By Darlene Swaffer
NAVAIR Depot North Island

CORONADO, Calif. - Two machinist programmers with NAVAIR Depot North Island have created a high-speed machining calculator that allows machinists to produce parts in less time.

The new calculator, created by Arnel Canja and Terrell Moose, both with Code 6.2.5.1, eliminates the guesswork in determining high-speed machining feeds and speeds. It shortens a titanium cutting operation from five hours down to just 40 minutes using high-speed machining.

Canja and Moose’s calculator is an independent software application that can be used alone or with a computer-aided drafting and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) system. They developed the calculator on their own time to remove the guesswork of determining feeds and speeds in high speed machining. It allows machinists and machinist programmers to quickly determine the optimal speeds and feeds to produce parts quickly and efficiently, thereby removing all guesswork.

Canja and Moose obtained copyright protection for their application as a high-speed machining calculator that determines the most efficient feeds and speeds for mills, drills and lathes. They are waiting for a patent.

Both men said that their application will significantly contribute to reducing turnaround time and increase shop productivity.

Their application was printed in the June 2002 edition of “Cutting Tool Engineering”. It received its debut in Los Angeles at West Tech 2002, the largest tool show on the West Coast.

High-speed machining theory has been around since the 1930s, yet it has only recently been embraced as a more efficient method of machining parts. Many machinists are not familiar with high-speed machining, so determining the proper feeds and speeds becomes a guessing game on a trial and error process. With the high-speed machining calculator there is no guessing. Dialogue boxes allow the user to enter information in several ways, including picking from a list of values, doing simple calculations or entering a value.

The calculator uses the information to perform complex calculations that provide optimum values for speeds and feeds.

Editor’s note: Swaffer works in Code 6.3.3.