PEEK introduction and innovative HIT ultrasonic machining method｜Hantop Intelligence Tech.
As the escalating demands in PEEK, an innovative material in recent aerospace industries, Let’s seize the chance and have a brief introduction of PEEK as well as explain how HIT ultrasonic module can be beneficial to process it.
Brief Introduction of PEEK
PEEK is the abbreviation of “polyetheretherketone”. PEEK has attracted the attention of the industry because of its excellent high temperature resistance, high temperature mechanical properties and chemical resistance. PEEK can be regarded as the most famous one of the top-grade thermoplastic high-performance engineering plastics; the aerospace field takes its excellent corrosion resistance, hydrolysis resistance, flame resistance, and its lightweight characteristic for replacing metal materials aircraft parts. Besides, the application of PEEK in the electronics field has gradually improve due to its ability to maintain electrical insulation under extreme high temperature and high pressure conditions; PEEK's demand for medical instruments and artificial bones has also continued to rise. In addition to the corrosion resistance, it can fuse with organisms without exuding toxins. For various kinds of applications above, PEEK is also a relative environmental friendly material. It is recyclable and non-toxic. When contacting to fire, PEEK produces very little smoke e and releases very little toxic gas.
Difficulties in PEEK machining
PEEK is taken for having high flexibility when it comes to machining. It has a variety of processing methods. It can be directly injection molded, welded, and mechanical cut. However, in terms of cutting processing, traditional CNC still has difficulties to overcome: For example, the thermal expansion of plastic is 10 times that of metal, and it does not have the good thermal conductivity of metal. Therefore, cutting heat can easily cause changes in materials, influence surface quality, and shorten tools Life. The rising cutting heat also requires to replenish coolant when processing. The most obvious consequence of not controlling cutting heat is causing the phenomenon of crater surface during micro-drilling; The fiber that mixed in PEEK plastics structure, such as carbon fiber, glass fiber, and ceramics will significantly affect the tool wear and machining performance. The length and toughness of
different kinds of fibers as well as diverse types of weaving method decides whether the tool will directly hit the hard fibers in the inner layer and damage to the life or quality.
Great Potential of ultrasonic machining solution in composites machining
Ultrasonic is generally applied in seven sections in our life. And for precision machining, ultrasonic processing is proven to be effective in hard and brittle materials machining. Seldom people know that it possess great prospect and potential in composite materials processing. Dense and lightweight vibrations can disperse cutting forces and reduce cutting resistance, making inner fibers in composite materials can be directly cut off, therefore, reducing problems such as tearing and burrs.
There is more benefit that ultrasonic vibrations can provide. The high-frequency vibration is conducive to the removal of cutting heat and cutting waste, so that the fine feature processing of composite materials can be implemented. It could help manufacturers save the consumption of materials and tools at last.
Hantop Ultrasonic Machining Module for PEEK machining
The ultrasonic machining of Hantop Intelligence Tech. has added the central cooling function to help the coolant directly drip to the blade tip so that it can cool down the machined surface between tools and materials efficiently. It is necessary when it mentions to process advanced materials like PEEK and Inconel, which are easily influenced by excessive cutting heat. Moreover, we design automatic frequency tracking and sweeping system contained in the ultrasonic module to deal with the compatibility of various tools. In complex material processing, different types of materials or features often need to be applied with different quality types of tools. The automatic tracking function can find the best resonance frequency with diverse kinds of tools and increase the flexibility and convenient in practical use.