SHOP SOLUTIONS Continued from P35
when the job involves splines at both ends of the same shaft, the problems double up.
Although Hudson Machine and Tool (Hammond, WI)
regularly delivered in-spec pieces for a repeat double-end splining job, tooling costs were eating them alive. “The form- ground carbide tips cost us about $300 each and lasted just four pieces on average,” said shop foreman Scott Shaver. “In addition, every tip replacement required its own touch-off. It really slowed us down.” A secondary problem was the diffi culty of holding toler- ances due to cutter wear. “It required full operator attention,” said Shaver. “Since it was a repeat job, we had to fi nd a better way.” The answer was found in retooling. Now the company is getting 14 pieces per tip, costing about $100 each, which together saves about $65 per part in tooling costs alone. The retooling also cut cycle time by about two-thirds to 30 minutes per complete part versus 90 minutes before, and eliminated all the downtime for touching-off. “We were satisfi ed with the tooling cost saving alone. As a result, with
the time savings and freed-up machine capacity, we have an opportunity to go after more work,” Shaver said. Hudson, a 30-man job shop, has established a reputa- tion for quality machined parts that go into food pro- cessing, packaging and in-line weighing machinery, and special-purpose vehicles. It runs 24/5. The tool that made the difference was a Chip-Surfer in- dexable milling tool from Ingersoll Cutting Tools (Rockford, IL) with custom replaceable tips matched to the spline profi le. Finding the right tooling solution started with a regular visit by Hudson’s distributor, Randy Paape of Blackhawk Indus- trial, last fall while the job was running. Besides the poor tip life, Shaver mentioned that some tips fractured suddenly due to chatter and the machined surface had a poor fi nish. Paape brought in Ingersoll fi eld engineer Bryan Winterlin because of the company’s track record in slotting and groov- ing. Both men knew that Ingersoll’s Chip-Surfer line of index- able milling tools had improved scores of grooving, slotting, and precision worm-gear jobs in North American shops.
Scientific Cutting Tools Over 50 Years of Excellence
Thread Mills - Indexable Tools - Single Point Port Tools - Specialty - Coolant Through
Premium Submicron Carbide Knowledgeable Tech Support
Over 7,000 Products Quality Precision Tools
Retooling using Ingersoll’s standard Chip-Surfer form milling tool completes 0.180" (4.5-mm) deep spline groove in two passes, improving tool life, drastically reducing tooling costs, and freeing up machine time for Hudson Machine.
Toll Free
www.sct-usa.com International
800.383.2244
sales@sct-usa.com 805.584.9495 Technical assistance is available. Asistencia técnica disponible en español.
36
AdvancedManufacturing.org | March 2017
The Hudson job involves cutting 21 four-inch splines into each end of a 2¾ × 40” (70 × 1016-mm) shaft in hardened 4140 steel. The shafts are used in auxiliary equipment in specialized airport vehicles. Total length of cut per part: 320” (8 m). In addition to standard tolerances, the print required 0.005” (0.13-mm) alignment between opposing splines. Lot sizes average 50 pieces and are rising.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92
