When you’re cutting things with a CNC lathe, it’s vitally important that the machine remain accurate. But there is one catch that may mess with the precision: heat. The CNC lathe heats up as it operates, and this can lead to parts of the machine expanding or moving a little — we refer to this as “thermal displacement. " At our company, DAS, we have special techniques for avoiding this kind of thing from screwing up our work. We do something called thermal displacement compensation to ensure everything stays just so even as the machine gets hot.
Accurate CNC Lathe and the Effects of Heat
CNC lathe can be very heat sensitive. As the machine or the part, it’s working on heats up, it may change shape, very slightly. That’s not all that impressive sounding, but even the smallest variation can have a substantial effect on how true the lathe runs. This can be the difference between a part that fits nicely and one that simply doesn’t fit at all. We at DAS are constantly on the lookout for how heat is going to affect our machines and we do our best to ensure that our products are flawless.
Thermal Displacement Solution CNC Lathes
To combat the ills of heat, we rely on a variety of cool solutions. One way to do this is by maintaining the temperature of the machine with special cooling systems. Another way is by using sensors that can assess how much the machine itself is being altered by the heat, then compensate to keep everything true. I.e., even if we heat up the lathe, we can still make parts that are just right.
The scientific research of thermal deformation compensation for the CNC lathe mill build-up process
Thermal displacement compensation is a bit like that shrewd detective. It uses science to calculate where the heat is going to cause trouble and then prevents that trouble before it happens. This requires a ton of measurements and adjustments. The machine is always doing this sensing to know “I need to slow down a little” or be light, it’s like checking itself not to be thrown off by the heat. This science helps us continue to turn out high-quality parts, come what may.
Consistent Results with CNC Live Tooling on Swiss Lathes
Consistency is essential for producing a good product. And that is why thermal error correction is so crucial. It helps us keep every part that we make is as good as the last one we made, no matter how long the machine has been running and how much heat it has generated. By fixing these mistakes, we can have confidence that our product will always live up to the high standard that we have set.
An improvement on temperature control for high performance in machining of CNC lathes
At DAS, we’re constantly searching for new methods to keep our machines cool and accurate. We use very high technology to control the temperature very precisely. This equates to improved performance from our CNC lathes and therefore improved products for our customers. We love these innovations, and loved the ways they help us do an even better job.