Runsom Precision - Manufacturer of Custom Precision Parts
The cylindrical tool of a CNC VMC machine is oriented vertically on the spindle axis. This is well suited for plunge cutting and drilling; these tools are regarded as the best for diesinking applications. With CNC technology, the tools in some vertical machining centers can operate in as many as five axes to create custom shapes, holes, slots, and features of three-dimensional components.
Runsom Precision is equipped with full sets of vertical and horizontal machining centers, including the 5-Axis CNC vertical milling machine, in a broad series of configurations and sizes to fulfill all kinds of manufacturing demands. Count on experts at Runsom Precision to help you with the design and manufacture of custom precision components with impressive technologies and rich experience in CNC vertical machining.
What is CNC Vertical Machining?
CNC Vertical Machining involves CNC milling operations performed with a vertical milling machine. As the name implies, these machines have vertically oriented tooling. This design allows them to be applied to end milling operations that use peripheral and surface-toothed tools.
Vertical milling is an ideal strategy for the fabrication of high-quality and accurate components for a range of industries including automotive, electronics, aerospace, medical, and many more. Easier setup in CNC vertical machining makes it a good alternative option for prototype applications.
It’s well suited to create the following things:
- Box-type parts such as gearboxes, spindle boxes, gear pump shells, and engine blocks.
- Intricately curved parts such as engine impellers, cams, mold cavities, and propellers.
- Irregular or special parts such as bases and brackets.
Advantages of CNC VMC Machine
The main advantages of the CNC VMC machine are as followed in contrast to horizontal CNC milling machines:
Applications of Vertical CNC Machining Center
Depending on its advantages and good performance, CNC vertical machining centers can be used in machinery manufacturing industries that require high precision and mass production, including automotive, aerospace, electronic appliances, instrumentation, handicrafts, mold making, textile, military products, etc. A VMC is well suited to process workpieces with high precision, multiple procedures, and complicated shapes.
Box-type CNC machining components refer to workpieces with multiple holes and multiple cavities inside, which are mainly used in automobiles, machine tools, and aircraft, such as gear pump shells, engine blocks, diesel engine blocks, gearboxes, and spindle boxes, etc. 60%-95% of the processes of an ordinary machine tool can be completed by one-time clamping when employing a vertical machining center. Additionally, the CNC VMC can perform high precision, high efficiency, high rigidity, and automatic tool change. As long as the process flow is formulated and appropriate fixtures and tools are used, many issues in the processing of box parts can be solved.
Parts with complex curved surfaces are widely used in the aviation and transportation industries, such as propellers, mold cavities, cams, integral impellers of engines, etc. Such components with complex curves and surface contours, or box or casting parts with closed cavities inside, are difficult to achieve predetermined machining accuracy and detection through conventional machine tools or precision casting. A multi-axis machining center with automatic programming technology and special tools can largely increase its production efficiency, ensure the shape accuracy of the surface, and make the automatic machining of intricate parts easy.
Most of the workpieces with irregular contours require multi-point mixed processing of points, lines, and surfaces, such as bases and brackets. When it comes to machining special-shaped objects, the more complex the structure, the higher the required precision, and the VMC demonstrates its advantages at this time.
Such workpieces often contain keyways and radial holes. Vertical machining centers are often used for perforated or arc-shaped plates and end faces of shafts, such as bushings, and plates with holes, such as motor covers; and parts with radial holes usually use horizontal machining centers.
The machining center is highly adaptable and flexible. When the processing object changes, it is only necessary to create and input a new program, and even sometimes use some special instructions or modify some program segments. For instance, the use of the zoom function can accomplish the processing of parts with the same shape but different sizes, offering great convenience for single-piece, small-scale, multi-variety production, and trial manufacturing of initial components, and largely speed up the production preparation and trial production cycle.
CNC Vertical Tooling and Machining Variations
Vertically oriented CNC tools are effective for a wide variety of operations. While vertical mills are the most common type of CNC equipment, there are other useful tools including:
CNC Vertical Lathes - Available in a wide array of sizes, these tools can execute fast, precise cuts and hold extremely tight tolerances. They are usually combined with machining centers for single-setup turning and milling.
CNC Vertical Machining Centers - The most frequently used type of CNC equipment, these complex tools are the easiest CNC vertical milling machine to program and are the crucial composition of many machine shops. These systems are best suited for short runs and small-size machining and can be fully equipped with a wide range of tools and tool changers, tool magazines, and turntables. They also offer coolant and fluid systems and specialized cabinets.
CNC 5-Axis Machines - In state-of-the-art milling centers, these tools operate in five axes to produce 3D parts with a high degree of precision and complexity at a high speed, even for the most intricate designs.
CNC VMC FAQs
CNC Vertical Machining Center is a kind of Computer Numerically Controlled VMC, which has a vertical spindle, approaches the workpiece mounted on the worktable from above, and is equipped with a tool magazine system and an automatic tool changer.
A vertical machining center can perform milling, drilling, tapping, thread cutting, boring, and more.
A VMC is typically used for flat machining where top access to the tool is required, such as for mold cavities and large parts for aircraft, particularly for high-precision part production in the manufacturing industry.
Horizontal machining centers are often used for milling slots and grooves. Also, it can be employed to shape flat surfaces. The spindle axis of a vertical machining center is vertically oriented. Its milling cutter is fixed on the spindle and rotates on its axis.
The biggest drawback of vertical machining centers is the accumulation of chips on the workpiece.
In the machining industry, the application of magnets to hold workpieces has been known since the beginning of the 20th century. Magnetic chucks are commonly employed to keep/hold the workpiece while machining the material, usually for VMCs.