Ilkeston-based HPC Services, a sub-contract CNC machining company, has ordered the latest Citizen Cincom L20-VIII LFV turn-mill centre from Citizen Machinery (www.citizenmachinery.co.uk).

Paul Cobb — managing director of HPC — says that including LFV (Low Frequency Vibration) machining technology in the specification will give his business a lead in the market by revolutionising its use of materials such as 321 corrosion-resistant and 416 chromium st eel alloy stainless steels, and plastics.

“This machine will enable us to competitively quote on new work that we would normally decline. It will also give us additional capacity, as we build up production of our water-based fire suppression system.”

The patented LFV process is already achieving considerable success across the range of Citizen Cincom CNC sliding-head turn-mill centres, as it enables selected operational sequences to be programmed at the machine control to determine the size of chip to be produced.

LFV is now being used to transform production over a wide range of material types — from plastics, aluminium and copper to high-tensile stainless steel and other high-grade steels.

The ability to control chip size eliminates problems such as ‘bird-nesting’, improves depth of cut and surface finish, and delays the onset of built-up edge on tooling. It can be applied to turning, profiling, facing, taper and interrupted cutting sequences, plus drilling and even thread cutting.

Mr Cobb said: “Swarf control is a bugbear on certain materials, and constant attention is needed to prevent bird-nesting — or swarf being picked up with the part when it is transferred to the sub-spindle.

“On some highly critical workpieces, we even have to allow for a grinding operation to remove the marks caused by swarf; this is where LFV will transform our operations.”