The Copper Development Association (CDA) is eager to help shops discover and tap into the high-speed machining advantages of brass. The substantial benefits of doing so have an increasing number of shops rethinking their part materials and, when possible, converting those parts to brass.
At Cary Rosenberg’s company, Watts Water Technologies, validating material properties to ensure they are composed of the correct elemental composition is an important part of their work.
Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group is now using 3D printing from Stratasys to manufacture flight-ready parts for several of its military, civil and business aircraft—while producing specific ground-running equipment at a lower cost than aluminum alternatives.
Proper drill selection, the geometry built into the drills themselves, applying proper drilling parameters, and a few tips and tricks from the pros can address nagging drilling problems such as drill breakage, unbroken chips, tool runout, poor hole edges, and poor tool life.
The well-established field of laser marking continues to break new ground with expanding business opportunities in automotive, oil and gas, medical and other industries.
It’s not too difficult to understand the importance of machining aluminum for aerospace applications. High volumes of aluminum are used, principally for structural components.
Glenn Bridgman describes the difference between his shop’s manual grinders and its newest state-of-the-art CNC ID/OD grinder, a Studer CT960 OD/ID from United Grinding (Miamisburg, OH), as “feel vs. facts.” Bridgman, president of Bridge Tool & Die (Buckley, MI), believes that manual grinding is a somewhat personal operation.
Materials science has opened new possibilities for designers of cars, planes and other products. Metal alloys are now as precisely engineered as they are machined. The result is longer lasting, stronger parts. But with a wider selection of materials comes risk—how can you be sure that one piece of gray metal stock is different than another? Careful warehousing procedures and paperwork only go so far.
As a result of recent testing under real production conditions, brass proved to machine at extremely high speeds on today’s advanced machine tools with little evidence of tool wear, producing high-quality surface finishes and excellent chip control, reported the Copper Development Association (McLean, VA).
Titanium, stainless steel, aluminum and other super-alloys and exotic materials are on the rise for use in component manufacturing in growth industries such as aerospace, medical, and automotive.