Machining

Project

A local office of an international Oil & Gas company had an urgent requirement for the manufacture of a specialised down-hole latch collet, used to lock sensitive measuring equipment into the well bore, they turned to AJT Engineering for help and we were happy to support them in controlling cost, delivering a high quality service and an on time delivery.

The extensive machine shop at AJT Engineering Tullos workshop is equipped in the turning section to handle anything up to 2500mm diameter spread over 12 machines and in the horizontal boring section anything up to 16m3 envelope size spread over 6 machines.  This impressive arsenal of machine tools are all fully computer numerically controlled (CNC) with multi-axis simultaneous machining available on several.

Solution

Utilising one of the multi-axis Hankook Protec 9 CNC horizontal lathes, in the turning section, the part dimensions were pre-programmed into the machines Fanuc 21i-TB computer control and proved out on screen before cylindrically machining the collet from a high strength 75000psi yield AISI4130 alloy steel forging.  These operations were carried by one of the many highly skilled multi-disciplined machinists to the exacting drawing standards required by the customer. 

After dimensional control inspection operations were carried out the cylindrical component was transferred to the horizontal boring section where a 4 axis machine with a 1.5m3 machining envelope was utilised to machine the intricate latch slot details on the component.  It had been recognised early in the project planning activity that, after the removal of the material from the slot areas, the component would be relatively fragile and flexible and therefore in order to hold the component stable during the slot machining operations a special holding jig was designed and manufactured in-house which was carried out during the time that the raw material forging was on order thus helping to reduce overall manufacturing cycle times.

From receipt of the raw material the turning, milling, dressing and inspection operations were carried out in under one week allowing the Client to assemble the collet into the top level assembly, carry out acceptance testing of the unit before putting it into service all within the operational time window that was available to them.