10 Interesting Facts About Safe Deposit Boxes

Laser machines are present in every industry today. Everywhere today we see, there is a lot of buzz about it. People are using it to create magical equipment, designing and engraving wonderful things. Fabricators spend thousands of dollars purchasing laser machines and maintain them. You need to keep them up and running all the time as customers can require things at any time. By the end of the day, it becomes very difficult to handle everything on your own and at minimal expense. Maintaining machines is one of the major issues many fabricators face like oiling them regularly, Cermet Inserts replacing its parts like fanuc parts, fanuc spare parts and many others . But, maintenance is essential so that you can deliver quality products to your customers.

Fold Mirror

Fold Mirror You might be thinking how you can do it efficiently. Here, in this article, we will discuss some of the ways you can efficiently maintain your machines and keep them up and running. If you don't maintain a machine then the light from the laser passes through an optical window to reach the workpiece. If the window is not clean properly then the light beam may defect and lose the majority of properties. To avoid this situation, we need to maintain our laser machines. Maintaining also includes replacing laser machine's parts with high-quality Fanuc parts and Fanuc spare parts. Now, let's first understand why you need to maintain a laser machine? The efficiency of laser cutting machines depends largely on how well you are maintaining it. Your machine might be under service contract and 24-hour technical support, it is always a smart move to follow these simple steps to clean and ensure there are no delays on deliveries or tempers frayed. Timely maintenance of laser machines helps you to ensure longevity and saves you money. It's not a tough job. Without further ado, let's get started with the tips for maintaining laser machines.

1. Cleaning External Parts First

Maintaining and cleaning the external parts of your machine tasks hardly 5 minutes a day. Insulated housing protects the brain of the machine i.e. control board and other electronics parts. The internal parts do not need user intervention. Everyday maintenance of machines reduces by extraction or exhaust system. Routine checkups are limited to external cleaning of engraving areas, mirrors, and fume extraction outlets.

2. Wipe Lenses

Before any operation and after 8 hours of laser operation, make sure to visually inspect all optic lenses. This means keep an eye on all three mirrors and focus lenses of your machine. Check smudges, debris, or any kind of residual grime. Wipe the mentioned things with non-alcoholic liquid which you receive while you purchase the laser machine. Remember a clean machine gives you better results. Accumulation of unwanted particles created scratches and damage the lens, mirror, and overall degradation in the quality of desired product.

3. Proper Oiling

Any machine needs proper oiling to work smoothly. Remember lubricants are key to maintenance in any machine. Over time, of course, laser machines and its parts like Fanuc parts, Fanuc spare parts, and many others suffer from corrosion. If you don't use proper oil then the laser path gets affected. Move the slider back and forth to apply oil evenly on all surfaces. Lubricate each and every part properly as it helps to reduce friction and wearing out. It can prevent rust and lockups. When the parts are moving with clean lubricant then it puts less stress on the motor and therefore extends its life.

4. Renew the Cycle

Laser engraving machines are recycled using distilled water which acts as a coolant for laser beams. If you use it for a long time then it leads to contamination of the tube. After using for 2 to 3 weeks, remove water and add a new stream of distilled water. Water tank cleaning is important for a machine's long life. Be sure to check and ensure tightness on those joints to avoid leaks. This way the laser tube will perform in better conditions.

5. Take Advice from Experts

If you are ever stuck in something or with some mechanical problem, rather than solving on your own contact your company's technical staff. I am sure they will help you solve the issue. The reason behind not doing it on your own is there are chances you might do some mistake which can lead to machine failure.

Final Words:

Always make sure to maintain your Shoulder Milling Inserts machines properly as it results in having proper product output. We all know the consequences of not maintaining them properly. Efficient working of your machines plays an important role to satisfy your customers' requirements and grow your business.
The Cemented Carbide Blog: Carbide Inserts

Software Add On Creates Head Porting Toolpaths

Rollomatic’s GrindSmart 630XW tungsten carbide inserts machine is designed to offer more flexibility in grinding indexable inserts and other stationary cutting tools than conventional, single-purpose grinders. With its six fully interpolated CNC axes, a six‐station wheel changer and wheel inclination ranging to 45 degrees, the machine supports simple adaptation for short and long runs of individual insert designs. Its design allows full interchangeability between inserts and round tools, according to the company. 

The clamping systems are designed to emulate the way inserts fit into their tool holders, increasing concentricity and accuracy. The clamping design supports indexable, non‐indexable and replaceable inserts; threading and form inserts; dog‐bone and grooving inserts; drilling, milling and ballnose tip inserts; and other non‐round tools. An electronic touch probe determines the exact location of the insert blank after clamping, allowing the software to grind the tool geometry according to the virtual centerline of the insert blank and achieve a run-out Cermet Inserts of 0.0001", according to Rollomatic. 

The company says the machine’s six- or 16-station wheel and nozzle changer offers flexibility for grinding a variety of inserts and other stationary cutting tools while maintaining the ability to change to round‐shank tools within minutes.

Additional features include an IC diameter range from 3.9 to 25.4 mm with automatic handling, linear motion control on CNC axes, desktop tool design software with 3D tool simulation and 3D machine animation with collision warning, chipbreaker grinding on the rake face, edge preparation grinding on the cutting edge, and a pick-and-place robot that protects inserts from damage after grinding. Optional features include a part flipper, an in-process rotary dressing and an automatic sticking device.

The Cemented Carbide Blog: bta deep hole drilling

High RPM Spindles： 5 Advantages for 5 axis CNC Machines

Imagine a single cutting toolholder that can be used to perform 12 distinct metalcutting operations without a tool change. That's the concept behind a new cutting tool innovation designed and built by Mazak (Florence, Kentucky).

It's called Flash Tool holder, and it is designed to complement the capabilities of the company's multitasking Integrex series of machine tools. Integrex is a turning center-based machine that uses a swivel milling head to perform fixed tool operations while rotating the workpiece or rotary tool operations with the workpiece stationary. It can also do C-axis contouring by rotating the part and milling cutter simultaneously.

The process RCMX Insert advantage of the Integrex machine is its ability to completely machine complex workpieces in a single handling. It uses a synchronized main spindle and subspindle to present all workpiece features for first and second operations to the swivel milling head.

Like any tool changing machine, such as a machining center or turning center, reducing tool changes is an efficient method of optimizing cycle times. An example on machining centers is using combination tools that perform drilling and tapping in one cutter to help increase spindle utilization. Rather than change tools, one cutter does two or more operations. Over a medium part run, the time savings from reduced tool changes can be significant.

Likewise, reducing the number of turret indexes on a turning center ups the time in the cut. If the same cutting tool can be used to rough face and rough turn, the time savings from reducing turret indexes add up over the run of parts.

Mazak designed the Flash Tool holder to combine up to 12 cutting operations in a single holder. It's important to note that this tool will not work without the rotary and swivel positioning capabilities of the Integrex milling head. They are a system.

The standard Flash Tool holder uses a four-flute shank. The key to this cutter is that each insert in each flute is different. Each insert is clamped in a pre-milled pocket in the toolholder. For rotary operations including milling, chamfering and drilling, the outside inserts do the cutting. They are located on the nominal or major OD. Other inserts with different nominal OD are used to perform rough and finish turning, threading and ID work.

It's the milling head that is able to bring these inserts accurately to bear on the workpiece by changing the effective geometry of the insert. On turning operations, changing the angle of inclination of a given insert by swiveling the B-axis allows more or less of the insert edge to be engaged in the cut. A wide edge can be used for roughing, or a single point can be used for threading. The milling head indexes and locks in 24 positions in 15-degree increments.

Depending on the application, and its tooling requirements, the Flash Tool concept can be used to carry a large variety of inserts. Besides the standard four, tool holders can be used that have two, three or six different inserts.

Flash Tool holding is an interesting innovation that makes an individual multi-flute cutter into a SNMG Insert veritable tool storage unit. It represents a tooling strategy that would be impossible without the advances in multitasking machine tools.

The Cemented Carbide Blog: DNMG Insert

Lightweight Boring Tool Eases Tool Changes

Machine tools designed to combine milling, turning and other metalworking processes have remarkable potential for efficiency and productivity. Completing parts in one pass across a multitasking machine streamlines production by eliminating multiple setups, avoiding errors when parts are refixtured and performing several operations simultaneously. Multitasking machines Carbide Threading Inserts also are well-suited for running unattended or having one operator oversee multiple units.

By their nature, multitasking machines tend to be complex and sometimes difficult to understand, however. They follow a variety of configurations—mills with turning, lathes with milling, twin-spindle machining centers and three-turret lathes are a few examples. Additional axis motions such as a rotating milling head (B axis) and turrets on a cross-slide (Y axis) compound this complexity.

And multitasking machines impose distinct challenges to cutting tool usage and management. For example, multitasking machines may have a limited number of stations for cutting tools on the tool turret or automatic toolchanger. Certain cutting tools may be called upon for both milling and turning operations. A worn or broken tool that WNMG Insert interrupts a multitasking machine may have the same effect on productivity as unplanned downtime on two or more single-purpose machines.

Systems designed to monitor a tool’s condition, adjust automatically for wear and capture information about the tool’s performance can be especially valuable on multitasking machines. One of the biggest challenges to tool monitoring on a multitasking machine is coping with simultaneous cutting operations.  One system designed specifically to meet this challenge is TMAC-MP from Caron Engineering (Wells, Maine) which stands for Tool Monitoring Adaptive Control for Multi-Process machines.

This system, which includes sensors installed on the machine tool and software installed on the CNC unit, monitors tool performance to detect wear or breakage, automatically adjusts feed rates to compensate for wear (adaptive control), and captures data about tool life. Several tools cutting at the same time can be monitored and controlled equally well, with all data recorded and displayed in a centralized interface. Data from a TMAC-MP system on an individual machine can be transmitted to a shop-wide machine monitoring system, enabling managers to incorporate critical tool data into calculations of overall equipment efficiency.

A Multi-Processing Extension

TMAC-MP is an extension of Caron Engineering’s pioneering TMAC tool monitoring system. It is based on the principle that a machine tool has to work harder to maintain a set feed rate as the edges of a cutting tool grow dull. In other words, spindle horsepower gradually increases as wear occurs. By sensing spindle horsepower output, the system can detect if a cutting tool is worn or broken.

More importantly, the system can be set to react to changes in the horsepower readings. If the power monitor detects evidence of excessive wear, it can signal the machine control to issue an alarm, initiate a tool change to retrieve a fresh spare tool or stop the machining process altogether.

The adaptive control option enables the control to automatically adjust the feed rate to maintain a constant horsepower rating as the tool undergoes normal wear patterns. As a result, the cutting tool performs at its optimum power level, thus extending its life, reducing cycle time, and avoiding stress on the spindle bearings and other machine components. Under this protocol, feed-rate adjustments are made constantly in small increments (typically 1 percent of the programmed feed rate) for a smooth transition that further protects the tool and workpiece surface.

For both monitoring and automatic adjustment, the system’s software can “learn” the normal horsepower draw for a given tool and operation while the tool is cutting. Using this baseline, the user can set limits and establish the preferred response.

The multi-processing enhancement of the system is designed to perform these functions even when multiple tools are cutting at the same time. Essentially, the software was reformatted to be multitasking in its own right. For example, this development enables the system to monitor and control two turning tools cutting simultaneously in an upper and lower turret while a milling tool is doing end work on a part in the subspindle.

Originally developed for a Tsugami Swiss-type lathe and introduced at IMTS 2012, TMAC-MP also includes significant hardware innovations. Most important is the ability to monitor very small tools such 0.004-inch- (0.1-mm-) diameter drills. To this end, Caron Engineering had to develop new strain sensors that can be fully embedded in static toolholders sized for tools this small. The company also developed three-axis and single-axis accelerometers for measuring vibration. Mounted on the spindle or tooling slide, these sensors record vibration in spindle bearings, servodrives and other machine components that can adversely affect cutting conditions.

The system’s user interface was also changed so that machine and cutting tool data can be viewed in a bar graph that shows tool condition and remaining tool life for all tools being monitored. This information can be archived in any structured query language (SQL) database. The software can also be set up to send alarms by email or transmit them as text messages.

The Larger Connection

As valuable as tool monitoring and adaptive control may be for the individual multitasking machine, Rob Caron, president and founder of Caron Engineering, believes that the ability to port data across a network is the most substantial pay off awaiting shops and plants that implement the TMAC-MP system.

“Making tool data available to third-party software applications such as shopfloor machine monitoring opens doors to many possibilities such as plant-wide, data-driven decision-making and integrated automation,” Mr. Caron says. As a first step in this direction, his company is partnering with Memex Automation (Burlington, Ontario).

Memex’s manufacturing execution system, Manufacturing Execution Real-time Lean Information Network (MERLIN) supplies OEE metrics to support performance, productivity and profitability initiatives. The system tracks manufacturing operations bi-directionally from the ERP work order to each machine’s operations. MERLIN connects to all machines on the shop floor using various protocols, MTConnect adapters and/or network conductivity devices.

According to Mr. Caron, TMAC-MP users can use MERLIN’s interface and connectivity to deliver in-machine metrics from the shop floor to the operations and corporate executives, even to mobile devices or other web-enabled systems.

This connection also has the benefit of validating the productivity and efficiency gains delivered by multitasking machine tools, as well as making those machining resources more secure by detecting and preventing cutting-tool-based constraints to their full potential. “Multitasking machines and tool monitoring are more than complementary technologies. They are mutually empowering,” Mr. Caron concludes. 

The Cemented Carbide Blog: parting tool Inserts

Custom Tools For Critical Grooves

GWS Tool Group has acquired Intrepid Tool Industries. Located near Phoenix, Arizona, Intrepid is a provider of carbide, high speed steel (HSS) and polycrystalline diamond (PCD) cutting tools Cermet Inserts to the aerospace sector, with a special emphasis on threaded-shank and brazed-construction drills, reamers and countersinks.

“Intrepid could not have been a better fit for our organization,” says Rick McIntyre, CEO of GWS. “In addition to this investment establishing a substantial physical presence on the West Coast on which to further build, their industry-leading product and service portfolio is the perfect complement to our already dynamic offering.” 

“I am very excited for Intrepid Tool to be joining GWS Tool Group,” says Bret Tayne, founder and president of Intrepid. “The leadership of GWS Tool Group is the most dynamic and energetic team in the industry.  This combination with GWS Tool Group serves the interests of all constituencies of Intrepid Tool, APKT Insert from customers to vendors to employees.” 

The Cemented Carbide Blog: http://leandercle.blogtez.com/

Replaceable Drill Head Supports Deep Hole Making at Lower Cost

Getting the most out of turning operations often requires programmers and engineers to think outside the box. One way to do this is to think of every cutting tool as a multitasking tool. For example, center drills and spotting drills can also chamfer, some thread mills also make good end mills and grooving tools can do more than just cut grooves. While grooving tools are clearly best at making grooves, potential setup and cycle time savings might make it worthwhile to consider using these tools for other operations, too.

Here are two advantageous approaches to multitasking when turning OD features on parts. The first method treats the grooving tool as a single-point OD rougher/finisher. The second is to create a tool that can generate Carbide Grooving Inserts many features in a single pass.

It’s important to understand there are three main groove types: OD, ID and face grooves. Tools designed primarily to cut OD grooves have made the greatest strides of the three in performing aggressive, bi-directional stock removal. Grooving tool manufacturer ThinBit (Fort Wayne, Indiana) had this thought in mind when designing its Groove-N-Turn series. Other manufacturers also offer tools that perform similar functions. All are designed reduce cycle time by allowing users to skip tool changes when removing stock from the face and OD of the part and adding groove features later. In shops that have lots of short-run families of parts with grooves in their geometry, using a grooving cutter as a multitasking tool can shorten tool setup sheets and also reduce the number of tools in CAM software CCGT Insert libraries. An added benefit of using this method is a reduced number of carbide inserts in the tool crib. Smaller shops may see some benefit from quantity discounts on the few grooving inserts they do buy to accommodate increased activity.

Even if the groove feature is wide enough to use other methods, grooving tools clearly offer advantages over more traditional methods. Making such a groove without a grooving tool would require at least two tools and possibly as many as four. Using the two- or four-tool method (one set for the right hand and one set for the left) requires offsets to be matched and blended perfectly in the bottom of the groove. It also requires four offsets to control the width (one set for one wall; a different set for the other). In contrast, a grooving tool’s symmetrical square shoulder design allows it to cut left side walls, right side walls and the bottom of the groove with one set of offsets. This method is easier to program, control and adjust. Even comparatively narrow grooving tools (0.060-inch wide) are capable of quickly making large features in this way.

Another approach to multitasking with grooving tools is to create a tool with multiple cutting edges that can produce many features in a single plunge pass. Traditionally, toolmakers use either wire EDM or tool-grinding machines to machine these cutters from high speed steel or solid carbide blanks. These tools work well but are problematic because those parts of the tool that do more cutting tend to wear faster than others. This type of tool also demands greater rigidity and power than the single-point concept, and getting the best finish can be challenging. In addition, broken tools must be taken out of production and completely resurfaced. This requires removing the tool from the machine and installing a substitute. While using carbide is an improvement over high speed steel, this carbide is uncoated and possibly weakened by cobalt depletion from the EDM process.

To modernize this concept, ThinBit developed the Design-A-Groove series of multitasking, single-pass grooving tools, which combines modular designs with standard carbide inserts. Users provide information on the type of grooves needed, and the company creates tools that fit their needs. The inserted tools require less power and provide better finishes than traditional form tools. Also, using inserts ensures that individual areas that wear faster than others are replaced individually. This allows the tool to remain in the machine and production to continue after a simple insert change. This concept also provides optional carbide grades and alternate chipbreaker geometries that address problem areas of the form that may not be available with blanks cut via wire EDM or with tool-grinding machines.

The Cemented Carbide Blog: Carbide Inserts and Tooling

Heimatec Offers Quick Change Tool Adapter for Live Tools

Engineered to manufacture complex cutting tools, the PTG-6 tool and cutter grinder is a six-axis, CNC controlled cutter grinder for grinding, sharpening and reconditioning a variety of cutting tools. The accuracy of the tool and cutter grinder is predictable due to the integration of quality machine components, the company says. A precision grinding spindle with HSK grinding wheel mounting locates the grinding wheel on the center of the B-axis pivot. According to the company, the direct-driveheadstock provides positioning capability, variable rpm and low maintenance. All linear axes have glass scales.The tool and cutter grinder comes standard with NumrotoPlus software that is designed to produce a range of complex tools. The standard 2D simulation allows cross-sectional visualization, Surface Milling Inserts while the optional 3D virtual grinding simulation with machine collision detection is said to eliminate costly setup time. According to the company, workholding and tool support options; programmable steady rests and tailstocks; and a variety of custom-designed tooling enables the production of quality precision cutting tools.The tool and cutter grinder is engineered to be reliable because the air purge of scales, headstock and grinding spindle eliminate contaminants. Full disclosure of machine drawings, documentation and a complete parts list are available on the machine’s computer and diagnostic systems for troubleshooting error messages and unlimited direct access/phone support are available for the operator. The grinder is also engineered for both structural and thermal stability using 3D solid modeling and Finite Element Analysis Deep Hole Drilling Inserts (FEA). For stability, a dedicated closed-loop chiller controls heat buildup within the grinding spindle and headstock. According to the company, the grinder is built to maximize uptime, throughput and profits.

The Cemented Carbide Blog: carbide insert stock