5 Axis question. I'm new.

[rchipper]

So the company I work for is seriously considering purchasing a 5 axis horizontal mill. One of the reasons is there is a family of parts that they want to run on it.

We currently do the ID work on a turning center then move it to a horizontal 4 axis mill for the small angled holes.

My question is, will the internal work be something that can be programmed to run complete on a 5 axis mill? Mind you there are 16 finish call outs and +/-.001 tolerances to hold.

The parts are machined from aluminum castings,

Fixturing of these parts is another thing I am trying to wrap my head around.

The 5 axis mill is a Kitamura Supercell-300G.

Pallet size : 7.9" diameter  max work piece dia. 8.3" 

Z axis travel: 18.1"

A axis travel: 30 to -120

B axis travel: 0-360

I have attached a file of one of the smaller parts inlayed with the STOCK casting. (The green slot does not belong there it is a error in the solids).

I'm not sure I am allowed to share a drawing. If it is really necessary for evaluation I can check on sharing it.

Just getting into the whole 5 axis world is exciting and I am looking forward to the challenges. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

I am not asking for things to be done for me here as I will not learn from that. Well not yet anyways, haha.

 

Thank you all in advance.

 

 

Inlayed with casting 8-25-22.mcam

[Leon82]

The fine print on the kitamura recommends a plus or minus 2° environment.

.001should be doable but you will need to keep the machine temp consistent and may have to do fine tweaking with the stock to leave. Some of our parts have 20 micron true positions so we will usually make a sub program with a separate work offset on our matsuura and probe the datums 

[medaq]

Just be aware, unless they changed it. Machine has 4.1” of x- axis travel from center.  

[crazy^millman]

Machine can handle that all day long. The tooling selection and going with maybe some burnishing tools should be consider. On a scale of 1-10 for 5 Axis machining I would put this a 2. I would fixture off the OD of the part putting the bottom flange outward and putting the bore parallel with the table on a Tomb stone setup. FCS Systems has a great setup for your machine. Look at Smart Cube and then you have interchange vices and fixture from the same in machine setup. I would think you might be able to run 4 parts at time if you setup the work holding correctly.

[rchipper]

Still being new I am not clear on how 4 parts on a tombstone would fit in a 8.3" diameter cutting range. I will look into FCS Systems to learn more.

And as medaq pointed out there is but 4.15" of X travel from the center. Again, I need to do my research.

I still think it would be easier and more efficient to do it on a turning center then 4 axis mill. But I'm up for the challenge.

Thank you all for the feedback, you're awesome!

 

I shall be back for more

 

[crazy^millman]

43 minutes ago, rchipper said:

Still being new I am not clear on how 4 parts on a tombstone would fit in a 8.3" diameter cutting range. I will look into FCS Systems to learn more.

And as medaq pointed out there is but 4.15" of X travel from the center. Again, I need to do my research.

I still think it would be easier and more efficient to do it on a turning center then 4 axis mill. But I'm up for the challenge.

Thank you all for the feedback, you're awesome!

 

I shall be back for more

 

You are limiting yourself to what fits on the table and not what fits in the travel. That machine can work all day long in X positive with no problem. 

If we think old school with lathe and 4 Axis mill now you need two machines and two people to run both machines. With the 5 Axis mill runnign 4 parts at a time we gain so much more time running time with one person. I figure looking at that picture medaq put up you have about a 16" diameter swing. That is your limits what fits between the sides of the trunnion not what fits on the table. We put a 3 placed tombstone from the company that I will not name with 3 of their vices on a Makino DA300. Then we bought extra studs and put them in the fixture plates for OP2 of the parts. They can either run OP1 on one face and OP2 on a different face or they can run all 3 places OP1 swap our and run OP2 in all 3 places.  Educate yourself on what is out there for these machines and use it to its full potential.

[medaq]

2 hours ago, crazy^millman said:

You are limiting yourself to what fits on the table and not what fits in the travel. That machine can work all day long in X positive with no problem. 

If we think old school with lathe and 4 Axis mill now you need two machines and two people to run both machines. With the 5 Axis mill runnign 4 parts at a time we gain so much more time running time with one person. I figure looking at that picture medaq put up you have about a 16" diameter swing. That is your limits what fits between the sides of the trunnion not what fits on the table. We put a 3 placed tombstone from the company that I will not name with 3 of their vices on a Makino DA300. Then we bought extra studs and put them in the fixture plates for OP2 of the parts. They can either run OP1 on one face and OP2 on a different face or they can run all 3 places OP1 swap our and run OP2 in all 3 places.  Educate yourself on what is out there for these machines and use it to its full potential.

On the supercell 300 the table size is limited to 200mm. It is a big machine for a crappy envelope imo. Anything bigger will interfere with the automatic pallet changer. 

[crazy^millman]

1 hour ago, medaq said:

On the supercell 300 the table size is limited to 200mm. It is a big machine for a crappy envelope imo. Anything bigger will interfere with the automatic pallet changer. 

Hum, well that sucks. What a rip off. Seeing an issue on the Makino DA300 where it takes away over 5 inch of travel by being so tall using the Erowa 10 pallet system on it. Lay the part over 90 degrees and now what should fit in the travel no longer does.

I went and watched their video and see the problem with the system it is the swing arm for the pallet ATC in and out of it. Then I would position 3 parts like this on the pallet and then he can machine 3 at a time in one setup.

[rchipper]

Thank you all for the input, it is always appreciated.

I need to start thinking outside the box, thanks for opening my mind Crazy, again.