Turning
To make the blank for later operations we utilized our Swiss Turning department, specifically our Tornos Deco 13. With a 16mm capacity, live axial and radial tooling, and a fully simultaneous counter operations spindle, this was the best choice in our shop. The bulk of the material removal is done in this operation. Using form tooling, a 2000PSI High pressure coolant pump, and live tools along with standard turning tools we are able to produce a high quality blank that will be used in later operations.
Micro Machining
This is the critical step for this part. The fiber optic ferrules need precise alignment with the spherical lens and ultimately the mating part. This is achieved through a mind-blowing +/- 0.0005mm (5 tenths of a micron) tolerance on the bore diameter. Developing the machining process to achieve and hold such a tolerance took the bulk of the 4 year project. We are now in full production on these parts with a minimal scrap percentage.
Tolerances
Time
Project Length
Machine Distance Traveled
Quality Control
Our philosophy is “It is one thing to machine a difficult, precise part. It is an entirely different thing to measure it.” We need to measure these components to sub-micron accuracy. Getting good, consistent results was a big hurdle. We built a temperature controlled QC room, purchased a state of the art CMM, and proceeded to learn how to inspect parts at the sub micron level. Utilizing the Calypso software for our Zeiss O-Inspect we are able to accurately, and consistently measure these parts, record the results, and assign each individual part a serial number.
Engraving
As each part is assigned its own serial number we need to engrave each part. This is achieved on a standard 3 axis vertical machining centre. We wrote a macro based program to automatically engrave the correct number on the corresponding part without operator input.
Summary
After a 4 year R&D phase we are able to produce amazingly accurate, consistent, quality parts with less than 5% scrap. These parts are used for data transmission in both commercial and military applications.
Registration Certificate
Contact
1252 Speers Road, Unit 8
Oakville, Ontario, Canada
L6L 5N9
Phone: 905.847.1565
Fax: 905.847.9518
Email: info@imach.ca
Office Hours
Mon-Thurs: 7am-5:30pm
Fri: 9am-2pm
Sat and Sun: Closed