It’s All About the Aesthetics

As designers push the envelope in creativity, certain fabricating processes such as V grooving can find new life

V-Grooving

When metal is bent along the grooved line, a sharp corner is produced—a look that is desirable to today’s designers.

Grooving machines allow sheet metal to be formed with sharp outside corners on a bend by machining a groove on the inside of the bend line. When the metal is bent along that line, a sharp corner is produced—a look that is desirable to architects and designers.

While early versions of this equipment were capable of handling material only in the neighborhood of 0.124 in. thick, that is no longer the case. Now material up to 0.500 in. thick can be grooved on some of these machines.

The V groover has become a stand-alone CNC machine tool for fabricators. In the past some of these machines essentially were modified planers or routers; some V grooving also was performed on milling machines. Todays operators must know how to grind cutting tools for custom grooving operations and be knowledgeable in both chipping and forming.

CIM—Canadian Industrial Machinery asked Robin Wissing, president of Hydrapower Intl., to discuss recent advancements in the technology. Here is what he had to say.

CIM: How has groover technology changed recently?

Wissing: Recent advances include a new, wide range of tooling, such as carbides and special grades. They enable higher productivity with increased tool life and faster cutting speeds.

CIM: What do fabricators typically want from this technology?

Wissing: Parts that are made on V groovers often become components that are assembled into displays in shopping centers or furniture with unique styling. Also, custom metal stairways, windows, and doors, as well as elevator cabins and entries, are also very popular.

I recently met with some of our Canadian customers who find a lot of their V grooving is used by fashion designers who want distinctive store designs and unique display racks and shelving. Even the price tag holders are custom-designed. The range of applications is very extensive.

Our customers also want to be able to cut any groove profile because designers are expressing their creativity in new ways. Some products are even tiny, and this creates a workholding difficulty that requires special clamping.

Products like curtain walls also require V-grooved panels. These are seen on modern buildings, and architects can design aesthetically pleasing features using numerous different designs. For example, the Emirates Towers Hotel in Dubai is a 52-story building clad with six different curtain wall systems: five unitized systems and one stick system.

Machined V Groover

A V groover can machine grooves such as these in seconds.

Even old buildings can be remodeled with a fresh design achieved by adding curtain wall panels over old facades.

CIM: How is the dedicated grooving process different from one performed on a router or milling machine?

Wissing: A V groover can machine more grooves in one hour than a mill or router can in eight hours. For example, one of our cutters can run the length of a 4-m groove in seconds. On completion of grooving, the sheet is then fed out the front of the machine, where it can be passed on to secondary operations such as laser cutting, punching, and shearing.

But time is not the only benefit. The V groover comes with all the right clamping capability to enable material to be easily loaded and secured.

CIM: Are there challenges to grooving "gummy" materials like aluminum?

Wissing: It's true that some materials can pose problems. Copper and aluminum are sticky metals that tend to cling to the cutting tool. Aluminum composites often are used in curtain panels. The skin is aluminum over a core of insulating plastic. These must be processed using a different coolant.

Stainless steel and mild steel are machined using mist spray coolant with an oil base. Often a sheet of metal will be processed without coolant because of downstream operations such as welding, where the oils will interfere with the weld. In these cases, cutting speeds need to be lowered.

CIM: What material thickness can be grooved?

Wissing: Our V groovers have been designed to accommodate any material up to 0.5 in. thick. We have added more space in the clamps, and advanced software allows the cutting depth to be programmed for thicker materials. There is a subroutine that enables our machines to make a V groove up to 0.492 in. deep without any special alterations. Simply load it, set the program, and run the cycle.

CIM: Can grooves other than a V be made?

Wissing: Yes. While most often grooves are 90-degree V's, other profiles can be processed. There are needs for keyway-type grooves and semicircular grooves, and by grinding the tools to a required shape, many types of grooves can be made.

Each profile will have its own purpose based on the design. A keyway-type groove is used when two pieces need to be butt-welded to form a T shape. In this instance, the groove serves as a locator.

Semicircular grooves are used in cases when a rod or wire is welded onto a flat surface in a decorative design. It looks like a half-round rod is attached to the surface.

CIM: How are long grooves kept straight?

Wissing: The cutting head runs on linear ball guides. They are precisely assembled and calibrated in the Y and Z directions. The X axis (backgauge) also runs in linear guides and is positioned by ball screws. These axes are so accurate you can reload a finished sheet and run it through again and no interference will be seen in any of the grooves.

CIM: How should the system's cutting tools be maintained?

Wissing: The cutting tools are a major part of V grooving. An operator needs to know when to replace or sharpen a tool. In some cases, several tools are cutting at the same time in combination, and any one of them could lose its edge. They need to be monitored closely.

The operating manual should illustrate many different tool grinding procedures, and the operator needs to have a group of tools ready to use when the current ones get worn and sent for sharpening.

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