|
Success Story - More Versatile Than Steel |
| Success Story Welded steel parts often can't match the tolerances of cast aluminum…
Problem: A strapping company found that their machine for automatically strapping newspapers to a skid could not keep up with the speed of new printing presses. A modification was needed to a welded assembly for guiding a nylon strap around the bundled papers. But this weld could not be performed to the tight tolerances required. Challenge: Create a cast aluminum part that could meet the required tolerances while withstanding the stresses required. Solution: Precision created a casting from 356T6 alloy with all of the internal "stresses" taken out of the material during the heat treat process. The casting has a relatively long cycle time of over 90 minutes to ensure structural integrity. In addition, all of the bores are held to .001 and concentricity to .0005. Perpendicularity of the bores to the bottom milled areas is critical to this part's operation in the field. We machined this part on our 5-axis machining center using our pallet changing system. Outcome: Even though this casting has a thin wall design to save on cost and weight, the 356 alloy provided enough strength to hold all of the very tight machining tolerances and the demands of guiding the nylon strapping around the papers.
|
