In the field of precision parts machining, the status of CNC machining centers is undeniable. CNC machining centers are divided into vertical machining centers and horizontal CNC machining centers. What are the main characteristics of horizontal CNC machining centers?
1. Easy Chip Removal and High Precision
Keeping chips away from the machining area is critical to both equipment reliability and part quality. Chips naturally fall away. Horizontal machining eliminates the time and labor costs of manual chip removal and reduces the dangers of chip accumulation during the cycle. Reduced chip re-cutting results in better machining accuracy, smooth finish, and consistent tool life.
2. Tool Characteristics
Using one tool at a time eliminates the need to set the tool to precise dimensions, allowing three tools to share a common offset. This tool setup is time-consuming and labor-intensive at best, but it often introduces measurable errors between tools, limiting the machining accuracy of uniformly cut parts. Single-spindle machining allows for tighter tolerances because the machining offset is customized to the dimensions of each tool.
3. Improved Machining Stability and Finishing Capability
Reduced chip re-cutting eliminates dimensional differences between synchronized tools, resulting in better accuracy and finish. Improved surface finish and product quality also enhance machining efficiency, as it involves lighter cutting, resulting in lower cutting forces. This combination of factors allows shops to avoid manual mixing of machined parts, allowing high-speed horizontal machining centers to perform finishing operations.
4. Fixtures
Replacing three spindles with one not only eliminates the need for redundant tooling but also the need to maintain redundant fixtures. High-speed machining itself may reduce part fixture requirements. Lighter cutting forces, and therefore lighter clamping forces, make it practical to machine parts from solid blocks. Using the framing method, tabs are left around the part to secure it to the rest of the block until machining is complete and the tabs are cut away. With this method, the only necessary clamping component is the fixture securing the block to the table.
5. Floor Space Efficiency
Moving from a gantry to a horizontal machine, replacing three workpieces with one, and the remaining workpiece resting on its side rather than on the table, these changes alone can reduce the machine’s footprint. But this shift also frees up floor space in other ways. The one-at-a-time machining approach leaves fewer fixtures to store, and it also leaves fewer finished parts to store, since each horizontal cycle only leaves one piece to manage instead of three.
6. Efficiency-to-Footprint Ratio
In machining, reduced work-in-progress and simpler workflows translate directly into improved production efficiency. High-speed horizontal machining of large parts can help reduce lead times and inventory requirements, allowing for more flexible and cost-effective operations.
About RapidEfficient
RapidEfficient specializes in high-precision CNC machining with 18 years of experience. Its products cover medical, communications, optics, drones, intelligent robots, 汽车, and office automation parts.
The company’s CNC machining centers include four-axis, 五轴, and linkage machine tools, and are equipped with precision projectors, three-coordinate measuring machines, spectrometers, and other precision testing equipment.
Machining accuracy: 到 0.01 毫米
Testing accuracy: 到 0.001 毫米
