What shops ask about 5-axis machining
Answers to the questions shops ask about 5-axis machining and machine building, written by the people who design the Unicorn 5-200 Modular, and useful for any machine you compare.
5-axis
The fear factor of 5-axis machines
Cost, crashes, programming, and the learning curve: four fears that come up when shops talk about 5-axis, and what each one takes to solve.
Read the article5-axisWill your shop benefit from 5-axis?
Which parts pay for a fifth axis, which do not, and how to run the setup-count math on your own work.
Read the articleMachine buildingWhy mineral casting?
What the machine base is made of, with the damping and thermal numbers that explain the choice, including where cast iron still wins.
Read the articleAutomationRaw parts or pallets: how should the robot load the machine?
Raw blanks into a vise or pallets set up off the machine: what each route costs, what goes wrong in real cells, and a decision table.
Read the articleAutomationRobot cell or a second-shift operator? How to work out the payback
One machine-monitoring vendor finds its customers' machines in cycle about a quarter of all hours. What a robot cell recovers, what a second-shift operator costs instead, and a worksheet for your own numbers.
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