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Design Tips For CNC Machining

Views: 50     Author: Site Editor     Publish Time: 2024-04-25      Origin: Site

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Precision and accuracy are essential in CNC machining design to ensure high-quality results. For this reason, there exist established design rules specific to the most prevalent features of CNC machined parts.


1. Avoid excessively thin walls

Reducing wall thickness impacts material stiffness and machining precision due to vibrations. Standard minimum thickness is 0.794 mm for metals and 1.5 mm for plastics. Thinner walls may necessitate alternative methods like sheet metal fabrication for cost-effectiveness.

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2. Avoid designing features that cannot be CNC machined

An instance of an unachievable feature for CNC machined parts is "curved holes." If your design necessitates this or similar features beyond machining capabilities, consider employing electrical discharge machining (EDM).


3. Avoid excessive use of tight tolerances

To streamline CNC machining processes, it's crucial to specify tolerances in your design. Utilizing standard tolerances by default helps economize both time and resources. Tight tolerances should be reserved for essential requirements, ensuring consistency across the design to minimize machining duration.

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4. Avoid unnecessary aesthetic features

When encountering intricate aesthetic features in designs, it's essential to evaluate the CNC machining process needed, whether it involves 5-axis or 3-axis machining. Prioritizing feature accuracy over aesthetics during design refinement is advisable. For enhancing aesthetics, leveraging post-machining processes proves beneficial.


5. Design cavities with accurate depth-to-width ratios

Excessively deep cavities pose various machining challenges, including tool hanging and fracture, due to poor chip evacuation and tool deflection. To mitigate these issues, maintain cavity depths within 3-4 times their width. Alternatively, for deeper requirements, opt for variable depth designs. Depths exceeding six times the width are classified as deep and warrant caution.

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6. Add a radius when designing internal vertical edges

In CNC machining, cylindrical cutting tools cannot create sharp internal edges efficiently, necessitating the addition of radii to internal edges in designs. To preserve tool longevity, it's recommended to incorporate a radius approximately 130% larger than the milling tool radius. For sharp internal corners, employing undercuts is preferable to merely reducing the edge radius.


7. Limit thread length

Extremely long threads in designs lead to unnecessary machining expenses without enhancing connection strength. It's advisable to restrict thread length to twice the hole diameter. Additionally, for blind holes, incorporate an unthreaded length at the bottom of at least half the diameter.

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8. Avoid extremely small features

Typically, CNC machines possess a minimum tool diameter of 2.5 mm. Consequently, features smaller than this dimension pose difficulties for machining, necessitating special tools, thus amplifying both machining costs and time.


9. Design holes with standard sizes

Standard drill bits facilitate rapid and precise hole machining, eliminating the need for additional tools like end mills or reamers to achieve non-standard dimensions. Generally, hole dimensions are incremented by 0.1 mm for diameters up to 10 mm, while larger holes follow 0.5 mm increments. Moreover, it's advisable to cap hole depths at four times their diameter to manage costs, although deeper holes, up to ten times the diameter, are feasible albeit costlier.

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10. Avoid unnecessary text and lettering

During the finishing stage, text can be added to machined parts through painting or laser engraving. When machining text, it's preferable to opt for engraving over embossing to minimize material removal. Utilizing 20-point Sans Serif fonts not only helps in cost reduction but also benefits from the widespread availability of CNC machines pre-programmed for these fonts.


CNC machining services at Zonze

Zonze offers convenient online services for CNC milling and CNC turning, delivering high-precision and quality machined parts swiftly. Our expertise extends to working with a variety of materials such as aluminum, stainless steel, steel, copper alloys, and more. Should you have any inquiries about CNC machining design, feel free to consult our comprehensive CNC machining design guide.


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Zonze focuses on multi-process assembly services, facilitated by its array of metal and plastic product processing workshops.

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