1.High-Precision Components: CNC machining offers the ability to create small, high-precision components integral to the functioning of 3C electronics, such as sensors, microcontrollers, and small mechanical parts.

2.Customized Modifications: For repair or modification purposes, CNC machining can produce replacement parts or customized modifications for older or discontinued electronic devices that might not have readily available parts.

3.Quality and Consistency: CNC machining ensures high-quality production and consistency in electronic components, meeting tight tolerances and specifications required by the 3C industry.

4..Mass Production: Once the design is finalized, CNC machining can be employed for mass production of custom components in the 3C electronics industry, ensuring each piece meets exact specifications.



Overall, CNC custom machining plays a pivotal role in the 3C electronics industry by enabling the creation of precise, customized, and high-quality components necessary for modern electronic devices. For custom CNC production services, please choose us and we will provide you with the best quality service and the most competitive price. Let us jointly promote the innovation and development of the 3C Electronics manufacturing industry!

With the arrival of the world's fourth industrial revolution, and the continuous development of science and technology and social production, mechanical manufacturing technology has undergone profound changes, the structure of mechanical products is more and more reasonable, and its performance, accuracy and efficiency are increasingly improved, so the production equipment of processing mechanical products has put forward high performance, high precision and high automation requirements. In order to solve the problem that ordinary machine tools can not be produced, to achieve single and small batch production, especially the automatic processing of some complex parts, CNC machining came into being.

Although, at present, China has become a processing country, precision parts processing plants all over the country. According to the data of the General Administration of Customs of China, in January and February 2023, the cumulative export volume of China's machine tools reached 2364123 units (2,364,100 units), from high-end CNC customized precision parts to ordinary standard products can achieve standardized mass production, the application of CNC technology can realize the automatic processing of parts and improve production efficiency. Especially in the automotive manufacturing, aerospace, electronic equipment manufacturing and other fields, the application of CNC technology has great potential. The application of CNC technology can realize the automatic processing of parts and improve production efficiency. Especially in the automotive manufacturing, electronic equipment manufacturing and other fields, the application of CNC technology has great potential.

CNC machining is widely used in the field of automotive parts, involving the engine, transmission, chassis, braking system, steering system and other aspects. However, no matter in any field of precision machining, achieving high precision and high speed is an important competitive means to obtain user orders.



The following are some specific applications of CNC machining in the field of automotive parts:

Engine parts machining: CNC machining can be used to manufacture various parts of the engine such as cylinder block, crankshaft, connecting rod, valve seat, etc., which require high precision and high strength.



1.Transmission parts processing: CNC machining can be used to manufacture various parts of the transmission system such as transmission gears, clutches, transmission shafts, etc., which require high precision and high strength.

2.Brake parts processing: CNC machining can be used to manufacture various parts of the brake system such as brake discs, brake pads, brakes, etc., which require high precision and high quality.

3.Steering parts processing: CNC machining can be used to manufacture various parts of the steering system such as steering gear, steering rod, steering machine, etc., these parts need high precision and high strength.



With the continuous development of CNC machining technology and the expansion of application fields, whether it is automobile body design or automobile internal electronic parts processing, the application range of CNC custom machining technology in the field of automation will be more and more extensive. In the future, CNC machining technology will continue to play an important role in the automotive manufacturing field.

With the increasingly updated processing technology, CNC machining has also undergone a lot of changes. Many experts pointed out that in the future, CNC will be the mainstream processing mode. In the CNC machining process, the tool is the most important, today, we will understand the CNC tool in detail.




CNC machining tool concept



A tool is a tool used for cutting in mechanical manufacturing. Generalized cutting tools include both cutting tools and abrasive tools. The vast majority of knives are used for machines, but there are also hand tools. Since the tools used in mechanical manufacturing are basically used to cut metal materials, the term "tool" is generally understood as a metal cutting tool. The cutting tools used for cutting wood are called woodworking tools.


CNC machining tool



Tool classification

Cutting tools can be divided into five categories according to the form of the workpiece machined surface.

Cutting tools for processing various outer surfaces, including cutting tools for processing various outer surfaces, including turning tools, planing knives, milling cutters, outer surface broach and file, etc.

Hole processing tools, including drill, reaming drill, boring cutter, milling cutter and internal surface broach, etc.

Thread processing tools, including tap, die, automatic opening thread cutting head, thread turning tool and thread milling cutter.

Gear processing tools, including hob, gear shaper cutter, shaving cutter, bevel gear processing tool, etc.

Cutting tools, including inserted circular saw blade, band saw, bow saw, cutting tool and saw blade milling cutter, etc.

In addition, there are combination tools.


Hole cutting tool



Tool structure

The structure of various tools is composed of a clamping part and a working part. The clamping part and working part of the overall structure of the tool are done on the tool body; The working part of the tool (the tooth or blade) is mounted on the tool body.

The clamping part of the tool has two kinds of holes and handles. The tool with hole relies on the inner hole set on the spindle or mandrel of the machine tool, and transmits the torsional torque with the help of the axial key or the end key, such as the cylindrical milling cutter and the sleeve face milling cutter.

The tool with the handle is usually rectangular handle, cylindrical handle and conical handle three kinds. Turning tools, planing tools, etc. are generally rectangular handles; The conical handle withstands the axial thrust with the taper and transmits the torque with the help of friction. Cylindrical shank is generally suitable for smaller twist drill, end mill and other tools, cutting with the help of the friction generated when clamping torque transfer. The shank of many tools with handles is made of low alloy steel, and the working part is made of high speed steel welded to each other.



The basic properties that the tool material should have

1. High hardness

The hardness of the tool material must be higher than the hardness of the workpiece material to be machined, which is the basic feature that the tool material should have.

2. Sufficient strength and toughness

The material of the cutting part of the tool must withstand great cutting force and impact force when cutting. The bending strength and impact toughness reflect the ability of tool material to resist brittle fracture and edge breakage.

3. High wear resistance and heat resistance

The wear resistance of tool materials refers to the ability to resist wear. The higher the hardness of the tool material, the better the wear resistance; The higher the high temperature hardness, the better the heat resistance, the tool material at high temperature resistance to plastic deformation, anti-wear ability is also stronger.

4. Good thermal conductivity

Large thermal conductivity means good thermal conductivity, and the heat capacity generated during cutting is easily transmitted out, thereby reducing the temperature of the cutting part and reducing tool wear.

5. Good technology and economy

In order to facilitate manufacturing, the tool material is required to have good machinability, including forging, welding, cutting, heat treatment, grindability and so on. Economy is one of the important indexes to evaluate and promote the application of new tool materials.

6. Resistance to bonding

Prevent the workpiece and the tool material molecules under the action of high temperature and high pressure adsorption bond.

7. Chemical stability

It means that the tool material is not easy to react chemically with the surrounding medium at high temperature.

Tool coating

Aluminum alloy indexable inserts are now coated with hard or composite layers of titanium carbide, titanium nitride, alumina by chemical vapor deposition. The physical vapor deposition method that is being developed can be used not only for aluminum alloy tools, but also for high-speed steel tools such as drills, hobs, taps and milling cutters. As a barrier that prevents chemical diffusion and heat conduction, the hard coating slows down the wear rate of the tool during cutting, and the life of the coated blade is about 1 to 3 times higher than that of the uncoated blade.




How to choose a tool



Tool selection is carried out in the human-machine interaction state of NC programming. The tool and handle should be correctly selected according to the machining capacity of the machine tool, the performance of the workpiece material, the processing procedure, the cutting amount and other relevant factors.

The general principle of tool selection: easy installation and adjustment, good rigidity, high durability and accuracy. On the premise of meeting the processing requirements, try to choose a shorter tool handle to improve the rigidity of the tool processing. When selecting the tool, the size of the tool should be adapted to the surface size of the workpiece to be machined.

1. End milling cutter is often used to process the peripheral outline of plane parts.

2. When milling the plane, carbide blade milling cutter should be selected.

3. When processing convex and grooves, choose high-speed steel end milling cutter.

4. When processing the blank surface or roughing the hole, you can choose the corn milling cutter with cemented carbide blade.

5. For the processing of some vertical surface and variable bevel contour, ball end milling cutter, ring milling cutter, conical milling cutter and disk milling cutter are often used.

6. In the processing of free-form surface, because the cutting speed of the end of the ball head tool is zero, so in order to ensure the processing accuracy, the cutting line spacing is generally very dense, so the ball head is often used in the finishing of the surface.

7, flat head tool in the surface processing quality and cutting efficiency are better than the ball head knife, therefore, as long as the premise of ensuring but cutting, whether it is rough surface machining or finishing, should be preferred to choose flat head knife.

8. In the machining center, various tools are installed on the tool library, and the tool selection and tool change are carried out at any time according to the procedure. Therefore, the standard tool handle must be used in order to make the standard tool for drilling, boring, expanding, milling and other processes quickly and accurately installed on the machine spindle or tool library. The number of tools should be reduced as far as possible; After a tool is installed, it should complete all the processing parts that it can carry out; Rough finishing tools should be used separately, even if the same size specifications of the tool; Milling before drilling; Surface finishing is carried out first, and then 2D contour finishing is carried out. Where possible, the automatic tool change function of CNC machine tools should be used as much as possible to improve production efficiency.


Problems encountered in processing aluminum and solutions



Problems encountered in processing aluminum and solutions when processing pure aluminum, easy to stick knife analysis and solutions:

1. Aluminum material is soft in texture and easy to stick at high temperature;

2. Aluminum is not resistant to high temperature, easy to open;

3. Related to processing cutting fluid: good oil lubrication performance; Good water-soluble cooling performance; High dry cutting cost;

4. When processing pure aluminum, the end mill dedicated to aluminum processing should be selected: positive front Angle, sharp cutting edge, large chip discharge slot, 45 degrees or 55 degrees helix Angle;

5. The material of the workpiece and the CNC tool has a greater affinity.

6. Rough front tool processing soft materials.

Recommendation: Machine tool conditions are poor to good requirements are low to high, please use high-speed steel, coated polished carbide, PCD polycrystalline diamond and single crystal diamond.

7. Low speed can be avoided by cutting fluid, high speed oil mist lubrication, the effect can be improved, aluminum alloy suitable


Tool future development direction



Due to the high temperature, high pressure, high speed, and the parts working in the corrosive fluid medium, the application of difficult to process more and more materials, the automation level of cutting processing and the processing accuracy requirements are getting higher and higher. In order to adapt to this situation, the development direction of the tool will be the development and application of new tool materials; Further develop the vapor deposition coating technology of the tool, and deposit higher hardness coating on the matrix of high toughness and high strength, so as to better solve the contradiction between hardness and strength of the tool material; Further development of indexable tool structure; Improve the manufacturing accuracy of the tool, reduce the difference in product quality, and optimize the use of the tool.How to choose CNC aluminum alloy machining tool.

There are instances where we are asked to CNC machine parts, product or a prototype that are either hard to machine, too complicated geometrically, will not yield great accuracy or simply cannot be machined. What do we do? For these scenarios, 3D printing the parts can be a great solution. So why not substitute CNC machining with 3D printing every single time? Well, there are advantages and disadvantages, pros and cons for each machine and process. So, which one is best for our needs? In which circumstances do we prefer one over the other? And is there another solution that might combine these two together to create a combo part? The basic difference between the two processes is that with CNC machining we are reducing material as we start with a foam block for example, carving it away; while with 3D printing we are layering on and adding material until we receive the final product, therefore called additive manufacturing. The 3D printer uses the same materials that make up the part it is creating, for instance ABS PLA and nylon, but it cannot switch between materials, whereas in CNC machining we can use several types of materials, often adding additional materials at the end. However, machining can be messy - Sometimes we need to use a dust collector while operating a CNC router machine to catch all that excess made in the drilling, carving and milling process, while there is less waste material produces in printing and the whole process is less noisy. CNC machining can be more precise providing more accuracy because the machines have a higher tolerance for heat. It can also result in a much smoother polished surface finish given the materials to be machined. 3D printers can actually distort a part, bend and warp if using too much heat on the layered material, so if exceptional smoothness is required the 3D printing will fall short. 3D printing is generally an easier more convenient process and not as labor-intense as CNC machining, since with machining we need to program, write a G-Code, set up different tools and speed, decide on cutting path and clean up after. However, the part size plays a role, as larger parts take longer to be printed adding layer by layer. Overall, 3D printing can assist in some cases of prototyping of high geometric complexity where the router tool cannot reach inside the shape. 3D printers can only use the area of the printer bed itself to fabricate the parts. Therefore, if large scale parts are needed they might not be able to fit in there. It is also not recommended for mass production as the materials are much more expensive and take much more time to fabricate. Therefore, 3D printing is more appropriate and more cost-effective for low volume production. CNC machining can rarely run unattended and requires skilled operator, while with 3D printing we can easily run the process unsupervised and it requires minimal training for its operator. However, CNC machining is an older practice (started in the 40's) and currently still has a stronger position in the manufacturing industry. 3D printing is relatively new and still evolving to be more useful and adaptable and still cannot be a full replacement for machining. In summary, the most appropriate technique to use will be determined by the material, geometric complexity, manufacturing volume and our budget. As a general guidance, we would switch to 3D printing mostly if fast turn-around in critical, if the part is too complex to be machined, for prototyping small volumes and if we need to use certain materials that cannot be easily machined. Having named most of the pros and cons for each technique, apparently there is a good solution that actually combines the two together to create one part. We often machine parts of the desired product using a CNC router, while fabricating other small yet more complex parts in the 3D printer, we then glue all parts together to make one unit. Another option is then to coat all glued combined parts with hard coat such as Polyurea, Styrospray or epoxy, then smooth and paint them. That way we both save time using the CNC machining process as well as being able to manufacture more complex parts combining the best of the two worlds together to create a hybrid.

Seven diverse wood products application reflect the diverse capabilities of CNC machining centers.
For a machine that not so long ago did not even exist, the uses for CNC machining centers have quickly become vast and continue to grow.
Woodworkers today are using these versatile machines for a variety of uses ranging from high-speed, flat-panel production work to very intricate carvings. Combining high speed boring with routing, profiling, cutting and other features, these computer-controlled marvels are being successfully utilized in shops that produce everything from beautiful high-end architectural woodwork to flanges for take up reels.
In the following pages, WOOD & WOOD PRODUCTS interviews woodworkers from around the country who have increased their productivity and accuracy while reducing labor costs through investments in CNC technology. Following are their stories.
SPEAKER MAKER USES CNC MACHINERY TO MAKE IT'S DIVERSE PRODUCT As an OEM supplier of audio speakers, the products that Tiffin, Ohio-based Ameriwood Industries International Inc. manufactures vary in size from small bookshelf-size speakers to large symphonic speakers.
Jim Harrington, plant manager of Ameriwood, said, "We do a variety of sizes and styles. We work with different types of materials, with different thicknesses and locations of holes. No two things are alike." Because of this product diversity, Ameriwood Industries (formerly Tiffin Enterprises) used to perform multiple machining operations for every item. Multiple operations meant that several workers had to handle each part, "and the more you handle it, the more opportunity there is for the product to be damaged," Harrington said.
To minimize parts handling -- and thus reduce their labor costs -- the company made an investment in a CNC machining center from Roger Stiles & Associates.
MACHINING CENTERS Vinyl overlayed particleboard is trimmed, cut-to-size, drilled and routed on the machining center. Computer programs are downloaded from a computer system directly into the machine's controller.
"We used CNC routers for a number of years," Harrington said. "The machining center is taking the place of routing and vertical-type drills." The machining center allows the company to do up to 12 workpieces at a time, Harrington said. After all the machining operations have been completed it is a "totally finished part" without need of further machining, Harrington added.
EFFICIENT PLANT HELPS COMPANY CONTROL COSTS In the past two years, Warvel Products-North Carolina has experienced dramatic price increases for the raw materials used to produce curved plywood components. These components are then sold to contract furniture manufacturers such as Haworth.
"We had 30 percent increases in our raw material costs," said sales manager Robbie Wiltcher, "so we have improved plant efficiency by purchasing machinery and technology that would allow us to absorb as much (of the price increase) as possible without passing these costs on. It is important for us as a vendor to help our customers be as competitive in their markets as possible." One of the ways Warvel did this was through the purchase of a multiple-station, four-axis CNC machining center from C.M.S North America. The machining center allows the company to mount up to six components at a time, and complements the company's existing three and five axis machining centers, Wiltcher said.
This is important, considering the amount of product which is shipped from the company's plant in Linwood, N.C. Approximately 100,000 parts a month are produced at the facility, the majority of which are customized. The company has a catalog with standard components, but Wiltcher said that 80 percent of the company's orders are made per customers specifications.
"The machine is capable of multiple machining tasks," Wiltcher said. "In most cases all that's left to do is light sanding and tee-nut installation where required." Another benefit, Wiltcher added, is the very tight tolerances obtained with the machine. The company supplies curved plywood which must integrate with plastic and steel components in ergonomic chairs.
"It is essential to be able to maintain tight tolerances in the various required operations such as drilling on angles, profiling and notching so that all of the different chair components fit together the way they were engineered. This machine provides all of these things," Wiltcher said.
To increase productivity even further, the company purchased machines and software that complement the machining center, including a digitizing machine. The digitizer will read a template part and the software will create a program which is downloaded into the machining center. The company also uses the system to internally produce its own compound tooling.
"The system has reduced the lead time on new tooling from months to days," said Wiltcher. "All of these capabilities assists our customers in bringing many new products to market rapidly and competitively." HIGH-TECH HELPS HIGH-END ARCHITECTURAL FIRM Powell Cabinet & Fixtures of Sparks, Nev., is a high-end architectural woodworking company whose work ranges from luxurious residences to glistening casinos.
The 42-year-old company, which bills itself as the oldest architectural woodworking company in the state of Nevada, is owned by the father/son team of Roger and Bill Powell.
One of the company's most recent projects was for the new Luxor Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas. The company did a variety of work at the hotel, including a 3 1/2-inch thick, 13-inch wide, solid-mahogany handrail that was built on a 255-foot radius. The handrail also featured solid-cast bronze support pieces and etched glass.
The handrail was manufactured utilizing a Komo VR 512 CNC machining center the company got in January 1993. Prior to that, the company had been doing everything with multiple machines. "The machining center is exceptional on irregular shapes and curves," Bill Powell said.
"It is more adaptable than to have a journeyman do it by hand. The radius work takes more time to program, but instead of having a journeyman woodworker spend several days on something, the machine will produce the same product in significantly less time." Powell added that there is a learning curve to the machine. "The purchase of the machine is just the first step," Powell said.
"The time that it takes to learn how to program and operate it is a major expense, as is the tooling and all the programming updates that are needed to keep up-to-speed." But while these factors need to be taken into account, Powell said he thinks it is becoming essential for companies to invest in high-technology equipment. According to Powell, one of the reasons the company purchased the machining center was because "the quantity of qualified, journeyman cabinetmakers that can produce this type of work is diminishing. You have to rely on the technical aspects of the industry to help fill that void," he said.
COMPANY GROWS A STEP AT A TIME When Denny Beuter and Bob Bloss formed Diamond Cut Inc. eight years ago they had a plan. The two men wanted their South Bend, Ind.-based company to become a leader in the field of commercial sound equipment. A daunting task made all the more difficult considering they did not own any sophisticated equipment.
"We went on the premise that we needed extremely good equipment to make a really good product," said Beuter. "But in order to get good equipment you have to have a product with enough volume to keep the machine running." What Beuter and Bloss did was to start slowly, acquiring equipment and producing parts for other companies. "We would do cutting and edging, anything to get work into the plant," Beuter said. "To sell machine time you have to do everything a little bit better than what the (source) companies can do in their own shop. We got real good, real fast, because otherwise we had to eat the cost of the job." From doing this job-shop-type-work, the next step was doing contract work. "My partner (Bloss), whose background is in the speaker business, went out (to speaker companies) and said, 'We can make speakers boxes for you and we can do them with high precision,'" Beuter said.
Diamond Cut began producing speaker cabinets for such companies as JBL and Panasonic. The product Panasonic wanted the company to produce necessitated an equipment upgrade. "The Panasonic people wanted a (speaker) box that was trapezoid shape," Beuter said. "This product would have been almost impossible to make with the router we were using." Beuter and Bloss chose a U-26 Morbidelli machining center from Tekna Machinery. The machine not only allows them to produce the trapezoidal shapes, it also has reduced labor costs. "For example, we had one full-time worker on the payroll whose only job was to make jigs, Beuter said. "I have no more jigs." While Diamond Cut has grown, with sales projected to reach around $2 million in 1994, the company continues to move toward that plan. In 1993, the company started a proprietary line of heavy-duty commercial sound equipment under the moniker, Bull Frog.
The Bull Frog equipment is sold throughout the United States and a number of countries around the world. "For 24-hours a day, for the last three months, we have been so busy with our own proprietary work that we have not been able to do any outside work, Beuter said.
"Hopefully by the end of the year we will be completely out of contract work." BOOTH MAKER FINDS SIGN TO SUCCESS Utilizing a variety of materials, Farmington Displays of Farmington, Conn., creates trade show displays for companies in industries as diverse as food, computers and guns.
Farmington Displays, which was founded in 1973 by Paul DiTommaso Sr., counts 278 companies as its clients. On average, Farmington Displays' clients update their booths every three to five years.
"We have a pretty good job flow," said general manager Sal DiTommaso, son of Paul Sr. and one of three sons and a daughter currently working for the company. "Not everybody is building their booth at the same time." Farmington Displays boasts an impressive client list, including General Electric, NEC and gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson. In the traditionally very labor-intensive field of display manufacturing, the company stands out for its use of high-technology equipment. More than three years ago, after extensive research on available machinery, the company began its investment in CNC machinery.
"The first thing that sparked my interest in obtaining CNC machinery was watching one of my men cutting out an eight-foot circle," said Sal DiTommaso. "It was so archaic, I just said there had to be another way to do it." Farmington Display's plant now features two Heian CNC routers and a computerized panel saw from Stiles Machinery, as well as a computerized graphic/design laboratories linked together as a Local Area Network.
The Heian machining centers have allowed the company to branch out into areas such as manufacturing signage and store fixtures. Farmington Displays had always created graphics for signs, but the CNC routers allow the company to manufacture them in-house. Additionally, the company is now doing contract machining for other, non-competing manufacturers.
To create their distinctive products, the company utilizes a variety of materials. On its CNC routers, the company utilizes everything from acrylics to solid woods. On a separate metal machining center the company works with brass and other metallic alloys. "We don't farm anything out," DiTommaso said. "We try to keep everything in-house so that we have complete quality control over the finished product." FAMILY-OWNED LUMBER YARD SEIZES CHANCE TO DIVERSIFY ITS BUSINESS In 1922, Hans Lars founded Hansen Lumber in Galesburg, Ill. Over the next 70 or so years, the business would be handed down from family-member to family-member, and would remain a traditional lumber yard.
It remained solely a lumber yard until two years ago when Hansen Lumber seized an opportunity to diversify. The company was asked to do some circular panel cutting for a Galesburg-based manufacturer of wooden reels. Approximately a year later that manufacturer, who believed the reel industry was going to dominated by the use of plastics, first contemplated shuttering the facility and then offered to sell the business -- and its client list -- to Hansen Lumber.
The family-owned company, currently being run by Shard Hansen, the founder's grandson, with help from his daughter Karen (the fourth-generation family member in the business), decided to purchase the company, and quickly realized the need to upgrade its equipment.
"Taking up wire or rope around a reel must be done at very high feed rates, especially if it is a small diameter wire, because unless your doing it at a 1,000 feel a minute it would take forever to wind," said Hansen, "so the arbor hole has to be exact. If the arbor hole is off center the whole thing will be jerking." A little more than a year ago the company purchased a CNC machining center from Accu-Router. The machine features two vertical routers, which can machine 1 1/2 inch southern yellow pine industrial grade plywood used for the flanges on the reels and maintains tight tolerances.
Prior to working with the machining center, the company would have to cut out a square and in subsequent steps radius the panel down to the required size and shape.
Having a high-technology machining center not only provides for accuracy, it also helps to utilize the plywood. "Our flanges range in size from eight inches to 48 inches round," said Hansen.
"When we are cutting the circles, we can nest them in such a fashion that we get great yield and waste is very nominal." CNC EQUIPMENT HELPS CARVING COMPANY MAKE BEAUTIFUL MUSIC Investing, not only in new equipment, but also in the training of its workforce has helped this Thomasville, N.C.-based carving company increase its capacity while reducing its overhead.
Founded in 1968, Piedmont Carving carves furniture parts -- specializing in chair parts -- and parts for such musical instruments as the cello and guitar.
Over the last few years, the company has sold some of its older carving machines and invested that money in computerized machinery including CNC Robot Carvers from Thermwood Corp.
"We used to have 13 carving machines and we would run all of them in one shift," said Gay Jones, who along with her twin brother Ray, and her father, company-founder Jimmy, own the business. "We sold three carving machines and still are projecting to triple our capacity with the robotic carvers." The company has reduced its labor costs in part by computerizing its carving, but also by cross training its 29 employees so that they can work on other machines in the shop.
Learning to efficiently use the CNC robot was a difficult challenge for the company, Gay Jones said, "but I'm glad we did because it gives us an advantage over companies who are just now getting into robotic carving." Piedmont Carving bought its first robotic carver four years ago. The company is planning to purchase additional machines.
One of the benefits of computerized machinery is consistency. This is important when Piedmont is crafting its furniture and musical instrument components.
"Chair parts have to fit together perfectly when they're sent to the manufacturer," Jones said. "With the robotic carving everything stays so consistent. This consistency is also very important when we are doing the musical instruments because the craftsmanship that goes into the part can affect the sound." CARVING WOOD PARTS 20 AT A TIME Intricate handcarvings are being quickly and accurately duplicated by Carving Research Inc. of Huntersville, N.C., using a 20-head Kitako CNC Machining Center distributed by Tekmatex Inc.
Carving Research is a 2-year-old, 12-employee company with projected 1994 sales of $840,000. The company supplies intricate wood carvings to such major residential furniture makers as Henredon Furniture Industries Inc. and Baker Furniture Co.
What once had to be done one at a time by master handcarvers can now be done 20 at a time by the company. This results not only in time savings but cost savings as well, without sacrificing the look of the product, according to company owner Tom Bowker. An example of the speed of the machine is a rice carved bed post; typically it would take a master handcarver approximately six to eight hours to complete, "while we can do it in an hour," Bowker said.
To produce the carvings, an initial handcarved template is made. This carving is sent to Tekmatex, where a digitizing machine creates a computer program which can be downloaded into the machining center. Once this program is completed, an infinite number of a given carving can be created with precision.
There are certain "essential ingredients" to creating the carvings, said Bowker. Tooling is one of the most important. Because of the nature of the product, the Carving Research utilizes unique tooling, including a razor-sharp veining bit developed by Oertli Woodworking Tools Inc. that leaves such a clean cut, that secondary carvings are not necessary, Bowker said. Another example is a 1/16-inch flat-bottom or straight router bit which is used on many of the carvings.
"Nobody else uses anything like that," Bowker said.
"Because of the intricacies of many of the carvings, we have to use a wider variety of tooling including some carbide tooling, than what you would use if running a normal carving operation. Many of our bits have to be small because you have to get in and do a cut and make it look like it was done with a chisel.