Investing in 5 Axis Machining Will Save You Money

How 5 Axis Machining Helps You Save Money!

Many shops, regardless of their size, who consider investing in 5 Axis Machining may ask themselves “is the investment worth it?”

I will try to open your thoughts on the most effective way to machine 5 Axis. You will save a tremendous amount of money in labor cost, tooling cost, and machine cost with little to no scrap rate.

On a standard 5 axis machine, cutting one part at a time is a great way to get started. Now you can cut all 5 sides of your part, and in most cases the job can be finished in two operations.

You have now eliminated multiple setups, achieved much better tolerances, and brought the scrap rate down to almost zero.

“You started to save money”

But let’s expand on this more! What if I told you, you can now machine multiple parts by cutting all 5 sides in one operation and sharing tools with all your parts!

Can you imagine the advantage you will have now by sharing all your tool changes with multiple parts and cutting all 5 sides of the part? Now you will be able to run the machine unattended for much longer, 4 times longer or more depending on how many parts you can put on each spindle. “Load up your parts”

“You are now saving money”

Cutting all 5 sides at the same time, sharing tool changes with multiple parts instead of one part, (this alone can save hours a day) you’r letting the machine run longer. This saves on the cost of labor because the machine operators can now comfortably tend three or four machines at once. Rather than having them tend one machine at a time.

The four most important things in machining that will save you money:

1. Cut all 5 sides of your part in one operation.
2. Sharing tool changes with all your parts
3. Keep the spindle running all day with no part changes. “Load up your parts”
4. Let your operators tend more than one machine comfortably.

Is this possible you ask? If it were your return on investment (ROI) would pay for itself in a few months!

KME CNC can turn your horizontal machining center or your vertical machining center into a production 5 Axis machine, cutting 4 or more parts, cutting all 5 sides, and at the same time sharing all your tool changes. This will result in keeping your machine operating for much longer allowing your operators to tend more than one machine.

Example:

We have one customer cutting 4 stainless steel parts on each platter giving them 16 finished parts in one cycle. Sharing tools with all 16 parts and their cycle time is still under 45min. Their return on investment was only 3 months. They now currently have 19 trunnions and 8 tombstones and make 3200 parts every 24 hours.

KME CNC can help you too to reach your goals faster and more efficiently!!!