While aluminum molds are commonly used to create prototypes or to serve as stopgap bridge tooling, they are starting to receive greater attention for production work. This shop’s approach to creating aluminum molds in one day to three weeks is the same for each of these situations.

VIDEO. Part of Renishaw’s automated production process, this turning operation uses tools affixed to the machining center’s table while the workpiece is mounted in the spindle.

VIDEO. For this valve maker, a part that might have been machined in one setup on a multitasking machine tool is instead machined with greater throughput using a series of simpler machines. Company personnel explain.

VIDEO. Valve maker Richards Industries took a part that used to machined at one machine tool and added an additional setup on a vertical machining center. Higher throughput was the result.

VIDEO. Even on a programmable machine, the ability to machine a complex profile with a single plunge can offer a variety of benefits, including both accuracy and speed.

This manufacturer’s use of live-tool lathes overcomes labor cost in various ways. One of the latest sources of savings involves bringing another operation—hobbing—into these machines. INCLUDES VIDEO.

Here is one custom machine builder’s system for producing a 40-foot part that has to be passed through the turning center and out the other side. INCLUDES VIDEO.

This video footage showing the machining of a massive crankshaft suggests some of the possibilities of turn-milling. Not all shops realize possibilities such as this even on their own smaller-scale turn-mill equipment.

A complement to the turn-mill footage, this video clip shows a turning operation for a massive crankshaft.

The vertical-bed design used on this twin-turret lathe offers accuracy advantages for turning shafts.