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Exotic Alloy Machinist Increases Tool Life by 50%
01 Sep 2005
For CS Simmons Engineering Ltd, based in Radstock, Devon, current work on stainless steel impellers (see image on p4) demonstrates the company's specialist subcontract machining capability with regards to machining exotic alloys (including Hastalloy, Waspalloy, Inconel and numerous stainless steels in addition to titanium). The company has found that the Hanita Varimill range of cutters from ITC have increased tool life by 50% whilst improving surface finish.
Each impeller requires six 12mm wide slots 50mm long for air channels.
The impeller has a nose that protrudes 90mm from the contact area. For this, cutters are needed with a minimum length of 100mm that would cut without breaking - a tough task considering the vibration and deflection issues.
"We machine up to 50 impellers a month so tool life and cycle time improvements of over 50% is a considerable saving to the company.
We now have the confidence to run a machine in the knowledge that the cutter will not break and cause reworking, " says production supervisor Mark Simmons.
Tel. 01761 433944
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