Useful Tips to CNC Plastic Machining

CNC machining has always been traditionally thought of as a method for processing methods. However, the modern industry has been constantly increasing precision demands towards parts of all possible materials. This served as a reason for CNC plastic machining technologies development. It has now occupied a considerable niche in high precision low volume and prototype manufacturing of plastic parts.

Whether you need any plastic prototyping or customized parts, fusing of complex components, or finishing and polishing services with low volume production, we-WayKen can offer advanced CNC prototyping services and high temperature and high-strength plastic machining materials.

The Reason of Plastic Parts Popularity

Why is plastic so popular? Since the invention of industrial-grade polymers, the invasion of plastic into all the branches of modern industry has been unstoppable. And there are a lot of reasons for that. I'll name only the three main reasons. Plastic parts are cheap, lightweight and durable. Let's talk about the first point here. By cheap, I mean that the cost of manufacturing them is much lower than that of metal parts.

Methods of CNC Plastic Machining

There are a lot of methods to produce high precision plastic parts. Modern industrial grade plastics are cast, injection molded, printed or machined. The first three options are great for manufacturing complex geometry parts with a fine surface finish. However, there is nothing better than machining when you need to achieve a tight tolerance or produce a mirror-like surface finish in almost any kind of part. About 80% of the plastic parts are CNC milled. It is the most widespread method for manufacturing parts without a revolution axis. All the rest are usually turned on a lathe. In some cases, slotting or planning is implemented. Mostly to manufacture inner grooves or rectangular holes. In order to achieve an outstanding surface finish, CNC machined parts are polished or chemically processed.

CNC Plastic Materials

WayKen's ISO certified CNC equipments can carry out services, including: Milling, Turning, Drilling, Sanding, Grinding, Puching, Tooling, Welding. We are capable of creating high-performance plastics of various materials in sheets, round rods, and more.

We can supply hundreds of CNC plastic materials: Derlin, Nylon, PTFE, Uitem, Norly, PEEK, Torlon, Lexan®, Techtron® PPS, Acetal.

The Cutting Parameters

Let's look at the choice for plastic cutting processes by using the example of the CNC Milling Plastic case. The main issue that you have to look out for is excessive friction and plastic deformation of the part instead of cutting. To avoid the second issue, always keep the cutters sharp and in cases when the material you use isn't rigid enough, freeze it. Plastic becomes hard and brittle under low temperatures.

In order to prevent the chip from melting to the CNC machined part, you'll need to keep that tool moving and prevent it from staying in one place for too long. Remove chip as fast as you can. So, the feeds for plastic processing must be big, aggressive even. And with bigger feed rate, the spindle speeds must be fast as well. The approximate estimation is about 3 times as fast as aluminum feeds and a corresponding cutting speed.

The Role of Plastics in CNC Prototyping

Plastic machining services is tightly related to CNC prototyping art.Polymer materials are perfect for prototype creation and engineering validation. The reason for that is that plastics are actually quite easy to machine. If you don't have any heating or molding equipment, manufacturing parts from CNC plastic blocks is a good way to get those prototypes easy and fast. You can use the same widespread equipment that is used to process metals, hence, great flexibility. And the cutting speeds and feeds will be much faster, hence, smaller lead-time and an opportunity to test your product sample faster and bring it into the market before your competitors.