Allied Machine Expands Boring Line with Wohlhaupter VolCut - insert holder cnc

 2024-08-05 11:05:38

Last August, MOGAS CNC programmer/supervisor Zach Horton and his CNC team, together with Ingersoll’s Craig Kippola, attacked the problem head-on by seeking to find a faster, more reliable way to machine that most contentious material. As a result, they’re turning Inconel 718 valve balls four times faster than with carbide — and twice as fast as with any other ceramic they’ve ever tried. Similarly, the team improved rough milling rates by 5 to 1 over carbide, and again, 2 to 1 versus any other ceramic.

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Ceramic, but built for roughing A key factor in the performance of the Ingersoll AS20 ceramic is the toughness of the SiN substrate, combined with a very strong geometry and special edge prep. Unlike most ceramics, the AS20 is designed specifically for roughing, and in particular features a wide land. Top-face geometry puts more of the machining heat into the departing chip than into the tool, toolholder, or workpiece. This not only protects the insert, but also helps speed up indexing.

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Allied Machine and Engineering has introduced the Wohlhaupter VolCut insert holder, which features a high cutting speed and material removal up to 2.755”.

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VolCut combines the modularity of the Wohlhaupter MVS connection with Allied Machine and Engineering’s large-diameter holemaking solution. The company says this combination saves time and offers increased material removal and chip control at greater depths for large-diameter applications — even on underpowered machines. The VolCut insert holder is stocked for quick delivery with bore diameters ranging from 2.559”–128.149” (65–3,255 mm). Its design incorporates serrations that connect with Wohlhaupter’s Twin Cutter and AluLine boring systems.

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Once the requisite stability was established, the MOGAS CNC team modified the programs for more aggressive toolpaths, and then turned to Kippola and Higby to optimize the final machining parameters. The critical detail of their strategy was to push machining rates, even at the expense of edge life. “Sure, ceramic inserts aren’t cheap, but the real potential for money saving is to speed up the chipmaking and let the rest fall where it may,” said Horton.

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“The VolCut insert holders provide a rough boring solution unmatched by other rough boring competitors,” says Natalie Wise, USA product manager of the Wohlhaupter boring line. “The ability to utilize the VolCut insert holders with your existing standard Wohlhaupter modular tooling provides the additional range needed to vastly improve your rough machining operations.”

Accordingly, MOGAS flood cools everything during turning ---work piece, mandrel, tool and tool holder. They run the milling dry, but flood the cutter and inserts for 15 seconds at every indexing stoppage. Horton won’t disclose the actual indexing frequency, but says it’s short enough to shock some people. “Nevertheless, we’re way ahead economically by burning through inserts in order to run faster. That’s a trade-off I’d take any day.”

Allied Machine and Engineering has expanded its boring line with the introduction of the Wohlhaupter VolCut insert holder. The rough boring system is engineered to remove large volumes of material at high speeds and light feed rates in a single cut.

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Four-part solution There were four parts to their solution: 1) retool with an Ingersoll ceramic insert, with special edge preparation; 2) inject some “out of the box” programming; 3) sacrifice edge life for exponential gains in feeds and speeds as a matter of strategy; 4) and control process heat to speed up edge indexing.

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Kippola’s recommendation for both turning and milling: Ingersoll ceramic grade AS20 SiN inserts, running at roughly twice the speed of any other ceramic tried. To Horton’s surprise, the inserts were “unwhiskered” (no microscopic reinforcing fibers), with special edge preparation. Turning inserts are plain rounds, which rough at 1,200 SFM. Milling inserts, seated in a 2-inch shell mill, are notched for better gripping in the seat pocket to withstand the extremely fast rpm’s. Standard speed: 2,500 SFM.

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“Many people think that whiskered ceramics are intrinsically tougher than unwhiskered ones, but that’s ‘old school’,” said Kippola. “Newer, unsupported ceramics exhibit vastly improved toughness because of the substrates themselves.”

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Allied Machine and Engineering recommends VolCut to manufacturers pre-machining large-diameter holes in components for the oil and gas and heavy equipment industries, saying VolCut’s high cutting speed and material removal up to 2.755” (70.00 mm) can reduce cycle times. The company reports case studies show cycle time reductions up to 80% when compared to similar circular milling applications. The indexable inserts VolCut utilizes shorten process times even further by allowing the tool to remain engaged in the spindle while changing out worn cutting edges. Allied Machine and Engineering stocks the indexable inserts as standard items to facilitate quick replenishment.

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Based on success with the Inconel balls and seats, Horton is running the same Ingersoll ceramic insert to turn valve stems, and is doing a considerable volume of boring, too. “We’re pushing the envelope regarding boring Inconel with ceramics, with excellent results” says Horton. “We’ve heard that many shops avoid boring Inconel with ceramic inserts because the material doesn’t tolerate the recutting very well. With this particular Ingersoll grade and special attention to chip evacuation, our boring operations have been very successful.”

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MOGAS makes the balls from chucked barstock: Bore out the main bore, mount it on a mandrel, turn the OD, then move the piece to another machine to pocket-mill a rectangular slot. The slots engage the valve stem as part of the rotation mechanism. The valve seats involve OD and ID turning only, with the ID a spherical radius to mate with the ball.

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Commitment to ceramics Together with lead man Hub Whitley, Zach settled on ceramic tooling to replace the carbide components. They tried a few grades on their own and achieved 50% to 100% productivity improvements, but edge failures were so unpredictable that they defeated process stability. So, they called Ingersoll’s Craig Kippola and Kirk Higby of tooling distributor Cutting Tools Inc. for specific recommendations on grades and machining parameters. “They solved past problems for us very well, so they were the natural ‘go-to guys’ this time around,” said Horton.

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Faster machining, reliably In initial trials, the Ingersoll solution achieved slightly higher rates than other ceramics, but did so with much more reliability. Failure causes were edge wear (which was very predictable), not edge rupture (which is not.) “Performance was especially impressive on milling, with its interrupted cuts that often fracture brittle ceramics,” said Hub Whitley.

Some milling jobs feed at 200 IPM @ 2,500 SFM without catastrophic edge failure. Turning feeds up to 0.01 IPR @ 1,200 SFM are routine. “With the other ceramics we tried, whiskered or unwhiskered, the milling was not up to our standards,” said Hub Whitley.

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Indeed, heat management in a broader sense helped to shorten cycle times in other ways. Keeping the tools just warm to the touch will shorten indexing downtime to a measurable degree. “We’re deliberately accepting high edge wear in exchange for higher throughput, which necessarily means more frequent indexing,” says Horton. “Naturally we want to avoid indexing delays due to inserts becoming too hot to handle right away.” Kippola added that he has seen processing at other plants delayed for 10 minutes or more, waiting for the tool to cool off enough to handle.

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The outcome: a secure process for roughing Inconel, which runs twice as fast as with any other ceramic. For example, turning a ball that used to take an entire shift with carbide, and two hours with other ceramics, now takes an hour. A seat ring that once took an hour with carbide, and 30 minutes with other ceramics, is now completed within 15 minutes.

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Allied Machine Expands Boring Line with Wohlhaupter VolCut - insert holder cnc

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