systems for obtaining increased efficiency, accuracy and quality of finishing.
A high speed machining center can reduce the need for polishing the surfaces of dies and
moulds. It can produce EDM electrodes more efficiently. The high speed machining
center also produces complex tooling competitively in a single setup. The HSM
requirements, such as machine tool, cutting tools etc. are discussed in this paper. The
application of high speed machining to die and mould machining is also presented.
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Recent Trends in Manufacturing.
1. INTRODUCTION
Machining of materials at four to six times the cutting speed used in conventional
machining is called as High Speed Machining (HSM). HSM is one of the modern
technologies, which in comparison with conventional cutting enable to increase the
efficiency; accuracy and quality of the workpiece and at the same time decrease the cost
and machining time . The HSM technology allows the manufacturing of products with
excellent surface finish with relatively little increase in total machining time. Carl
Salomon conceived the concept of HSM after conducting a series of experiments in
1924-31. His research showed that the cutting temperature reached a peak value when the
cutting speed is increased and the temperature decreases for a further increase of cutting
speed (Figure 1). The increase in cutting speed demands a new type of machining system
like the machine tool, cutting tool, CNC program etc. The use of high feed rate with high
speed increases the metal removal rate, but the machine in turn requires lighter inertia
tables, powerful motor drives and more responsive control systems. One definition of
HSM states that, it is an end milling operation at high rotational speeds and high surface
feeds. HSM normally uses a high speed in excess of 1000 m/min, feed rates above
1m/min and spindle speeds greater than 10,000 rpm.
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Recent Trends in Manufacturing.
machine dynamics and dynamic stiffness. The machine’s servo drives, spindle design and
torque power curves are different for each application of HSM. The major development
in HSM is correcting unstable machine conditions by a Chatter Recognition and Control
System (CRAC). It is an on-line system for stabilizing the cutting conditions
automatically by adjusting the cutting speed and feed. It uses the sound of the cutting
operation, measured spindle speed and number of teeth on the tool to determine when
chatter occurs and to automatically choose a new spindle speed. Winfough and Smith
(1995) reported a new CRAC system as a tool in an NC program to use spindle speed and
axial depth of cut combinations to obtain maximum metal removal rates.
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Recent Trends in Manufacturing.
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Recent Trends in Manufacturing.
TABLE. 1
HSM Machine Tool Parameters (Pasko, et al, 2000).
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Recent Trends in Manufacturing.
3. HSM APPLICATIONS
HSM are performed with very specific methods and production equipments and not
merely on the cutting speeds, spindle speeds and high feed rates. It is possible for
machining of hardened steels with high speeds and feeds for finishing operations. A usual
problem in the end milling of Aluminum structures for aerospace applications is that of
maintaining good surface finish on either sides of thin ribs, which tend to deflect under
cutter pressure. If machining is done at conventional speeds, the cutting force tends to
deflect these ribs so that it is not possible to achieve smaller thickness with high
dimensional accuracy. This problem can be overcome by using HSM. HSM is being
mainly used in three industrial sectors due to their specific requirements. The first
category deals with machining Aluminum to produce automotive components, small
computer parts or medical devices. This industry needs fast metal removal, because a
technological process involves many machining operations. The second category, which
is the aircraft industry, involves long Aluminum parts, often with thin walls. Usually the
work piece deflection and heat or stress induced deformation limits the machining with
conventional speeds. At high speeds and feeds the heat generated in the cutter- work
piece interface is carried away quickly with chips and less heat is transferred to the uncut
workpiece. Now many aerospace die cast components are replaced by components
machined by HSM. The HSM has ability to cut thin walls, which makes lighter
components and minimizes the number of parts required in an assembly. The third
category is the die and mould industry, which requires dealing with finishing of hard
materials. Here it is important to machine with high speed and to keep high accuracy.
increasingly growing sophisticated as these dies and moulds become complex and require
tighter tolerances. Intricate geometry of die and mould surfaces and relatively high
hardness of die and mould materials necessitates use of HSM. The die and mould makers
are relying on HSM for more reasons, such as a reduction in machining time as well as
less time needed for hand polishing and preservation of computer generated geometry.
The HSM allows a trade-offs between time on the milling machine and that on the
polishing bench to have better advantage. The key factor is making passes with very
small stop over at very high feed rates with high spindle speeds to achieve adequate chip
load on the cutter in roughing operations. A smaller depth of cut using positive rake
cutters often achieves higher overall metal removal rates than attainable conventionally,
even though the cutting tool is of a smaller diameter, compared to typical roughing
operations involving fewer, slower and heavier cuts. In many cases after high speed
roughing, stock remaining in the workpiece is close enough to the amount allowed for
finishing, so that semi-finishing operation can be eliminated. Due to limited time of
engagement of tool cutting edge, the chip produced was short, completely segmented and
having variable thickness with ball end mills. The optimized tool path and cutting
conditions result in high metal removal efficiency, improved tool life and process
stability. The HSM employs new NC tool path generation methods and using CNC
milling machines equipped with proper controlling sensors. Nowadays PCBN ball end
mills have been used to machine dies and moulds. A cutting speed of 500-1000 m/min
and feed rates upto 10 m/min. can be employed for machining alloy steels with hardness
30-45 HRC (Rigby, 1993). The cutting tool manufacturers recommend some typical
cutting data for machining of dies (Table 2). The use of HSM technology could reduce
machining time by 30-40%. HSM ensures a dimensional tolerance of 0.02 mm, which is
comparable with 0.1- 0.2 mm for ECM and 0.01- 0.02 mm for EDM. The replacing of
ECM by HSM increases the life and durability of the hardened dies.
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Recent Trends in Manufacturing.
TABLE3.
4. CONCLUSION
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Recent Trends in Manufacturing.
HSM is regarded as a process where the operations are performed with specific methods
and production equipment. Many HSM applications are performed with moderate spindle
speeds and large sized cutter. HSM is performed in finishing in hardened steel with high
speeds and feeds, often with 4-6 times of conventional cutting speeds. HSM is a high
productive machining for small sized components in roughing to finishing and finishing
to super finishing. In the case of some sized components, the various operations like
roughing, semi-finishing and finishing can be performed in a single step because of low
material allowances for machining, hence the number of set-ups and material handling
are reduced. Productivity in finishing and possibility to achieve extremely good surface
finish as low as Ra-0.2 microns and dimensional tolerance of 0.02 mm is ensured.
Machining of very thin walls is possible with HSM. The negative aspects of HSM is
attributed to high maintenance cost of machine tools due to higher acceleration and
deceleration rates, spindle starts and stops leading to faster wear of guide ways, ball
screws and spindle bearings. HSM requires knowledge in advanced processing and
programming techniques and also an interface for fast date transfer. The development of a
new machine tool architecture will allow the performance of high productivity roughing
and semi-finishing combined with five axis high quality finishing.
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