How to CNC Machining the Flashlight Shell?

Flashlights are very common in people's lives, and it brings many conveniences to people. Many flashlight shell are cast, stamped and assembled with molds. This article is to use CNC to process flashlight shell. Analyze the structure of the flashlight, and then process the simple appearance of the flashlight. Let's step into the CNC world together!

Flashlight shell structure

Most of the flashlight shell are cast, stamped and assembled with molds.

The traditional flashlight shell structure is composed of a flashlight cylinder, a luminous body, a flashlight back cover, a flashlight main body, a reflector, and a flashlight front cover.

The strong light flashlight shell is composed of aluminum alloy head, battery tube, focusing scale ridge reinforced barrel, tail cap, etc. The basic principle is that the current comes out of the battery, then reaches the circuit, adjusts the voltage and current through the circuit, and then outputs to the light body, stop lighting.

Selection of blank material

The blank is an important part in the design of CNC machining parts. Reasonable selection of the type of blank will make the manufacturing process of CNC machined parts simple, high productivity, stable quality and reduced cost.

Types of blanks:

(1) Casting blank

(2) Forging blanks

(3) Rolled material blank

(4) Extrusion blank

(5) Stamping blanks and non-metallic blanks.

Aluminum is a cost-effective machining material

When considering the cost price, our material should choose aluminum rod. Because aluminum has good ductility, malleability, light weight, good electrical and thermal conductivity, high reflectivity and oxidation resistance, it can form an oxide film that prevents metal corrosion in humid air, and it has the highest surface content. Rich metal elements. Therefore, choosing aluminum for machining is a more affordable and durable choice.
 

The choice of cnc lathe

CNC lathe is a high-precision, high-efficiency automatic machine tool. Equipped with a multi-station turret or a power turret, the machine tool has a wide range of machining performance, which can process linear cylinders, oblique cylinders, arcs and various threads, grooves, worms and other complex workpieces, with linear interpolation, arc Interpolate various compensation functions, and play a good economical effect in the mass production of complex parts. In addition, the size of the product also determines the size of the lathe. For products with high requirements, use a lathe with high precision.

Requirements for CNC machining tools

In the process of turning, the cutting part of the turning tool works under the conditions of large cutting resistance, high cutting temperature and severe friction. Whether the cutting part of the turning tool has good cutting performance directly affects the life of the turning tool and the cutting efficiency, and also affects the machining quality. Therefore, the cutting part of the turning tool should meet the following requirements:

(1) should have high hardness,

(2) The wear resistance it should have,

(3) should have heat resistance,

(4) should have sufficient strength and toughness,

(5) It should have good manufacturability.

How to formulate a CNC machining plan?

The selection of CNC machining scheme should meet the requirements of machining accuracy and surface roughness. According to the dimensional accuracy of the part, the size of the inclination angle, the shape of the tool, the installation and positioning method of the CNC machined parts, the difficulty of programming and other factors, a better CNC machining plan should be selected. In order to ensure the quality of CNC machining and rational use of equipment and manpower, the CNC machining process of parts is usually divided into four stages: rough machining, semi-finishing, finishing and finishing according to the nature of the process.

CNC machining process flow division

When machining parts on CNC machine tools, the process can be relatively concentrated, and most or all of the processes can be completed in one clamping as much as possible. The general process is divided into the following ways:

(1) Divide the process according to the positioning method of CNC machining parts. Due to the different structure and shape of each part, the technical requirements of each machined surface are also different, so the positioning methods are different during machining. Generally, when machining the shape, the inner shape is positioned; when the inner shape is processed, the outer shape is positioned. Therefore, the process can be divided according to the different positioning methods.

(2) Roughing and finishing are divided into processes. When dividing the process according to the CNC machining accuracy, stiffness and deformation of the parts, the process can be divided according to the principle of separation of roughing and finishing, that is, roughing first and then finishing. At this time, different machine tools or different tools can be used for machining. Usually in one installation, it is not allowed to process other surfaces of the part after machining a certain part of the surface. , For general parts, most of the allowance of the entire part should be removed first, and then the surface should be finely turned again to ensure the machining accuracy and surface roughness requirements.

(3) Divide the process according to the tools used. In order to reduce the number of tool changes, compress the idle time, and reduce unnecessary positioning errors, the parts can be processed according to the method of the tool concentration process, that is, in one clamping, use the same tool to process all possible parts as much as possible, and then Then change another knife to process other parts.

Epilogue

Flashlights are daily necessities, and there are various shapes of machining methods when choosing products. We need to consider materials, machining methods, machining tools, etc. in order to make a high-quality flashlight casing. Today's sharing is here, and I hope to help you in the machining plan.

VMT can help you understand the CNC machining procedures of the flashlight shell, and can give you a reasonable solution from machining materials to post-oxidation. Our team of professional manufacturers have deep industry knowledge and experience, and we'll be dedicated to making your next project a success. Contact us today and look forward to your new project starting.