3 Best Practices to Save Money

A recent blog post from HAIMER outlines three simple best practices that have the potential to increase profits by hundreds of dollars per CNC machine, per day. These methods help operators get more speed and quality out of each machine. Best of all, the results are repeatable from operator to operator.

1. Use Shrink Fit Toolholders

A well put-together tool assembly reduces vibration. With collet and collet nut assemblies, quality depends on process repeatability. What if the collet is not clean? What if the collet bore or the collet nut is dirty? In the end, the tool goes in dirt and all. Then one operator may torque the holder correctly with the proper wrench, the next might just hit it with a mallet. Shrink fit is a best practice because, whether you're on the job for one day or 20 years, everyone changes the tool the same. There are no moving parts to vibrate or loosen and it’s impossible for one person to change a tool differently than the next. HAIMER shrink fit toolholders provide 3 micron runout accuracy, have better balance characteristics, and because there are no mechanical moving parts, all the above are completely repeatable.

2. Presetting Offline

For better quality and faster speeds, it’s important to check the toolholder and cutting tool for overall height, diameter and runout. Which saves more money? Having the operator do this operation manually between each job or having it done offline on a preset machine? With the latter, the CNC machine is out in the shop making parts while a tool room engineer is presetting tools for the next job. When the operator finishes one job, they can remove the toolholder from the machine, load the new toolholder and set the offsets (manually or upload directly to the machine control) to begin the next job.

3. Balance Your Tool Assembly

All assemblies have some unbalance, but with HAIMER balance machines this unbalance is easily corrected. Unbalanced assemblies create centrifugal forces that cause vibration. That vibration can only go two places: Up into the spindle of the machine tool or down into the part. The part may take one hour to make – at 100% capacity. If the operator sees chatter marks caused by vibration, more often than not, they will slow the CNC machine down to 90-80% of capacity. A machining center costs $100 per hour to operate (one-shift operation, 1,600 operating hours per year). With a 10-percent increase in metal removal time, you save $10 per hour, which equals $16,000 per year. Any worker familiar with toolholders should be able to operate a properly designed balancing machine without extensive training. The specialist knowledge resides in the machine, which has already been fed the necessary data about each tool, saving time and avoiding errors.

For more details read the full article which includes additional examples of the savings that can be achieved using these practices.