American fishing tackle brand CNC aluminum parts processing case: Precision manufacturing breakthrough of core components of fishing reels

Client and Project Background

Client Profile

The client is an American company that focuses on the design and manufacture of high-end fishing equipment. Its core products are fishing reels (Handle Reels) and peripheral accessories. As consumers' demand for lightweight and durable outdoor equipment increases, the client plans to launch an innovative fishing reel.

Project Requirements

The client commissioned the development of a core aluminum component for a large fishing reel (Handle Reels), with the following requirements:

• Lightweight design: Use aluminum 6061-T6 material to ensure that the component floats on the water surface and improve the fishing experience.
• Complex structure processing: Circular components with larger diameters need to achieve precision molding of hollow interiors, side grooves and bottom contours.
• Multi-process collaboration: Break through the limitations of traditional five-axis processing and achieve full process optimization from rough processing to surface treatment.

Product Technology Analysis

Core Material: Performance Advantages of Aluminum 6061-T6

1. Lightweight: Density is only 2.7g/cm³, 60% lighter than steel, meeting the requirements of floating.
2. High Strength: After heat treatment, the tensile strength of T6 reaches 275MPa, which can withstand high loads in seawater environment.
3. Corrosion Resistance: Through hard anodizing treatment (such as the process used by similar products in Amazon), the surface hardness is increased to above HV300, and the ability to resist salt spray corrosion is enhanced.

Key technical indicators

Production Challenges and Solutions

Challenge 1: Processing limitations of large-size circular structures

• Problem: Circular parts with a diameter of more than 200mm cannot be processed in one go by conventional five-axis machines, and traditional fixtures are prone to deformation.
• Solution:

1. Step-by-step hollowing process: The first process uses CNC gongs to gradually remove internal materials and retain external support structures.
2. Customized fixture design: Develop 3D printed Onyx material fixtures to ensure the positioning accuracy of complex surfaces by using its high rigidity and corrosion resistance.

Challenge 2: Strict requirements for tools in precision machining

• Problem: Hollow cutting requires tool wear resistance to be increased by more than 3 times, and the life of traditional blades is insufficient.
• Solution:

1. Imported tool selection: Use carbide blades, coating technology to improve anti-adhesion, and extend tool life by 40%.
2. Cutting parameter optimization: Determine the optimal feed rate (800mm/min) and cutting depth (0.2mm) through simulation to reduce tool wear.

Challenge 3: Multi-process collaborative efficiency and quality control

• Problem: Accumulated positioning errors between the three processes affect the final dimensional accuracy.
• Solution:

1. Digital production management: Real-time monitoring of equipment status, dynamic adjustment of processing parameters, and ensuring that the process connection error is ≤0.005mm.
2. Online detection integration: Add laser scanning (accuracy ±0.002mm) after five-axis processing to compensate for dimensional deviations in real time.

Multi-process collaborative processing solution

In view of the structural characteristics of large circular aluminum parts, the project adopts three core processes to work together, and realizes the full process precision control from rough processing to fine finishing through equipment selection and process connection:

First process: CNC computer gong inner cavity hollowing

• Use a large-size machining center to gradually remove the internal material of the component, and retain the external support structure to avoid deformation. Through layered cutting (the depth of each layer is controlled at 2-3mm), a 5mm machining allowance is reserved in the circular cavity with a diameter of more than 200mm, laying the foundation for subsequent precision molding.

Second process: Five-axis machine tool surface precision machining

• Use the multi-angle machining capability of the five-axis linkage CNC machine tool to form the side groove and bottom contour of the component. ±120° swing angle machining is achieved through imported carbide ball head milling cutter (diameter 12mm), and high-precision cutting of complex surfaces is completed in a single pass (surface roughness is controlled at Ra≤0.8μm), solving the problem of multi-angle contours that cannot be processed by traditional three-axis machine tools.

Final process: CNC lathe finishing and surface treatment

• High-precision CNC lathes are used to complete threaded hole processing (accuracy up to 6H level), edge chamfering (angle error ±1°) and deburring, and the surface roughness is further optimized to Ra≤0.4μm through vibration polishing. This process integrates size detection and error compensation to ensure that the coaxiality error of the threaded hole is ≤0.02mm, and finally achieves the dual standards of lightweight components and functional accuracy.

The three processes use customized fixtures (positioning accuracy ±0.01mm) and digital coordinate calibration to ensure the uniformity of the benchmark across equipment processing, avoid cumulative errors in multiple processes, and achieve efficient coordination from structural forming to surface treatment.