Mollart Engineering, the name synonymous with deep hole machining, now has the enhanced production capability at its Chessington site to hone bores as small as 4 mm dia by up to 1,000 mm deep. This capability believed to offer new orders of diameter to depth ratios follows installation of a Sunnen HTC 2131 horizontal honing machine – the only one of its kind with this level of capability in the UK.
The machine is able to process parts between 4 mm and 80 mm dia and is fully programmable for repeat cycles under batch production conditions. Already materials as diverse as titanium, Inconel, stainless steel, mild steel, aluminium and brass have been honed, using Borozon stone tooling, to customer specifications. The machine also has the capability to utilise corrective honing techniques whereby the machine automatically recognises and sizes any high spots in the bore of the component.
With the installation, Mollart's previous small bore honing capability is totally enhanced from a minimum size of 12 mm down to 4 mm and has demonstrated significant reductions in previously proven processing cycles.
Mollart's specialisation in deep hole drilling, the design and build of advanced machine tools, deep hole tooling and the provision of a subcontract capability, where added value processes can be included with the basic hole requirement, means high orders of application engineering are available. This added value service can include initial hole creation, subsidiary turning and milling and preparation for honing.
Post honing processes such as precision deburring through its latest investment in abrasive flow deburring equipment and ultrasonic cleaning that ensures any media or swarf particles are cleared from the component, is an important capability for customers to add to the service available.
Also, due to Mollart's deep hole expertise, it can provide advanced measuring and inspection with the support of a high level of skill and familiarity concerning hole and associated feature production with full certification for size, geometry and surface finish.