CUTTING TIMES

    Criterion's focus on growth is creating a broad range of opportunities to assist our customers. As a part of this initiative, new ways of looking at our business has helped identify different types of technologies in order to serve you better in the future.
   Our primary focus is on our technological leadership and our investment in this area extends from design to production to customer service. We want you to think of us as your boring system development center.
   Criterion's success in boring system development stems from the competency of our work force and our production capabilities and facilities. We have excellent manufacturing process and design engineers. In this issue we share the efforts that one of them went through in order to develop a new fixture that increased tool quality and production efficiency while reducing overall cost of the product.
   Criterion has a considerable amount of collective experience in its engineering team. As one of them recently commented, "I have been here 16 years and I am the new kid on the block."
    We have concentrated on making the best boring products possible. We know that they are good because our customers are telling us so. Naturally we like the accolades, but we listen too. We realize that service is especially important to machine shops and production departments, and we keep our customer service personnel on the ready. That way , if you have a problem and give us a call, we can respond immediately.

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CAD Solid model rendering of Flip-Flop fixture. The new fixture saves production time while improving quality.

   Many of the boring tools manufactured by Criterion have ellipses, conic hyperbolas, and convoluted spline shapes because of the cuts made across cones of intersecting planes. An indispensable fixture used in the manufacturing process of machining these tools was created in-house and is affectionately called the Flip Flop fixture. As a result of this fixture we have been able to lower the cost of our tools.
    This fixture allows us to manufacture boring tools by using a screw machine to cut the bar stock and a CNC lathe to shape the part with concentric and eccentric mode without stopping the late.
    Prior to the fixture becoming reality, seven separate manufacturing operations were used to create each boring tool. Involving separate machine for each operation, the whole procedure created extensive queue time and in turn considerable cost. With the Flip-Flop the procedure has been reduced to two or three operations, depending upon which part is being created.
    Randy Cloud, one of Criterion's Design and Process Engineers, came up with the idea for this device about ten years ago. When he first conceptualized the fixture in 1989, he could not make it work. His idea was to have a fixture that could hold the bar stock in place while CNC lathes Cut away concentric shapes from the material, back the turret away, and then shift to hold the part for eccentric turning.
    The fixture eluded the engineering staff because creating the complex curves and radical joints with paper drafting proved virtually impossible. Models failed to work and it seemed machining simplification was "not in the cards".

    At that time Criterion purchased CADKEY software, one of the first 3d CAD programs that came on the market. Cloud's first project on the software was a 3d wireframe of the fixture. The learning curve required two months and when completed, the fixture worked as intended.
    According to Cloud, "The fixture had about 50 parts in in. With CADKEY, I was able to draw individual pieces, and then see electronically where I had conflicts. The end result was when the fixture was built, it worked as intended ....the first time. In addition, setups were simpler and errors were eliminated. Size was controlled with greater accuracy and precision."
    After 10 years and almost a million parts later, it was time for a replacement. The new Flip-Flop fixture was designed on the latest version of CADKEY, a program that incorporates the ACIS solid-modeling kernel. By using a solids program, the 3d solid shapes could be rotated on the computer screen and viewed from all sides. The design methodology is very similar to sculpting. The part begins as a blank solid and then material is removed.
    Requiring a mere two weeks to design, the new fixture was much lighter and more efficient that the older model. The improved Flip-Flop cost half the price of the original fixture.

Since its founding in 1936, Cla-Val Co. of Costa Mesa, California has been producing high quality automatic control valves for a variety of major liquid handling systems, including such diverse applications as waterworks distribution systems, fire protection systems, farm irrigation, navy ship systems, aviation fueling, and industrial fluid handling systems. Cla-Val has its own on-site foundry and provides a broad range of valve patterns in a variety of metals and grades, including ductile iron, bronze, aluminum, aluminum bronze, steel, stainless steel, and monel. Machining has been a part of the operation since the company's beginning, and one of the boring tools of choice for Cla-Val is Criterion.

   The Cla-Val automatic control valve is the essence of design simplicity. This highly refined design operates on hydraulic pressure and involves only one moving assembly. With a near frictionless design, it has a proven reputation for reliable operation and long service under harsh conditions. As uses and technologies have evolved, so have Cla-Val design and manufacturing processes.
    Cla-Val's commitment to maximum in-house manufacturing ensures top quality, fast response and prompt delivery of its products. In keeping with its reputation of technological leadership in valve design, Cla-Val is also maintaining technological leadership in its manufacturing operation.
    As mentioned, machining has been a part of the operation since the company's beginning. Although there are still conventional machines, all new equipment is CNC and the company has converted older machines to CNC when justified. Most of their CNCs are Yang, Femco, Daewoo/Puma and MIYANO, and just recently Cla-Val purchased a new Citizen automatic screw machine. Including a recently converted Hardinge, they now have 20 CNCs. In the programming department, SmartCAM is used for CNC Programming.
    Out of 500 employees, 117 (72 at Costa Mesa and 45 at Cla-Val's Perris, CA facility) are in the machining area. With direct numerical control, the machinist can dial up his program directly from his machine. Machinists use setup sheets at the beginning of each part run. The setup includes which program to use as well as a list of tooling requirements. From the setup sheet the machinist turns over his tool list to the crib attendant.

One of the boring tools of choice for Cla-Val is Criterion Due to Criterion's quality and service.

Often overlooked in the machining operation is the toolcrib. Machinists get their tools from the toolcrib. Tools are stored on a min/max basis, which guarantees that tools are replenished regularly. In Cla-Val's crib, tools are assigned to a specific group. Ordering information and inventory-level requirements are kept with each toolcrib item. Just remember, a disorganized crib holds up machinists requesting tools.

When it comes to boring tools, they settled on Criterion many years ago because of Criterion's quality and service. Cycle time and tool life continue to be the two most pressing issues in metal cutting.

Machinists get their tools from the toolcrib. Tools are stored on a min/max basis, which guarantees that tools are replenished regularly

    Boring is a key to Cla-Val's operation. A big advantage of Criterion boring heads is that they are adaptable to a variety of machine tools. Simply stated, a boring head is and adjustable tool holder. Its purpose is to bore precision holes in a variety of sizes. In particular, Criterion's generous bearing surface makes possible heavy roughing cuts and more accurate finish cuts, something that is really appreciated at Cla-Val.
    The Basic boring head is made up of three components: the body, the bar holder, and the graduated micrometer screw (dial screw). An important feature is the threaded back, which can be fitted with interchangeable shanks. All heads have a clearly graduated micrometer dial screw of heat treated alloy steel with the threads ground from the solid after hardening. the bar holder contains a dovetail that is mated to a dovetail slot running the full width of the body. A web machined on the underside of the bar holder rides in a slot ground into the head of the dial screw. As the dial screw is advanced or retraced, it moves the bar holder along with it, permitting controlled adjustments of .0005, or less.
    A variety of Criterion boring heads and bars are used at Cla-Val. Cla-Val favors the indexable insert bars, because of the shop's high production rates. Likewise, with the indexable inserts, inventory for tools is held to a minimum.
    Cla-Val's valves reflect the lessons learned through more than six decades of demanding real-world use in many diverse applications. While Cla-Val's manufacturing processes also reflect some six decades of in-house operations, the technology use the completely up-to-date.


A recent addition to Cla-Val's CNC operation is this Citizen automatic screw machine.	Machinists use setup sheets at the beginning of each part run. The setup sheets include which program to use as well as a list of tooling requirements.

Criterion has always prided itself on being a leader in the manufacture of boring heads, tools and bars. This leadership also extends to a better understanding of how to order the proper tool.
All part names of heads, tools and bars now contain an alphabetical letter to make ordering products easier. For boring heads, the letter designates the tool hole size. The chart below illustrates this designation.

LETTER	TOOL HOLE/SHANK SIZE
A	0.375
B	0.500
C	0.625
D	0.750
E	1.000
F	1.500

Therefore, when ordering a DBL-202B, examples of corresponding tools or bars to fit this head would be SBT-500B or TA-500BTX.