One-hit operations for complex parts

Tom Skubala of MTDCNC is at Shannon Precision Engineering with James Fletchmoore of ETG for a masterclass on one-hit machining. Shannon Precision Engineering were starting to struggle with the quantities they needed to produce. Taking inspiration from NAKAMURA and the Japanese art of origami, James figured out a way to produce a difficult part in one hit. After the initial concept design, the next challenge was workholding to get the clamping and repeatability fundamental to the process. Through several trial and errors and the right tooling, they were able to reduce cycle time by 50% on one part. NAKAMURA’s own software is intelligent enough to allow the programming of two spindles to work together. James says it’s not always about cutting time, but the machine itself gave them the cycle time they’re at today.