Machining Overview
Machining functionality is organized into two process groups: the Stock Machining process group and the Machining process group. The Stock Machining process group includes processes and material sizing and selection logic specific to parts being fully machined from round or rectangular stock. The majority of machining processes are actually organized under the Machining process group, so that they may be combined with either Stock Machining processes (for fully-machined parts), or with processes in the 2-Model, Casting, Forging, Sheet Metal, Powder Metal, Bar & Tube Fabrication and Assembly process groups to compute estimates for manufacturing that spans these operations. The processes are organized this way only to maximize flexibility and to avoid redundancy; for practical purposes, you can think of these processes as belonging to the same process group.
Note Stock Machining should be chosen as the primary process groups for fully-machined parts, rather than the Machining process group. The Machining process group cannot be used as a primary process group.
Machining processes are organized into the following separately-licensed modules:
• Milling, which includes
o 3-Axis Mill
o 4-axis Mill
o 5-axis Mill
o Stock Prep Mill
o Sawing/cut-to-length processes
o Wire EDM
o Automated Deburr
o Manual Deburr
• Turning, which includes
o 2-Axis Lathe
o 3-Axis Lathe
o 2-Axis Bar Feed Lathe with Sub Spindle
o 3-Axis Bar Feed Lathe with Sub Spindle
o Mill Turn
o Stock Prep Lathe
• Drilling, which includes
o Gun Drill
o Drill Press
o Deep Bore Machine
• Gear Making, which includes
o Broach
o Hobbing
o Shaping
o Shaving
o Bevel Gear Cutting
• Grinding, which includes
o OD grinding processes
o ID grinding processes
o Surface grinding processes
o Rotor Grinder
o Gear grinding processes
The Stock Machining process group includes the following processes:
• Material Stock: accounts for any specified stock allowances and estimates the size and cost of stock needed to fully machine the part from bar stock, as well as the resulting material utilization. It is not a physical machining process.
• Band Saw: estimates the time and cost of cutting bar stock to length.
The Machining process group also supports secondary Chemical Milling for soft-tooled sheet metal parts—see
Chemical Milling.
You can incorporate the use of aPriori’s diagnostic tools into your costing workflow, including aPriori’s Heat Map and Features to Review listing. See
Working with the Heat Map and
Working with Features to Review. In addition, advanced users can use the diagnostic tools in conjunction with the semi-automated costing workflow—see
Semi-automated Costing.
aPriori includes special support for recognizing, defining, and costing gears. See
Working with Gears, Splines, Sprockets, and Flutes.