Single Operation Process Provides Swift Production of Mould Tool Blanks to UK Automotive Industry

SUBCONTRACT PRODUCTION AT MOLLART ENGINEERING USES SPECIFIC PROCESSES AND VERY OFTEN SPECIALIST APPLICATIONS IN ORDER TO FULFIL CUSTOMER REQUIREMENTS OF MOULD TOOL BLANKS PRODUCTION FOR THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY.

We have always kept ourselves at the forefront of developments and competitors, when it comes to quality, turnaround times and applying our expertise to fulfil individual customer specifications and expectations. This was very much the case, when our subcontract division secured orders from a UK Automotive Company to produce a family of mould blanks. We were able meet the delivery requirement through the use of our five face machining centers, deep hole drilling and milling capabilities.

In association with BOTEK our in-house tooling partner we were able to tool up and implement tooling strategies extremely quickly, this also applies to all our deep hole drilling operations in our sub contract division.

Multi-Faceted Single Operation Reduces Production Time

We had a short turnaround time to produce a family of 16 mould blanks, which had up to 30 interconnecting cooling holes drilled on all five faces of the component, they ranged in size from 1250mm X 1250mm to 250mm X 200mm. Our 5-axis Centreplex and 4-axis PRB machines, coupled with the latest CAD RTM system significantly reduced production time, compared to using multi machine applications used by some of our competitors.

Each machine have two individual spindles, one for deep hole drilling and one for milling, which incorporates the use of BT50 tool holding. This enables us greater versatility as we can thread mill and machine complex sealing faces only seen in high pressure oil and gas exploration equipment where pressures regularly exceed 50,000psi, all on components with weights up to 5 ton.

Multi-Axis Combination Machines Increase Capability

The majority of holes are interconnected, enabling efficient water flow. The gun drill process ensures accurate break-through with minimal runout, we regularly achieve better than 0.025 mm per 25 mm depth, this reduces any mismatch. Every heat-treatable steel mould has a variety of 16mm holes for water cooling with depths up to 1,500mm.

These multi-axis combination machines have the capability to enable Mollart engineers to:

  • drill deep holes between 0.5mm and 80mm diameter,
  • to depths of 3,000mm,
  • at compound angles up to +/- 15 deg.

Probing to re-datum the workpiece parts can be indexed 180º around the machine table and drilled from the opposite end, to enable overall drilling depths of 6,000mm to be attained.

Please get in touch here if you would like to find out more about our subcontract services.