Work piece examples include:

Landing gear assemblies, jet engine turbines, buckets, blades, fuel nozzles and various engine parts.

Case Histories

Spherical Ball Seat

A contract manufacturer of both commercial and military aerospace components is required to machine a family of parts from 4340 material at 33Rc hardness.

• The form required is a spherical ball seat comprised of:
  • a .750 convex radius
  • Blended to a 15° taper
  • Then blended to a concave radius generally between .190 and .250
  • And finally facing at 90° to the component I.D.>
• The parts have in common the .750 concave radius but vary in the length of the 15° chamfer, the size of the concave radius and the amount of the 90° facing required.

THE SOLUTION:

Genesee designed special hollow mills using four precision ground and matched premium T-15 HSS blades, set to cut to centerline to produce the entire ball seat complete in one pass.

• This Genesee hollow mill solution has been in use for decades.
• The technology has remained constant due to the productivity supplied, even during plant and location changes

Work piece example include:

Probes, operating sutures, lens housings and precision instruments.

Case Histories

Hip Joint

An American manufacturer of medical parts was required to produce a 3° tapered tip, .515″ long, blended to a .250″ radius on the end of a family of parts.

• The parts were made from difficult-to-machine cobalt chrome material.

THE SOLUTION:

Special Genesee inserted blade tooling using four match ground, brazed carbide blades offered the solution.

• Delivered the desired productivity and consistent size and finish.

Because the family of parts has the same geometry, in different diameter parts, the same tool and blades can be adjusted to machine the entire family of parts.

Shoulder Joint

A shoulder joint was machined using special shaped trepanning blades in a Genesee hollow mill.

Dental Tool

Dental tool made of surgical stainless steel is machined to produce a 2° taper .925″ long, and .218″ long straight.

Work piece examples include:

Workpiece examples include:

Shotgun, rifle and handgun barrels; bolt faces, receiver mounting lugs, breach parts, ejector rods, firing pins and various internal parts.

Case Histories

Deburr, Form and Finish of Rifle Barrel

Special Adjustable Hollow Mill deburrs, forms, and finishes “crowning” radius on the end of rifle barrels. The range of adjustability allows the customer to turn the complete range of barrel sizes with the same tool. Blade set includes two precision ground radius-generating blades.

Revolver Barrel

A world leader in the manufacture of handguns sought a way to improve the manufacture of revolver barrels.

• The process involved heavy metal removal including a heavily interrupted cut from extruded steel that is turned down to a diameter of .675.
• Multiple passes and frequent insert changes caused the cycle time and tool life to be unacceptable.

THE SOLUTION:

Genesee designed special GEN-DEX hollow mill using standard inserts in five adjustable insert holders.

• Cycle time was decreased by approximately one minute.

The number of parts produced prior to indexing the inserts increased from 15 to 150.

Work piece examples include:

Valves, electronics parts, hydraulic fittings, pipe tapers, compression fittings, regulator valves, sprinkler systems, petcocks and pressure relief and shut off valves. Hollow Mills are an excellent and accurate method to produce diameters for cutting or rolling threads.

Case Histories

Plumbing Fixtures

Genesee was asked by major US manufacturer of plumbing and heating components to design tooling to produce:

• 1/8, 1/4 and 3/8 pipe thread ends
• 5/32, 1/4 and 3/8 tube ends
• and two different multi diameter form ends of a series of different brass and stainless valve and fitting parts.

The customer had new, specially built machines for this process but also wanted to continue manufacture on existing machines.

THE SOLUTION:

Specially designed Genesee hollow mill bodies that hold sets of match ground HSS or carbide tipped form blades were produced.

• Tools for the new machines were designed with #30 mm taper.
• Tools for existing machines were designed with straight shanks.
• Other than the shanks, the tools are identical to accept the same sets of blades.
• All twelve details of the blades can be used in any tool body.

The hollow mill was provided with a depth-adjustable spot drill to ensure the concentricity of subsequently drilled holes.

Drain Tees

A major American commercial and consumer plumbing and fixture manufacturer required tooling to produce the three similar fitting ends of their brass drain tees.

• Each end required a small diameter on the end with a 45° chamfer to a larger pre-thread diameter.
• Each end had extensive internal chamfer and bore work for which the customer used special internal tools.

The customer had new, specially built machines for this process but also wanted to continue manufacture on existing machines.

THE SOLUTION:

Genesee designed a special inserted blade hollow mill with four match ground carbide tipped blades.

• Two blades produce the smallest diameter and chamfer while two blades hollow mill the larger diameter preparatory to thread rolling.
• The tool was provided with ground hole, set screws and depth adjustment mechanism to hold any of the required internal tools.

Chip removal holes for internal tools and special shank per customer’s requirements.

Work piece example include:

Coaxial cable; connectors

Coaxial Cable

A manufacturer of coaxial wire cable components was required to machine away a copper/lead/tin solder material from the ends of the components.

• Complicating the process was the necessity to also trim off an inner stainless steel braid shim, leaving exposed a Teflon® coated inner conducting wire, without damage to the wire.
• The manufacturer had a family of parts requiring the same operation to be performed on a variety of diameters ranging from .070″ to .152″.

THE SOLUTION:

Genesee designed two standard positive rake M-00 style hollow mills with standard brazed carbide blades.

• Blade geometry can be maintained by the customer through dozens of regrinds using the simple Genesee regrinding fixture.

Work piece examples include:

Golf clubs, flatware (knives, forks, spoons), industrial textile needles and tools, pens, arrowheads, snowmobile cleats, recreational vehicle parts, appliances and jewelry.

Case Histories

Flat Iron

A customer was removing the hardened steel jacket and ceramic insulation from the heating elements on a flat iron in two time-consuming, unpredictable operations.

THE SOLUTION:

A special adjustable Genesee hollow mill was designed to simultaneously remove the steel jacket and ceramic insulation without damaging the inner Ni-Chrome wire.

The tool also includes a special shank with drive pins and a ground hole for mounting the tool over the spindle.

Work piece examples include:

Screw drivers, driver bits, nail sets, hammer heads, pliers, shears, clippers, punches, drill bits, files and the like.

Case Histories

Phillips Head Screwdriver

A machine tool builder supplied special horizontal machines to produce various steel Phillips head screwdriver heads from varying diameter steel hex stock.

• Required to hollow mill varying diameter, varying lengths and chamfer from diameter to hex O.D.
• Also required to produce combined 26° and 18° Phillips point on end to center line.

THE SOLUTION:

Genesee designed special inserted blade hollow mills to accept three different details of blades to produce all part sizes.

Two brazed carbide blades turn hollow mill diameter and chamfer to bar stock size while two precision match ground premium T-15 HSS blades produce the two angles comprising the Phillips point.