When quality really counts

when-quality-really-counts
when-quality-really-counts

Understanding carbon fibre composites holds no secrets, the people who manufacture these types of materials will tell you how they are made, but not always how to machine them.

Carbon fibres are usually bundled together to form a ‘tow’ which may be used by itself or woven into a fabric, the end user will then turn the material into manufactured parts, these parts are made by using various manufacturing technical processes which at some point they will require machining and inspecting. How to machine or cut this material is a different story, carbon fibre composites are historically very abrasive materials by nature, cutting tools can often wear or fail very quickly and blunt or in correct geometry tools can cause delamination or damage parts. Quality is the key to producing these components to exacting tolerances, not only have drawing dimensions become much tighter, the visual or aesthetics of a finished part needs to be right every time all the time. As the use a of carbon fibre parts grow and will continue to do so to meet demand only the best cutters will do, Cutwel have introduced a range of Karnasch PCD and CVD cutters to such high standards that each individual cutter now comes supplied with its own Inspection certificate these certificates show nominal diameter tolerance with radius and run out tolerance dimensions. These cutters need to be held precisely to achieve the best machining accuracy, to compliment this Cutwel also supply a range of high specification hydraulic expansion chucks from Atom, one of Korea’s leading spindle tooling manufactures, they offer high quality run out at <0.003 with a standard balance of 20,000rpm these holders produces a dampening effect that reduces vibration, improves tool life, surface finish and allows for cutting data to be increased. Inspection can then be carried out using all full range of measuring equipment from Insize a dedicated supplier of measuring equipment, these instruments include thickness gauges, endoscopes for internal and visual checks in confined and awkward to reach places, microscopes for visual and dimensional checking, standard digital measuring equipment for everyday use like calipers, micrometers and height gauges. www.cutweltools.co.uk

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