There are some assignments that even CNC machines can’t withstand repeatedly. Deep hole drilling is one of them. Take a moment to picture a surface that requires the equipment to punch at least a hundred holes in it. Sounds like quite a task, right? Now picture the machine doing it on a surface as dense as lead. Your machine could very likely be torn apart just because of the effort. If you notice that certain materials break twist drills frequently maybe, your machinery is not suited to the job at hand. Don’t worry though, in the field of CNC machining services there is always a solution to peculiar problems, and that’s what we are about to cover right now.
Handling Depth and how to Deal with it
Every single tooling manufacture considers deep hole drilling any job that requires punching holes four sizes more than the actual diameter of any of the twists drills available on site. Any job that can be handled with a 5 diameter drill is considered a regular one. A 7 diameter hole requires a peck drill. Anything that goes up to 10 diameters demands parabolic flutes that are somewhat still affordable. Assignments requiring over 10 diameter holes require a custom-made drill tooling. Last but not least is any work asking for anything over 20 diameters. At this stage, only gun drills can do the job. This can give you some perspective on the type of tool you need for the task at hand.
How does Peck Drilling Works?
Since our focus on these lines is solely based on deep hole drilling, we are going to explain the basics about the methods that can be handled with a CNC machine. Peck drilling is the first one of them. The procedure is considered rather common in the industry, and it doesn’t involve the use of harder materials in the drills to do the work. It all relies on timing. You see, when peck drilling is used the CNC machine retracts the twist drill on specific time settings that allow the machine a cleaner break on the surface and an easier clearing of the chips produced. The cycles of peck drilling can be programmed for extended retractions and allow the machine more leverage to handle stronger materials.
Learning About Parabolic Flutes
As we stated a parabolic flute previously is a tool that will allow you to go over the 10 diameter mark and as far as 20. While they can be customized, there are a lot of affordable options out there that can be equipped on any CNC machine. A G-Wizard calculator is the best way to know which one is the right flute you need to equip on the twist drills of the CNC machine handling the task. The parabolic flutes are rather helpful when it comes to dealing with excessive chips as long as the coolant system is perfectly graduated and prevents residuals from going into the holes.
As for the last two types of deep holes drilling methods, you need to take into account that customizing must be suited to the requirements of the assignment. You will probably need a special design that can either provided by the client, or your team can devise it, but it will come with additional costs and probably a big boost in the budget.