time.” The focus is on the roughing of the component, but the tool also produces surfaces in finished part quality.
Helmut Häckl, CEO of Schabmüller( right) and Stephan Streck, MAPAL technical consultant, with a hub carrier. The tools used for its manufacture are in the background.
the indexable inserts firmly in the prismatic seat. MAPAL has fitted the tool body with a fine balancing system to protect the machine spindle and achieve high surface finishes where possible. In addition, focus was placed during development on low cutting forces and highly precise indexable inserts.
From the three coatings available, MAPAL technicians chose a diamond coating for the machining of mould casting at Schabmüller. During operation, the machine operator rotates the indexable inserts with their two cutting edges directly on the machine. MAPAL retips the milling cutter in the setting room. One benefit of the ductile solid carbide inserts of the NeoMill-Alu-QBig in comparison to the milling cutters with brazed PCD blades used before: They break out less quickly when there are sand residues from the casting mould on the raw part. density. The values measured by MAPAL are testament to the success achieved as a result. The adjustments implemented with higher cutting parameters, the switch from circular milling to helix milling, and the improved machining conditions resulted in a cycle time saving for this machining operation of 54 %. The new tool made it possible to increase the feed per tooth from an average of 14 mm to 32 mm.
In the comprehensive tool set for machining a hub carrier, the NeoMill- Alu-QBig is one of the few standard tools, but it plays a crucial role for the cycle time, as Eugen Bien puts it:“ Use of the NeoMill-Alu-QBig constitutes around 30 % of the total machining
The hub carriers set high requirements for the machining strategy. For Porsche and AMG, Schabmüller produces around 97,000 of these each per year from cast or forged parts, for which cycle time of six minutes for two components is required on the double spindle. The tool sets for this consist of 45 to 55 tools. For the most part, these are client-specific custom tools. Most of them, such as drills, step drills and fine boring tools, are only used for one or two machining operations. The role of the simulation is to keep nonproductive time for all the different tools to a minimum and ideally to start each machining operation once only.
Room to grow in future Schabmüller currently has around 150 employees and is growing constantly. Work was completed on a third hall recently. Originally designed for the production of large quantities of cylinder head covers for VW, part of the double hall is currently used for other purposes. Schabmüller machines a large amount of the starting material to produce top plates for electric vehicle batteries. Rear axle housings are being produced for another automotive manufacturer in a second project.
However, there is another aspect that is decisive for the user, as Häckl affirms:“ In production, we achieved shorter cycle times with the NeoMill-Alu-QBig, as we were able to attain greater values for cutting speed and feed. For this, we were readily willing to accept shorter tool lifes.”
Switching to the NeoMill-Alu- QBig required a different milling strategy and higher central chip
Presenting a rear axle housing( from left): Stephan Streck( MAPAL technical consultant), Eugen Bien( MAPAL application engineer) and Helmut Häckl( Managing Director, Schabmüller).
For further information, please visit www. mapal. com
24 PECM Issue 75