Minimizing Waste During Machining

Pressure die cast is good alternative.

Provided

1. Suitable alternate alloy equaling 6061 as the material cannot be cast.
2. Most important the production volume should be sufficient to justify amortizing expensive investment on molding tools.
3. If the volumes are good you may as well consider close die forging of 6061.

Thanks Krishnan.

Tooling is an initial cost,but you get repeatability in dimensions.Iam not sure about the die forging of 6061.

But my concern is not only to reduce the wastage, it also must give me a smooth finish.

I heard hgh pressure die casting will give that superior quality in surface finish.

As i mentioned earlier after the pressure die casting my only machining activity should be drilling tapping and coating process like clear anodizing or black-anodizing .

Material is ok even if i get 90 to 93% of Aluminium.

Pressure die casting will indeed give a good surface finish with minimum need for further machining.

A professional aluminum die caster will offer you wide range of options.

Only if the mechanical properties are primary you may need to think of close die forgings.

Refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investment_casting

Thanks Krishnan,

Will ther be any problem in the coating process (clear anaodising)if we make product by pressure die casting.?

"To start with right now we may need somewhere 50 to 100 pieces in a year"

The quantity you are talking of is much too small for investment on pressure die casting.

You will be no position to recover cost of dies which entails heavy initial investment and only huge production run will ever justify it.

For small quantity requirements it is cost effective to opt for machining from billets which is the only direction to go.

State of the art pressure die casting technologies offers very good dimensional control, mechanical properties, super fine smooth surface, wide variety of choice of metal alloys and of course provide ideal surface for all kinds of conversion coatings like anodizing and other surface finishing. The major catch is the initial investment

Thank you very much Mr .krishnan.

Actually i too had the same impression,but the actual cycle time if you calculate it took me arround 1 week time to finish one frame.where as our customers want to reduce the lead time to 2 days,this is really a big task.

The catch is,if you go for machining, if there is any small tool mark in the finished product is considered as scrap then again we need to start from the beginning.That is the only reason iam looking for a bullet proof system where we can avoid this kind of losses as well the delay in delivery.

More over 6061 is an expensive comodity,to make this frame i have to procure arround 40kg of material,but the finished frame comes arround 12 kg.Considering all these variables,i am just looking for some alternative source so that when the volume comes more i have to grab the opportunity.

Anyway once again thanks for your valuable information.

I fully follow and endorse your reasoning.

Give a thought to CNC route. From the drawing I feel it is quite possible for a well equipped machine shop to do multiple productions radically improving the cycle time. Quality of surface finish largely depends having tight control over clamping, cutting tools, coolant etc. Post machining mechanical finishing should help.

Any veteran machinist can offer you wealth of productive advice.

Best of luck!

Dear Mr.Krishnan,

Old stuff but not closed,you had mentioned about die Forgings,when i approached people who are specialist in Forging they said they can't take this job for Forging since the Size of the fram is larger.I almost checked in India no one is giving Positiive feedback.

If you know someone who can do this job can you please refer .

Thanks.

I am unable to go give you immediate lead for forging, but I have known one renowned company for pressure die cast. You may contact Bangalore based concern vide http://www.dolphindiecast.com/. Good luck.

Dear sr_dur,

By May experience bigger waste on machining is time. Time on machine is very expensive. We have special clamping technology for milling, we save more time-more money. If you are interesting in, send me e-mail to libor.pirko at centrum.cz. I will send you more info. We use this in aerospace production. Best Regards Libor Pírko

Hi Pirko,

Good day to you.Can you send me the details to the below email id please.

sr_dur@yahoo.com.sg

Good day SrDur

How many of these frames do you need? If your volume is high enough, you may well find someone to extrude the plan form and then slice sections to thickness and the only superficial machining to final vertical dimensions. Much less machine time and may be more economical than pressure casting. Volumes?

To start with right now we may need somewhere 50 to 100 pieces in a year.Extrusion also a good idea.Can we do surface coating on that.Because we have to apply clear or black anodising.

Note:-We are anticipating more volume on this depends upon the quality how we are giving.

Thanks.