BRONZE MACHINING
THE ART OF BRONZE MACHINING
Steel Lavorazioni Meccaniche is a company specialized in precision engineering, offering a wide range of machining processes across various industries. Among its expertise, bronze machining and its alloys play a significant role in its production capabilities.
Below is a comprehensive overview of bronze machining and its applications.
BRONZE MACHINING: GENERAL PROPERTIES
Bronze is an alloy composed of copper and tin, forming a solid substitution solution between the two elements. The addition of tin significantly enhances hardness and mechanical strength, although it reduces malleability and ductility.
Key characteristics of bronze machining:
In industrial applications, two main types of bronze are used, distinguished by their tin content.
Cold-worked bronze is classified as such when the tin content is below 13.9%. This type of bronze offers good mechanical properties while maintaining excellent workability and deformability. It is commonly used for the production of sheets, extrusions, forgings, stampings, and drawn components.
Foundry bronze is classified as such when the tin content exceeds 13.9%. This type of bronze has high hardness but limited mechanical properties. It is primarily used in foundry applications due to its excellent castability and fluidity, which allow the molten alloy to completely fill the mold, even in the thinnest sections.
Thanks to its high corrosion resistance, bronze is widely used in various industries. For example, it is employed in shipbuilding and for components exposed to liquids or corrosive environments.
HOW BRONZE MACHINING IS PERFORMED
Steel Lavorazioni Meccaniche boasts a state-of-the-art machine park, consisting of 26 advanced and highly automated units. It includes work centers and CNC machine tools capable of performing various precision machining processes, including:
Bronze machining covers almost all the techniques listed above, including milling, turning, surface grinding, deep hole drilling, and electrical discharge machining (EDM).
Steel Lavorazioni Meccaniche, with its extensive experience, understands the unique properties of each process and selects the most suitable techniques to achieve optimal results.
MILLING
Milling is a chip removal process, efficiently shaping bronze into flat or complex surfaces with high precision.
TURNING
Turning is one of the most common machining processes for metals. It removes excess material from the bronze piece through chip cutting. The workpiece rotates, while the cutting tool remains fixed, enabling cylindrical shaping.
PRECISION GRINDING
Precision grinding is primarily used for fine surface finishing and tight tolerances. This process ensures smooth, impurity-free surfaces through high-precision grinding machines.
DEEP HOLE DRILLING
Deep hole drilling is a bronze machining process that creates holes with a depth-to-diameter ratio of up to 150:1. Steel Lavorazioni Meccaniche’s cutting-edge deep drilling machines ensure extreme precision.
ELECTRICAL DISCHARGE MACHINING (EDM)
EDM is a non-conventional machining method that uses electrical discharges to shape complex bronze components. Steel Lavorazioni Meccaniche employs wire and sinker EDM, allowing for high flexibility in intricate geometric contours.
STEEL LAVORAZIONI MECCANICHE: ADVANCED SOLUTIONS FOR BRONZE MACHINING
Steel Lavorazioni Meccaniche is a leader in precision engineering, offering unmatched expertise and cutting-edge technologies in bronze machining for over 30 years.
The company uses state-of-the-art machinery to ensure maximum precision and quality in bronze machining. Steel Lavorazioni Meccaniche provides a comprehensive service, covering material selection, technical support, and custom manufacturing solutions. Thanks to its expertise in material properties, Steel identifies the most suitable bronze alloy for each specific machining need.
Steel Lavorazioni Meccaniche has achieved its leading position through: