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MSC partnership brings customer significant savings
As one of Europe's largest manufacturers, Gardner Aerospace places precision, quality and cost-efficient production in high regard.
It is for these reasons the company with facilities around the world has opted for cutting tool support from distributor MSC Industrial Supply and Dormer Pramet.
At their Broughton site in North Wales, Gardner Aerospace manufactures structural components for OEMs from a variety of material types.
MSC regional applications engineer Stuart Wiezniak was recently introduced to help Gardner Aerospace with a troublesome component that with an annual production output of 7,920, was tying up a HAAS S20Y turning centre.
The S98 stainless steel rod-end components with a 30mm diameter sphere, required considerable material removal rates to create a flat on each side. On the HAAS, the limited rigidity of the Y-axis milling head and the three-jaw chuck clamping set-up created frequent machine alarms and stopped production.
Stuart worked with Gardner to move the process to a Dahlih four-axis machining centre with a BT40 spindle taper and develop a fixture to hold and subsequently machine five parts in a single set-up.
By recommending an alternate machine tool, a different work-holding configuration and more applicable cutting tools, Gardner Aerospace is now saving more than £37,500 per annum on this one job, with scope to add even larger cost reductions in the future.
From a tooling perspective, Stuart worked with Dormer Pramet’s Adam Irving to remove the previous indexable ball nosed tool and replace it with a Pramet SBN10 32mm diameter high-feed cutter with five BNGX inserts.
Applying the M6330 grade, the machining parameters were significantly improved. Running the new rough and semi-finishing at 0.7mm depth of cut and a cutting speed of 180m/min, cycle time was reduced from 5 minutes 49 seconds per part to just over 33 seconds.
MSC’s Stuart Wiezniak said: “In this specific application, the Dormer Pramet 32mm high-feed end mill was the optimal choice for high metal removal rates.
“Cutting tool strategies are always a balance of costs versus productivity rates. In this instance, the annual tooling cost increased by £321 per year to £2,678. But we have slashed machine time by 81% from 724 hours to 141, and the cost per part has reduced from £28 to £23.
“The total saving not only absorbs the slight increase in tooling costs, but it also improves process reliability, frees-up machine capacity and man-hours, and improves component quality. We have exceeded customer expectations with regards to meeting the original objective whilst delivering the project goals on-time.”
www.dormerpramet.com
