More than the Essentials

The four-person team at Maslo Fabrication knew exactly what they were looking for when they set out to purchase a new three-axis VMC this past January. Although another late-90s era model had served the aluminum foam mold manufacturer well until that point, it was time for an upgrade. After all, both their own thinking about machining and the available technology had changed a great deal since then.

The Holland, Michigan shop prioritized two factors above all: high spindle speed and enough CNC lookahead to keep up. However, Maslo Fabrication values its new VMC for other reasons as well. The Doosan DNM 500 II's CAT 40 spindle came standard with a chiller and Big Plus interface. It's also a direct-drive model, and it has through-coolant capability, a feature that provided significant gains on one job in particular. Along with the capability to take advantage of software like Volumill, these features provided greater benefits that the shop otherwise would have realized from its move into high-speed machining. This case study offers more details.