Artec Engineering Precision Metal Spinners is well known within the metal spinning industry for spinning larger spinning’s beyond 1000mm dia.
Here is an example of some 1200 dia. aluminium pans, we have produced through spinning using our hydraulic semi-automatic spinning lathe.
Stage 1 – Circle shear and annealing
The first stage of the manufacturing process is to use a circle shear to circle a 1540 dia. blank from a 3.0mm sheet of aluminium.
To do this, two of our machine operatives took a 2 x 4 mtr sheet and cut into squares using a guillotine. The square then went onto the circle shear, which cut a 1540 dia. blank.
Due to the form of the spinning, the aluminium would be too hard too spin, so an annealing process is required to soften the material and make it more malleable.
The annealing process involves heating the material to a specific temperature based on the properties of the material and then gradually control the rate of cooling.
Stage 2 – Preparing the tool for Metal Spinning
Every spinning has a designated tool, which is a former for the material to spun around to create the required shape.
The tooling involved for the 1200 mm dia. tank, although relatively simple in its form, still requires a great level of expertise to lift the tool and assemble on the hydraulic spinning lathe. When the tooling is assembled, the metal spinner then has to ensure that the tooling is running correctly before any spinning commences.
Stage 3 – The spinning process
The 1200mm dia. tank although relatively simple in its form, takes a great deal of skill and expertise in spinning process due to the size of the blank spinning at high revolutions and the applying the correct pressure against the material and form without thinning or splitting the material.
Pressure is applied to the spinning through the use of rollers, which are operated with two control sticks and the spinning operator will apply pressure against the material to manipulate the material to form the shape of the tool.
This process takes skill and the operator will use their experience to feel how the material is stretching or reacting and will adjust the pressure applied as required.
The 1200mm dia. tank involves spinning the parallel to form the sides of the tank and then flaring the top edge to create a lip.
Before the spinning’s go onto the final stage of finishing, the spinning operator will remove any noticeable scratches, whilst the spun part is situated on the tooling.
Contact Artec Engineering Precision Metal Spinners to see how we can help you on your next project.
01243 375555
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