Fixturing Keys Cast Parts Machining

摘要

Improved fixturing in the form of hydraulic workholding is credited with doubling output and improving accuracy in machining cast parts at Southland CNC (Cornelia, GA). Southland is a Tier Two supplier to the automotive industry, providing machined aluminum sand-cast components to all three American and the six largest foreign auto manufacturers. The company, which was started 19 years ago in President/Owner Keith Armour's garage on a single machine, has now grown to 30 employees using 21 high-capacity machining centers. Southland machines a variety of parts that includes high-volume production runs, as well as relatively low-volume production runs. Southland uses dedicated hydraulic clamping fixtures on Okuma Howa VMCs for its high-volume production runs, because these fixtures greatly reduce production time, which makes the fix Turing highly cost-effective. The dedicated hydraulic fixtures also provide clamping pressure that is consistent and repeatable, which improves machining accuracy.