Milling is one of the CNC machining services we offer. This process involves a rotating cutting tool that removes chips from the material when brought into contact with the workpiece.
While it may sound very similar to drilling, the two are definitely not the same. Drilling is only suitable for making holes axially. A CNC mill can move laterally to remove material in that way.
There are different types of milling tools to either mill axially, laterally or both ways. Axial cutting needs teeth on the tip of the cutting head. Lateral cutting means that the teeth have to be perpendicular to the circular cutting head.
CCP offer state-of-the-art machinery. This includes 5-axis milling equipment as well as live tooling possibilities. Driven tools, or live tooling, significantly reduce production times by making different operations possible without the need for a change of tools.
CNC Turning Services
CNC turning service is suitable for creating cylindrical parts. The most common example of a turned part is a shaft.
CNC turning cuts the shape by spinning the metal part. The cutting tool can move axially in 2 ways – along the side of the part as well as to and from.
Thus, the automated system controls the cutting tool, bringing it into contact with the workpiece, while the part itself is turning. As a result, bits of swarf are cut from the metal to produce the required shape.
Turning can perform many operations like turning, boring, threading, etc. Highly skilled machinists can create precision parts on all types of CNC lathes but contemporary machining centres help to assure a level of similarity close to being identical between the machined parts.
CCP is able to machine components in a wide range of materials. These include metals like carbon & stainless steel, aluminum, titanium and copper alloys as well as plastics like nylon, PE, POM, etc. It is suitable for both prototyping as well as large-batch manufacturing.
Sliding head turning is also available to lower the production times as well as the final price. Comparing sliding head turning to traditional fixed head CNC machines, the production cycles are about twice as long for the latter.
Our large network of partners secures access to a wide range of CNC machining capabilities that can satisfy the needs of precision engineering.
CNC Machining Design Tips
Add radiuses to internal edges. Most cutting tools are cylindrical, thus achieving internal sharp edges can be tricky. It’s recommended to have internal radii of 130% of the milling tool radius.
Avoid excessively thin walls. Thin features are prone to vibrations and deformations due to heat generated from cutting. This lowers the achievable tolerances.
Specify tolerances only where needed. Adding too tight tolerances will drive up the cost. Standard tolerances according to ISO 2768-m will be applied by default.
Avoid designing unnecessary features and features that can’t be machined. The same goes for really small features, which would need to be micro-machined. Our partners have micro-machining capabilities but this is an expensive process.
Cavities should have the correct depth-to-width ratio: 4 times the width of the cavity. Deeper cavities need to be machined with larger diameter tools resulting in bigger radiuses on internal edges.
Limit thread length. 3 times the nominal thread diameter is enough as strong thread connections take place in the first few threads.
Design holes with standard sizes, as these can be machined with standard drill bits. Non-standard holes are treated as cavities and machined with an end mill tool.
CNC Prototyping
CNC prototype machining allows the production of highly accurate parts in a relatively short time period. For example, die casting and injection molding require a lot of time and upfront investments and thus aren’t generally preferred for prototyping.
Sheet metal prototypes tend to be more expensive when multiple forming processes are required. It’s quite common that a prototype is created by CNC milling but when the part reaches end production it will be made from sheet metal. This obviously does not mean that CNC machining is not suitable for large-scale production, every part is unique and should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
Another reason why CNC machining is great for rapid prototyping is that there’s no need for fixed tooling. The metal cutting inserts perform various cutting functions and depending on the CNC machine, these tools are swapped automatically or manually. Either way, time is saved.
Although additive manufacturing is a great option for creating visual prototypes, then in a lot of cases, a functional prototype is needed. CNC rapid prototyping produces parts that match the strength and other mechanical characteristics of the final product.
It is easy to implement small improvements and modifications to the original design with CNC machining. It’s possible to work with a wide variety of metals and plastics allowing to test the performance of a part made from different kinds of raw materials. This helps to find the optimal solution for the end product.