The term "high speed machining (HSM)" in Dongguan NC machining plant generally refers to the end milling at high speed and large feed rate. For example, the concave part of aluminum alloy aircraft wing frame is cut with high metal removal rate. In the past 60 years, high speed machining has been widely used in metal and non-metal materials, including the production of parts with specific surface shape requirements and the cutting of materials with hardness higher than or equal to HRC 50. For most steel parts quenched to about HRC 32-42, current cutting options include:
Rough machining and semi finishing of materials under soft (annealing) conditions
The final hardness is HRC 63
Electrode machining and electrical discharge machining (EDM) of some parts in mould industry (especially small radius arc and deep cavity which are difficult to be machined by metal cutting tools)
Finishing and Superfinishing of cylindrical / planar / concave surfaces with suitable cemented carbide, cermet, monolithic cemented carbide, mixed ceramic or polycrystalline cubic boron nitride (PCBN) tools.
For many parts, the production process involves a combination of these options. In the mold manufacturing case, it also includes time-consuming finishing, resulting in high production cost and long preparation time.
In the mold manufacturing industry, it is typical to produce only one or several of the same products. In the process of production, the design of products is constantly changing. Due to the change of products, measurement and reverse engineering are needed in the mold manufacturing.
The main standard of machining is the quality level of mold size and surface roughness. If the quality level after processing is low and can not meet the requirements, manual finishing is needed. Hand finishing can produce satisfactory surface roughness, but it always has a bad effect on the size and geometric accuracy.
One of the main goals of the mould manufacturing industry in Dongguan CNC plant has been and still is to reduce or eliminate manual polishing, so as to improve quality, reduce production costs and shorten preparation time.