Weldon Tool has announced a running change to the appearance of all Weldon Premium carbide endmills regarding raised land transition area from the back of the clearance face to the flute.

This design change also provides an appearance more consistent with most all tungsten carbide endmills.

Weldon further states: "This is only a functional appearance change. Both internal and customer field tests have confirmed that users will still experience the same outstanding performance of Weldon Premium carbide endmills as they have in the past."

Here's a short guide on understanding Cut Tap Chamfers. This is an excerpt from Allen Benjamin's Technical Tap Guide Engineering Data.

PLEASE NOTE: Taper, plug and bottoming taps as a set, in a given size (for example: 1/4-20 NC) are identical as to size, length and vi-tal measurements; the difference is in the chamfered threaded portion at the point. As a rule, such taps when used by hand are furnished in sets of three of a given size...namely, taper, plug and bottoming (and should be used in that order)

Tech Tips: Dorian Tool

The lathe is one of the oldest and most versatile machine tools. Few shops can do without the processing capability offered by the CNC lathe. Long before automatic toolchangers were applied to milling machines, the lathe had a multiple-tool configuration. The tool post gave lathe users the ability to select from several mounted tools and index them as needed during a turning cycle.

Many CNC lathes are still offered with the manual tool post design. Shops can generally purchase these machines at very reasonable prices. Some shops have found a need to increase the flexibility of these lathes by adding an indexable turret in place of the manual tool post.

Installing such a turret can give a real productivity boost for shops running on Colchester, Harrison, Nardini, Bridgeport, Southwest Industries and other popular combination CNC lathes. With a CNC turret, more tools can be carried at one time. Programming the turret brings the right tool into the cut at the right time automatically. No stopping the machine to index a manually operated tool post is needed so cycle times are reduced for applications that use more than one tool.

For many turning applications a manual tool post has sufficient capacity. But any shop that is looking for a through-put gain in their turning operation without a major investment in new machine tools, can benefit by considering installation of a CNC turret.

The issue is more about processing efficiency than tool capacity, says lathe accessory maker, Dorian Tool (East Bernard, Texas). A turret configuration allows the machine tool to carry tools mounted in operation sequence. Sometimes turret tool capacity is sufficient for more than one job to run without a tooling setup in between. But significant production time is saved by the ability to automatically index the tool turret as part of the lathe's part processing program.

The turret offered by Dorian Tool is a bi-directional unit. Indexing therefore takes the shortest part from one tool station to another. It's operated by a three-phase 220/380 volt 50/60 hertz electric motor through an anti-backlash gear drive. Tool position is controlled by an absolute encoder which tracks actual position of the tool station. The working position of the turret can be right or left hand depending on the unit location ahead of or behind the lathe's spindle axis.

A proximity switch detects tool position and verifies turret lockup before a go signal is sent to the CNC. A three-piece Hirth-type coupling is used to hold the clamped turret radially. The turret indexes, station-to-station under one second. Fast index is achieved by not lifting the turret face. The entire indexing mechanism is housed in a Meehanite grade casting that helps damp cutting induced vibrations.

Four standard sizes of turrets are available. They are 100, 120, 160 and 200 mm respectively. Toolholding capacities of eight or 12 stations are available in ID, OD or combined tooling configurations.

Tool capacities range from 12 to 32 mm (1/2 to 1-1/4 inches). A VDI turret disk is available. Both turret disks have an integral coolant delivery system.

Simple electrical and coolant connections easily interface with the lathe. If an indexable turret is the difference between a CNC lathe and a CNC turning center, then this accessory is a cost effective way to up-grade your lathes.

This article about Blue Photon Technology and Workholding Systems LLC originally appeared in Modern Machine Shop magazine.
Written by Derek Korn

Precision Grinding and Manufacturing uses an atypical means to fixture thin parts that are prone to flexing when conventional workholding clamps are used: adhesive cured by UV light.

Operators must take care not to distort such parts while tightening clamps, otherwise the parts will spring back to their natural state once the clamps are removed after machining.

Vibration can also be an issue for parts like these if they aren’t rigidly fixtured, meaning a quality surface finish might be tough to achieve and cutting parameters might have to be dialed back, extending cycle times. Finding a way to effectively fixture complex, contoured parts can be just as difficult.

Ray Bray says Precision Grinding and Manufacturing (PGM) fought these problems in the past. Mr. Bray is a project engineer for the Rochester, New York, contract shop that specializes in complex, short-run, often repeating work for industries including aerospace, automotive, medical, military, optics, photonics and telecommunications.

Bray says PGM has employed a variety of unconventional methods to more effectively secure relatively thin workpieces for machining over the years, going so far as to use clay, lead and sandbags to supplement conventional mechanical clamps in an effort to minimize vibration.

You won’t find those types of workholding workarounds being applied there today. Instead, the shop uses an advanced, albeit atypical technology that is particularly effective for fixturing flexible parts.

In short, this technology uses adhesive to temporarily bond a workpiece to numerous cylindrical grippers installed in a fixture plate. Once the adhesive is cured via ultraviolet (UV) light, the workpiece is securely held at a known datum location in an undistorted, freestate condition.

After machining, the adhesive bonds between the grippers and workpiece are easily broken and any excess adhesive is removed from the completed part via a quick, steamcleaning wash.

Mr. Bray says that while this workholding technique isn’t appropriate for every job that runs through the shop, it has opened opportunities to win work that, in the past, PGM might not have considered bidding on due to the inherent fixturing challenges. It has also enabled PGM to improve existing fixtures the shop uses for jobs that regularly repeat.

William Hockenberger established PGM in 1967. The shop is now led by his son Mike, who is president and CEO. Business has been good over the years, and PGM has recently completed a 20,000-square-foot facility addition, bringing total floor space to 68,000 square feet.

PGM has a wealth of CNC equipment, including machining centers, turning centers and grinding machines. Milling represents the bulk of the work performed there today, for which the shop uses VMCs with four- and five-axis capability as well as HMCs with pallet pools.

William Hockenberger’s son Todd, PGM’s coporate vice president, explains that because a good portion of that milling work involves thin and complex workpieces, the shop has continuously looked for more effective ways to secure those types of parts for machining.

A few years ago, PGM learned about photo-activated adhesive workholding (PAAW) technology that was developed at Penn State University, which looked to be well-suited for such troublesome parts. PAAW technology was invented by Professor Edward De Meter, who was awarded two patents covering it. In 2012, Professor De Meter and others formed Blue Photon Technology and Workholding Systems LLC to market the technology to industry end users.

Mr. Bray says the fixture design process using the PAAW system is similar to other more conventional fixtures. In many cases, the shop will create a fixture plate with three hard datum points for a part to rest upon so its location is known in space. (Temporary pins can be used to ensure that the part is installed correctly on the fixture plate.)

PAAW grippers are positioned at various locations, and oftentimes a gripper is used at each hard datum point. The number of grippers used largely depends on the size of the part and its geometry. The threaded grippers install in the top of the fixture plate and require a through-hole to enable the UV light to pass up and through the gripper to cure the adhesive.

The photos above demonstrate the process for fixturing and removing a magnesium casting that PGM machines on a four-axis VMC using the PAAW system. With the fixture plate installed on the machine’s rotary table, operator Alan Jedik dabs the top of each pin with a bit of adhesive. He then installs the casting onto the fixture, which rests on the three hard datum points, and inserts the UV light source’s light guide into each of the three grippers located at those datum points. It typically takes 30 seconds for the UV light to cure the adhesive on each gripper. Mr. Jedik rotates the fixture for easier access to the remaining six grippers and cures the adhesive at each of those points. The part program can begin once the table is rotated back to its proper position.

After machining is completed, a T-handle wrench is used to back off each gripper, twisting the element and shearing the adhesive bond with the workpiece. The workpiece can then be taken off the fixture and a subsequent cleaning operation using a portable steam cleaning device is used to remove any cured adhesive that remains on the workpiece. Adhesive must also be scraped off of the tip of each gripper using a metal scale or straightedge before a subsequent workpiece can be fixtured for machining.

The gaps between the workpiece and grippers (thus, the thickness of the adhesive) can range from 0.010 to 0.125 inch depending on the flatness of the part. The uncured adhesive, which is non-toxic, is sufficiently viscous that it won’t run off grippers regardless of orientation. Axial holding force depends on gripper size and can range from 250 to 800 pounds when using Blue Photon’s BlueGrip S1 adhesive.

Grippers are made from hardened, corrosion-resistant stainless steel and have a black oxide finish. For repeat jobs, PGM will commonly leave the fixtures intact with the grippers still installed and store them for later use. Otherwise, the grippers can be removed and installed in other fixtures created for new jobs. The latter is most often the case for PGM, because new work continuously flows through the shop.

PGM has found that the PAAW system can be used in conjunction with conventional clamps, too, as evidenced with the part shown above for the printing industry. The shop had fixtured this long, relatively skinny part using only mechanical clamps on a tombstone for op. 10 and op. 20 work on one of its pallet-pool HMCs.

However, it was challenging and time-consuming for operators to mechanically secure either end of the part without causing it to twist about its longitudinal axis.

Rather than completely revamping the original fixture, Mr. Bray retained the mechanical clamping elements for the middle section of the part, but added two PAAW grippers to either end of the fixture.

Operators clamp the middle section of the part as they always have, but use the PAAW system to secure the ends of the part so these ends remain in a free state and there’s no chance of causing the part to twist.

After op. 10 work, the part is flipped and refixtured, and an op. 20 milling operation removes whatever cured adhesive remains from the op. 10 fixturing. Therefore, it’s only necessary to steam clean adhesive left behind from the op. 20 fixturing in this case.

Thus far, PGM has used the PAAW system for a couple dozen jobs in materials including aluminum, magnesium and stainless steel. Blue Photon says the PAAW system can also be used with composites and ceramics. The shop currently has three portable UV light source units that can easily be transported to machines throughout the shop.

The system will be used to a greater extent for production as well as toolroom work and CMM part inspection as PGM gains more experience with it and experiments with BlueGrip adhesives. Todd Hockenberger says it sometimes serves as a selling point for customers that are either having problems with other part vendors or readily recognize how tough their new design will be to fixture.

The shop has a good chance at winning those types of jobs once the customers understand how the system can be applied to their applications. In addition, it can help shorten product design cycles because fixture design is no longer the challenge it once was when mechanical clamps seemingly were the only option.

"This is big," Mr. Hockenberger says, "because PGM tries to get involved as early as possible in each customer’s new product design cycle to offer design for manufacturability (DFM) advice to minimize production time and cost, and get the product to the market faster."

Precision Grinding and Manufacturing: call 585-458-4300 or visit pgmcorp.com.

A short history about deburring from E-Z Burr.

Burrs may be the last concern that an engineer or machinist wants to think about in designing a new part focusing on tolerances and production rate. However, the problem remains and calls for attention to develop a quality product. It was nearly a century ago that a solution was discovered and the first deburring tool went to market.

Today’s tools offer many solutions to accommodate the many varieties of applications and materials. Looking at the technical aspects of each application, material and individual customer’s goals, E-Z Burr has taken the process of deburring to the next level.

Since 1960, E-Z Burr has been providing innovative and versatile deburring solutions for customers. Over the last 5 years they have introduced and expanded their Carbide Series of deburring tools to produce successful results on hard to machine materials and higher production volumes. “From the very start, our goal has been to provide tools that are durable, dependable, easy to use and maintain, while offering our customers a fair and reasonable price,” says Bill Robinson, President of E-Z-Burr. “We are always looking for new, innovative ways to meet the needs of our customers.”

Getting a good understanding of the definitions of the parts of a tap will help you to better understand the functions of  tap designs.  Special thanks to Allen Benjamin for letting us share their short and simple explanations!

Tech Tip: Dorian Tool

If you would like to read the entire report you can see it below.  You can also check out the USMTO website each month for updates.

Tech Tip: Hannibal Carbide