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Five-axis and high-speed machining: three approaches to getting up to speed.

Article Excerpt
The route to the highest performance in high-speed and 5-axis machining is being traveled in a variety of ways by production parts makers for the aerospace, medical, and electronics industries. Two end users report their experiences. A third report details how a machine importer uses the latest CNC controls and post-processing technology to meet demanding aerospace requirements.

Evolution into production

At Magnus Precision, Phelps, NY, five-axis capabilities have spurred an evolution in part machining, especially for high-tolerance, high-volume intricate parts that require tolerances of 0.0002" or better, says Al Mustardo, vice president. The company, which started out in business making molds and dies, has found a niche producing intricate, high precision, low- to high-volume parts, and micro-parts for the medical, aerospace, and sports equipment markets, often in tough materials like titanium.

"We went into production machining because we thought we could get a better return on our investment," says Mustardo, who describes an evolutionary process in which Magnus Precision added machining process capabilities by investing in a variety of turning, EDM, and machining center technologies. The turning point came as the tolerance demands of its customers became more demanding, says Mustardo.

"We had to come up with a machine tool that had a configuration that could meet the product specifications," he explains. "That was one of the driving forces for five-axis machining. The other one was the capability to have a more streamlined process where we could bypass a couple of stages like EDM work or turning many of the parts."

The solution was found in the first of the DMG DMU five-axis Evolution machining centers that Magnus Precision bought three years...

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