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1. Who is Sonic-Mill®?
Sonic-Mill® provides machining services for technical ceramics and glass materials (hard/brittle) using ultrasonic equipment that is manufactured by Sonic-Mill.
2. What does Sonic-Mill® offer?
Sonic-Mill® contracts to provide machining services on technical ceramics and glass materials as well as makes its ultrasonic equipment, manufactured by Sonic-Mill, available for sale.
3. What is “ultrasonics”?
In Sonic-Mill equipment, ultrasonic power begins with a 1000-watt power supply that converts conventional line voltage to 20kHz electrical energy. This high-frequency electrical energy is provided to a piezo-electric converter, which changes it into a mechanical motion, ultrasonic motion. This motion from the converter is then amplified and transmitted to the horn and cutting tool, causing the tool face to vibrate perpendicularly thousands of times per second with no side-to-side motion.
4. What type of materials does Sonic-Mill machine?
Technical Ceramics and Glass materials, including:
- Alumina
- Aluminum Nitride
- Boron Carbide
- Boron Nitride
- Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics (CFRP)
- Ferrite
- Graphite
- Glass
- Glass Preforms
- Quartz
- Ruby
- Sapphire
- Silicon
- Silicon Carbide
- Zirconia
5. Can ultrasonic equipment machine metals?
Sonic-Mill ultrasonic equipment does not machine metal materials. Metals are usually hard, but not brittle, materials. Ultrasonic machining typically works with materials that are hard and brittle.
6. What is the smallest hole diameter you can machine?
With our sinker (SUM) machines: .013” (0.33mm)
With our rotary (RUM) machines: .023” (0.60mm)
7. What type of drilling features/holes do you offer?
- Thru holes
- Blind (flat-bottomed) holes
- Multiple-holes
- Deep-holes
- Interpolation (circular and linear) or router
- Slots, grooves, channels
8. What thickness/depth can you achieve?
Sinker (SUM) machines: 7/16" thick (will vary based on material and tolerance requirements)
Rotary (RUM) machines: up to 11” deep (typical 5mm diameter x 11” length)
9. What tolerances can you hold?
Sinker (SUM) machines: +/- .002” (+/-0.10mm) on diameter, positioning, parallelism
Rotary (RUM) machines: +/- .002” (+/-0.05mm) on diameter, positioning, parallelism
10. What is required for contract machining services?
We require a print or drawing of your application requirements that includes enough information to determine machining features, tolerances, material, and any other specifics. Typically, our customers provide the material to be machined.
11. Do you sell equipment?
Yes – we sell sinker ultrasonic machining (SUM) equipment and rotary ultrasonic machining (RUM) equipment. Please call for pricing.
12. What type of equipment do you sell?
Sinker equipment includes a 1000 watt power supply, a converter for converting electrical power to ultrasonic mechanical motion, an amplifier/coupler for amplitude to the horn and tool. This motion or process allows the horn/tool portion to vibrate up and down at 20,000 times per second. At the same time, an abrasive slurry in flowing over the material and the ultrasonic form tool comes down in a Z-axis motion on the slurry and propels the grit particles into the material, which actually cuts the material.
Rotary equipment is similar to conventional CNC type machining in that it uses diamond-impregnated tooling with a standard motor spindle and machine coolant. The added feature of ultrasonics allows the rotating diamond tool to contact and cut hard/brittle materials. The spindle speed is variable up to 8,000rpm.
13. What are the benefits of each type of equipment?
Sinker: This method allows you to drill small holes (.015” diameter) in thin materials. There are also advantages of cutting shapes and designs , as well as multi-hole drilling (ability to drill multiple holes simultaneously in an array of 1” maximum diameter (1” horn size).
Rotary: This method allows you the ability to drill deep holes (deep hole drilling) up to 11” depths in most materials. This method is more accurate in hole positioning and movement (+/-.002”).
14. Do you sell consumables?
We sell diamond-impregnated drills, abrasive grit silicon carbide or boron carbide, wear-tips for making sinker tools, holding wax, replacement parts and components as well as parts for equipment or repairs.
15. Do you repair rotary spindles?
Yes, we have a spindle exchange program in place. You can return your spindle for a core credit and we will exchange with a newly re-manufactured spindle. Please specify which type of spindle is to be returned; BSP spindle (Branson style), Kneemill or bedmill. Please call for pricing.
16. What industries do you service?
- Aerospace
- Semiconductor
- Fiber-Optics
- Government
- Electronics
- Sensors
- Educational
- Medical
17. Do you have an email address?
Yes, contact us anytime at : contact@sonicmill.com
18. Do you have a website?
Yes, visit us anytime at:
www.sonicmill.com
17. Do you have a phone number?
Yes, call us at: 1.505.839.3535 |