See Chip Control and Chipless Cutting at Marubeni Citizen-Cincom

Every metalworking shop knows that when a machine is making chips, it’s making money. Too often though, some of that money is wasted by the need to take time to deal with chip accumulation problems. With a visit to Marubeni Citizen-Cincom’s booth, you can see one answer demonstrated.

Low frequency vibration (LFV) is a new, widely applicable cutting technology from Citizen and on display in the Marubeni Citizen-Cincom booth. The LFV design avoids the problem of spiraling chips, entanglement of chips and buildup on cutting tool edges.

Available on Cincom machines, LFV technology handles a broad range of machining shapes and materials and is ideal for cutting difficult-to-machine materials, delivering increased throughput and improved part accuracy. Increased cutting tool life, reduced heat generation and reduced power consumption are some benefits offered by LFV technology, according to the company.

Depending on the material being cut, a variety of problems can be caused by chips getting entangled with each other and on the workpiece. Increased cutting resistance, scarring, changes in the texture of the machined surface, tool nose damage, and built-up edges can be caused by heat generated during the cutting process. As shown in the demo, the LFV cutting process uses “air cutting” time—which prevents the machining temperature from rising—to promote prolonged tool life and give relief from various problems caused by chips.

Of course, the problem with unruly chips is eliminated when cuts generate no chips in the first place. You can see just such a cutting demonstration in the Marubeni Citizen Laser System L2000, displayed on a Cincom L32 Swiss-type lathe. The unique demo part cuts from solid barstock and features conventional Swiss machining, laser cutting and laser welding on a single machine platform. The L2000 is a 10-micron fiber optic laser that can be installed on several models of Cincom machines, interfaced to the machine control for ease of operation.