Articles

How To Machine Aircraft Titanium (Introduction To A Series)

Choose cutters, depths and tool paths with attention to particular steps in the process, and you can machine titanium more efficiently than you might suspect. Boeing offers practical tips.

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How To Machine Aircraft Titanium: The 8-To-1 Rule For Finishing Walls And Ribs

Part of a series of articles on more efficient machining of pockets in titanium parts, this article makes the case for a tool with many cutting edges, and describes how best to apply it.  

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How To Machine Aircraft Titanium: Getting The Metal Out

Part of a series of articles on machining pockets in titanium parts, this article describes various options for roughing the hard metal efficiently.  

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Micropulse Technology Comes To Fast-Hole EDM

Holes in turbine blades are critical because the internal cooling airflow provided by these holes prevents the parts from overheating during operation. One of the most promising technologies for making these holes is fast-hole electrical discharge machining (EDM).  

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How To Machine Aircraft Titanium: Plunge And Sweep For Finishing Corners

Part of a series of articles on more efficient machining of pockets in titanium parts, this article describes an effective approach to finishing internal corners.  

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How To Machine Aircraft Titanium: Pricing The Process Instead Of The Tool

Part of a series of articles on more efficient machining of pockets in titanium parts, this article describes the importance of considering all of the costs that are affected by the choice of cutting tool.  

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How One Shop Machines Advanced Ceramics

Years of trial and error combined with the appropriate machining technology allow this company to produce custom parts made of alumina, zirconia, boron nitride and other advanced ceramic materials. One example of key machining technology is a five-axis machining center used exclusively to produce the complex, tightly toleranced geometry that fire-hardened workpieces require.

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What Is The Right Way To Become An Aerospace Shop?

This Atlanta shop succeeded at becoming an aircraft-industry parts supplier. The lessons of its success have a lot to do with commitment and enthusiasm.

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In-Machine Robot Provides Gantry System Alternative

Fortune International offers its VT series lathes with an integrated robot in place of a tailstock, a configuration that is said to significantly reduce part-changeover time compared with an external gantry robot.

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A Role For Rotary Erosion

A cutting tool manufacturer uses multitasking equipment that combines electrical-discharge grinding and conventional grinding to speed the production of diamond tools.

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Laser Edge Preparation Improves Diamond Tool Performance

A cutting tool manufacturer uses seven-axis laser machining to create contoured, 3D chipbreaker geometries for its diamond-tipped inserts and tools.

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Grinding Turbine Rotors Has Advantages

For many aerospace components, grinding systems achieve greater productivity than milling and broaching on today’s lighter, tougher, harder materials. Tests performed at Saint-Gobain Abrasives’ Higgins Grinding Technology Center in Worcester, Massachusetts, showed that along with the latest abrasive and bonding technologies, the systems approach produced remarkable results when applied to grinding turbine rotor root-form slots.

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