Case Study

Customer’s Initial Machining Process:

The customer components are cast iron grates, which needed to be machined on all 4 sides, so that all the edges are right angles with respect to the next adjacent edge. The customer was using a VMC and one hydraulic SPM. VMC had a single spindle, which could only machine one edge at a time. The hydraulic SPM would take a lot of time to setup. Since the factory is essentially a foundry and is located at a coastal region, the temperature during summers would reach 50°C and would affect the viscosity of the hydraulic oil, which would lead to erratic behavior of the slides.

Our Solution:

We offered a machine with 4 milling heads. The milling heads are driven by timer belt and pulley system with fixed speed 5hp AC induction motor. All milling heads are mounted on slide systems, which move at right angles to the adjacent slides. The slides are made of roller type LM guides and blocks to take up torsional loads of milling. At the center, a horizontal slide is mounted with a quick change fixture with hydraulic clamps.

Conclusion:

The client accepted our proposal and we designed and manufactured this custom made quadruple milling SPM

Final Finding:

• • Can load two jobs at once.
  • Cycle time to machine all 4 edges of the component on both the jobs is less than a minute.
  • Productivity increased.
  • Due to use of CNC sequence change and programming dependency on OEM is avoided. The end user has the independence to make changes himself/herself.
  • Unskilled labour is sufficient to load and unload the job.

Video: