Damage to the tool is breaking the rules. “This is a tripartite cooperation!†Jonathan Saada said loudly. The three parties he referred to were his company, Mikana and Haas Automation. Saada offers innovative tools, and Mikana provides the platform and expertise to test these new ideas. Due to the stability of the Haas machine tool and the support provided by the Haas maintenance engineer and the Haas plant from start to finish, a Haas VF-2 with a high tensioning lever became the test machine. The result of their collaborative innovation has overturned the cutting theory of many difficult-to-machine materials. These hollowed-out structural parts produced for the F-22A fighter were processed in two steps on a Haas vertical machining center in Mikana, which was processed from titanium. The picture shows the first step of the operation from the left, the second step and the original titanium material. How much material is removed? Allawos lifted a large piece of titanium 6-2-2-2-2 and a hollow titanium box. “Have you seen it?†he asked. “This thin piece was made from this big guy. As you can see, 90% of this big guy was cut off, and the titanium 6-2-2- 2-2 is harder than other types of material." But it is incredible that the cutting rate of the cutting material is beyond the reach of most machinists. Most of the cutting is done at a feed rate of 80 to 90 inches per minute! The aluminum parts for the Boeing 787 are waiting for their third and final machining operations. The top surface of the workpiece requires a large number of profiling 3D machining. Mikana does not use small spherical end mills and tight step because it requires a lot of processing time. Mikana chose a slightly larger spherical end mill and a smaller machining step, and then manually trim the parts, which is the most effective way. Saada and Allawos decided to use a practical approach to solve the problem of slow feed rates. “When we started this project at the very beginning,†Saada said, “I promised Michael that before these tools prove their worth, he doesn’t have to pay any tooling fees. But we want to know where the limits of the new tool are, so We brought it to Mikana's production manager and then let him break it. We did this for each new tool we tried, recorded the results, and then reached a higher feed rate." Mikana's quality manager (left) and product manager are inspecting finished parts, while other employees are focusing on processing on other Haas machines. "There is a total of three factors that contribute to an excellent titanium cutting," said Saada. “The first is the tool. To eliminate the noise, we use a variable helix angle tool called Varimill to break the resonance. It has a titanium aluminum nitride coating and can disperse heat.â€
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Although this adage seems counterintuitive, it is a successful way to increase the removal rate of titanium metal. Titanium, like Inconel and other special materials, is widely used in aviation and military fields. Michael Allawos, president of Mikana Manufacturing Co. in Masjid, Calif., knows this very well: “Our company was founded in 1985 and mainly serves the aviation industry,†he explained. "We endeavored to search for a unique material that made difficult-to-machine parts from those that were difficult to machine."
In the past few years, the soaring prices of aerospace materials have made material costs more and more important in the profit-loss equation. To reduce costs and remain competitive, Allawos discovered that Mikana must accelerate production. He must cut titanium and Inconel more quickly, which means that reforms must be made.
Allawos knew that the machine tool and the machining process were the only solutions. He started looking for a tool company and hoped that they could help him create a new method for cutting titanium. In the end he found a perfect partner: Hanita's distributor of cutting tools, Jonathan Saada of Thousand Oaks, California, and his partners. 
Most of the parts produced by Mikana are made of hard Inconel or titanium, and traditional methods use these materials at lower feed rates. "The removal rate of processed materials is measured in cubic inches per minute," Allawos explained. “This is also often regarded as a measure of profitability or loss. Faster removal rates and longer tool life mean higher productivity, and some of the parts we produce require the removal of large amounts of material, all of which are related to reduced cycle times. †
“I encourage my staff to come up with new ideas and new experiments,†Allawos continued, “if we find a good result, then the cost savings will make up for the entire process. We record everything and With surprising results, we now have mastered this technology, which allows us to achieve superior results using cutting speeds and feed rates that exceed those recommended by cutting tool manufacturers, especially in cutting Inconel and titanium metals. aspect." 
"The second factor is the use of copy milling," Saada continued. "The radius is machined with the tip of a spherical end mill. Third, we use a thin chip effect." Thinning the chips means most of it. The cutting edge makes light contact with the workpiece to achieve a large depth of cut.
“Using the coated tool, we were able to cut the titanium 6-2-2-2-2 80 to 90 inches per minute,†explains Saada's companion, David Buchberger. “When you say to those who are accustomed to processing titanium at a speed of 4 inches per minute, and their processing speed can reach 80 inches per minute, he will certainly step backwards and wave his hands in unbelievable ways. Then you ask him. In fact, the demonstration can be done in this way. He will be deeply shocked."
Saada solves workpiece embrittlement caused by work hardening. "Most of the time, it was due to tool stalls that caused work hardening," he said. "People are afraid of processing titanium, so they cut only 0.01 ft. at a time, and when it's processed to the corner, they slow down. Where does the heat go? Into the part! Work hardening becomes localized, so you have to stop moving the tool and keep cutting. We use a method of thinning the chips so that the heat is transferred to the chips instead of the parts."
Titanium 6-2-2-2-2 is very hard and hard to cut. The same applies to 635 Inconel. It is the most difficult metal to process and the tool is damaged very quickly. Saada took out a spiral-shaped plate and a piece of Inconel on the table. “You can see how we made this part from this piece of alloy,†he pointed out. “About 95% of the alloy has turned into chips. We have tried cemented carbide milling cutters, ceramic inserts, and cobalt-containing cutting tools. They wear very quickly - there is virtually no life. We finally tried a powder HSS tool that contains 12% cobalt, 6% vanadium, with a titanium aluminum nitride coating, which is the best combination." "All the other The end mills are extremely abrasive and the hard alloys are too fragile to break up,†says Buchberger. “They only processed 635 Inconel for about 20 minutes. Now we can use more than one tool per tool. Hours, and no re-coating is required after re-grinding of the tool. At Mikana, we use the same 1-inch tool to cut the Inconel for up to 3 hours, most of which is full-cut.â€
The separate use of tool and feed overrides does not yield efficient performance. "One of the most important factors is the high tensioning lever of Haas VF-2," explains Ed Lujan, Mikana Product Manager. “The tension of the tie rods removes all the possibility of tremor. The chattering of the material is the most troublesome problem for the mechanics. It is not the failure of the machine itself. If you are going to cut a variety of metals, then You'd better have a variety of machine tools, just like us, and let Haas machine any kind of metal."
The ability to process a wide range of metals is critical to Mikana's production and future. "Even though we produce parts for the F-18, F-22 and Joint Strike Fighter, things have become more and more commercial," Allawos pointed out. "We work with commercial customers like Lockheed, Boeing and JPL. We probably 108 Rover parts are now still on Mars. Most of them are produced from our Haas machine."
Mikana 50% of the products are made of titanium and Inconel, and they also process plastics, foams and aluminum. "It's these tools that cut aluminium," says Buchberger, holding a large-diameter 3-tooth wave cutter. "Sub-microcrystalline cemented carbide. Some people feel that there is no need for aluminum cutting, but its tool life and cutting speed will return it cost ten times."
"We even used this tool to cut the floor," Lujan added. “We can cut floors up to 6 inches square and 0.045 inches thick - the error is controlled within 0.005 inches. Some tools can cause cracks on the floor. This is my unique 90-inch tool per minute.â€
Almost half of Mikana's processing capacity is in aluminum. “We want to do this with our Haas machine, because it works well on Haas,†Allawos commented. “It's a solid machine, better suited for hard materials.â€
Lujan said that one of the biggest advantages of Haas Machine Tool is that "Haas Machine Tool operates the same. If you operate VF-2, then you can operate VF-4 or VF-8. Their controllers are the same. The factors that have different effects on machining are feedrate override and prefetch. The Haas controller makes difficult work easier."
“We test the limits here, and then we can see how fast we can achieve cutting speeds, where are the limits of these tools, machines and processes,†Saada said. “We support each other, and we get from each other’s ideas and innovations. beneficial."
Allawos agrees. "Our innovative spirit has brought benefits to all three companies - ultimately, it has brought benefits to the entire industry." 
