The arrow head demonstrator is a demo part designed to demonstrate the performance of an a51nx series machine in aluminium. The arrow head is representative of all the aluminium brackets there are throughout a plane.
The material used is A5051.
The part is normally produced on 4-axis horizontal machining centres with several setups. By exploiting the Makino a51nx’s capabilities, we have reduced that to a "pre-operation" and a main operation.
Clamping
Clamping is key to the process. Here we have used the technology from Techni-Grip which utilises two features:
Pin & Hole
This combination help users locate the part in a very precise way on the X-Y plane
The dovetail cut
The dovetail shape on the fixture produces a very interesting effect due ot the angle used
Pull down effect: One of the clamping direction is towards the fixture, pushing the part against the rigid part of the clamping
Centring effect: The lateral forces which the dovetail enables, centres the part on the fixture and provides high rigidity to the system
One of the biggest advantages besides simplicity and rigidity is that the raw material is easily accessible from all sides so all the features of a part can be easily accessed.
We now have everything ready to cut! The main tool we use in this process are:
End mill - Diameter 25 - Main roughing process - over 1.5 litres / minute
End Mill - Diameter 25 - Tool used to make the inner channel and the back of the arrow head "wings"
End Mill - Diameter 20 - For having great finishing surfaces we use a solid carbide tool with a huge stickout (100 mm), this allow us to finish all surfaces by one-shot wall finishing strategy
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