Increased Competition & Challenging Parts, Where Do Manufacturers Turn?
In today’s world, it is no secret that many manufacturers are looking for improved processes for machining their parts. As precision manufacturing becomes more and more competitive in the United States, differentiating via improved process and part quality can help companies stay ahead of their competition.
Custom tooling has, for many years, been used to help shave cycle time and yield parts extremely quickly, providing a competitive advantage. But as tooling and material costs rise, the traditional cost savings methods some companies may have looked towards are now changing.
Additionally, labor costs provide another challenge. With many parts that were once the “bread and butter” for traditional multi-spindle machines moving to lower cost countries, manufacturers in the US have been forced to take on more complex parts out of difficult materials. Often times, these more complex jobs are challenging to drop complete on older, mechanical multi-spindles due to rigidity, lack of tooling positions, chip management and a variety of other factors. This causes extra time and resources to be allocated to secondary operations, deburring, re-work, etc., making the costs to manufacture these parts difficult to justify.
In order to optimize production efficiency, it is essential to minimize the reliance on Secondary Operations.
Some may turn to CNC Swiss machining for parts with more complexity. Yet, the increased cycle time associated with a single spindle lathe makes some mid-to-high volume jobs unfeasible without a significant investment into a fleet of dedicated machines.
So, at this point, where do you turn?
The Davenport Hybrid bridges the gap between mechanical reliability, legendary Davenport speed and the CNC technology required to meet today’s toughest manufacturing demands. Ultimately, at an ROI competitive cost point.
How does the Davenport Hybrid Help Eliminate Secondary Operations?
The Davenport Hybrid has many features that help in eliminating secondary operations that may have been previously required on older vintages of machines.
The Hybrid Machine has up to 17 axes of machining capability when factoring in the cross-slides, end working spindles and sub-spindle tooling positions. This provides far more tooling positions than previous iterations of Davenports have ever offered. With more potential tools in the cut, more work can be done in a single operation.
The Hybrid’s cross slides and sub-spindle are totally CNC controlled tooling positions, which allow for more flexibility when selecting tooling, and offer alternative machining methods from the traditional forming and shaving required for most mechanical screw machines. While forming is still utilized on most parts, many processes now involve off-the-shelf stick tools and inserts for profile turning, grooving, threading, or boring, allowing for tighter tolerances and finishes to be held. This also provides the opportunity to trim burrs and drop burr free parts from the machine more consistently than ever before.
Standardized tooling can also help save on tooling costs, as many complex jobs would have previously required significant investments into specialized tooling. Now this can be accomplished with a tool that can be purchased at a fraction of the cost.
The Hybrid’s 3rd position slide is also adaptable for a variety of milling applications. With a twin-tool live milling attachment, mounted on the 3-axis XYZ slide, the machine has the ability to mill and interpolate features onto a part. With two tools this provides options for cross drilling and chamfering holes, milling flats, engraving, slotting, tapping a cross drilled hole, etc. Providing a far more flexible and capable scope than Davenport milling attachments of old, and taking parts that may have required multiple operations, possible in just one on the Hybrid.
One of the biggest and possibly most impactful changes made to the Hybrid is the CNC sub-spindle. With now up to three tools available in the tooling block, an independent motor, and milling attachment options, the sub-spindle can perform a variety of operations not possible on the Model B or other mechanical multi-spindle machines.
Types of operations include:
- Rigid Tapping
- Single-point threading
- Single-point turning & boring
- Drilling
- Reaming
- Broaching
- Face (off-center) drilling/milling
- Cross-drilling
- Slotting
Conclusion
These features, unique to the Hybrid platform, open up many doors to take on more challenging parts, and eliminate additional operations. Ultimately lowering costs and helping manufacturers differentiate themselves from their competition.
To learn more about the Hybrid and how it could help you eliminate your secondary operations, contact us today. Our team of engineers can evaluate your parts and help you find the solutions to your toughest manufacturing challenges.
Contact Davenport Machine
Learn more about the Davenport Hybrid and Model B multi-spindle machines. Contact our team today.