Let the Chips Fall...--Controlling chips with a laser-based process sheds new light on an old problem

摘要

You don't have to solve problems that never occur. That's the way AmeriChip Inc. looks at control of metalcutting chips. The Ann Arbor, Mich., company has patented a premachining part treatment that combines advanced laser, software and material-handing technologies to eliminate chip-control problems before an insert ever touches a workpiece. In AmeriChip's process, dubbed Laser Assisted Chip Control, workpieces to be machined are scribed with a laser to a depth just above the final DOC, producing what the company calls an "engineered interrupted cut." AmeriChip says the delicate scribe has no effect on the finished part or cutting tool life, and unmanageable continuous chips never form because the cut is not continuous.