ComairRotron is a leader in high-speed, ultra precise machining, manufacturing, and processing for the electronics
industry with an emphasis on heat sinks and other thermal products.
Our facility is equipped and staffed to produce complex components and assemblies.
We are globally recognized for our high quality, reasonable costs, and ultimate customer service.
We strive to be the best in the industry and will continue this achievement through our high performance
workforce and cutting edge technology.
The key to delivering quality products is having the right machine to produce the right part for the right feature. At ThermaFlo we can perform a number of secondary operations on our parts, some are common and others are not. What is important is that we understand what it takes to produce a quality part in high volume.
To properly manufacture a heat sink or other fabricated components, it takes more than just equipment. Even though our CNC's, lathes, deburring, stamping, punching and inspection equipment perform the bulk of the work, it is important to know what other processes are available to perform a machining task. At ThermaFlo, we are committed to providing a knowledge base of information so the best and most cost effective part can be manufactured.
Listed below is a summary of operations we can apply to correctly produce a part.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Abrasive machining
Various grinding, honing, lapping, and polishing operations that utilize abrasive particles to impart new shapes, improve finishes, and part stock by removing metal or material. See grinding.
Abrasive-wire band sawing
A variation of band sawing that uses a small-diameter wire with diamond, cubic-boron-nitride, or aluminum-oxide abrasives bonded to the surface as the cutting blade. Abrasive-wire band sawing is an alternative to electrical-discharge machining for producing dies, stripper plates, electrodes, and cams from difficult-to-machine conductive and nonconductive materials. See band sawing.
Band polishing
A variation of band sawing that uses an abrasive band to smooth or polish parts previously sawed or filed. See band sawing.
Band sawing
Power band sawing, often called band machining, uses a long endless band with many small teeth traveling over two or more wheels (one is a driven wheel, and the others are idlers) in one direction. The band, with only a portion exposed, produces a continuous and uniform cutting action with evenly distributed low, individual tooth loads. Band sawing machines are available in a wide variety of types to suit many different applications.
Barrel finishing
A mass finishing process. It involves low-pressure abrasion resulting from tumbling workpieces in a barrel (usually of hexagonal or octagonal cross section) together with an abrasive slurry. See finishing.
Boring
Enlarging a hole that already has been drilled or cored. Generally, it is an operation of truing the previously drilled hole with a single-point, lathe-type tool. Boring is essentially internal turning, in that usually a single-point cutting tool forms the internal shape. Some tools are available with two cutting edges to balance cutting forces.
Broaching
An operation in which a cutter progressively enlarges a slot or hole, or shapes a workpiece exterior. Low teeth start the cut, intermediate teeth remove the majority of the material, and high teeth finish the task. Broaching can be a one-step operation, as opposed to milling and slotting, which require repeated passes. Typically, however, broaching also involves multiple passes.
Brushing
Use of rapidly spinning wires or fibers to effectively and economically remove burrs, scratches, and similar mechanical imperfections from precision and highly stressed components. The greatest application has been made in the manufacture of gears and bearing races where the removal of sharp edges and stress risers by power methods has increased the speed of the operation.
Buffing
Smoothing and brightening a surface by pressing an abrasive compound, embedded in a soft wheel or belt, against the workpiece.
Center drilling
Drilling tapered holes for mounting work between centers. Center-drilled holes also serve as preliminary "starter" holes for drilling larger holes in the same location. See drilling; Category VI: Accessories and Attachments: centers.
Centering
Process of locating the center of a workpiece to be mounted on centers. Also, the process of mounting the workpiece concentric to the machine spindle.
Centerless grinding
Grinding operation in which the workpiece rests on a knife-edge support, rotates through contact with a regulating or feed wheel, and is ground by a grinding wheel. This method allows grinding long, thin parts without steady rests; also experiences lessened taper problems. Opposite of cylindrical grinding. See grinding; cylindrical grinding.
Chamfering
Machining a bevel on a workpiece or tool to improve the tool’s entrance into the cut.
Counterboring
The process of enlarging one end of a drilled hole. The enlarged hole, which is concentric with the original hole, is flat on the bottom. Counterboring is used primarily to set bolt heads and nuts below the workpiece surface.
Countersinking
Cutting a beveled edge at the entrance of a hole so a screw head sits flush with the workpiece surface. See counterboring; spotfacing.
Creep-feed grinding
Grinding operation in which the grinding wheel is slowly fed into the work at sufficient depth of cut to accomplish in one pass what otherwise would require repeated passes. See grinding.
Cutoff
Step that prepares a slug, blank, or other workpiece for machining or other processing by separating it from the original stock. Performed on lathes, chucking machines, automatic screw machines, and other turning machines. Also performed on milling machines, machining centers with slitting saws, and sawing machines—cold (circular) saws, hacksaws, bandsaws, or abrasive cutoff saws. See micro-slicing; sawing; turning.
Cylindrical grinding
Grinding operation in which the workpiece is rotated around a fixed axis while the grinding wheel is fed into the outside surface in controlled relation to the axis of rotation. The workpiece is usually cylindrical, but it may be tapered or curvilinear in profile. See grinding.
Diamond band sawing
Machine operation in which a band with diamond points is used to machine carbides, ceramics, and other extremely hard materials.
Disc grinding
Operation in which the workpiece is placed against the side of a wheel rather than the wheel’s periphery. See grinding.
Drilling
Operation in which a rotating tool is used to create a round hole in a workpiece. Drilling is normally the first step in machining operations such as boring, reaming, tapping, counterboring, countersinking, and spotfacing.
Endmilling
Operation in which the cutter is mounted on the machine’s spindle rather than on an arbor. Commonly associated with facing operations on a milling machine. See milling.
Facemilling
A form of milling that produces a flat surface generally at right angles to the rotating axis of a cutter having teeth or inserts both on its periphery and on its end face. See milling.
Facing
Preliminary cleanup operation that provides a true reference surface before beginning another operation.
Filing
Operation in which a tool with numerous small teeth is used manually to round off sharp corners and shoulders and remove burrs and nicks. Although often a manual operation, filing on a power filer or contour band machine with a special filing attachment can be an intermediate step in machining low-volume or one-of-a-kind parts.
Finishing
Any of many different processes employed for surface, edge, and corner preparation, as well as conditioning, cleaning, and coating. In machining, usually constitutes a final operation. In recent years, there has been dynamic growth in the development and improvement of these processes, as well as the equipment, tooling, media, and compounds used.
Fluting
Cutting straight or spiral grooves in drills, endmills, reamers, and taps to improve cutting action and chip removal.
Form-rolling machine
Used to roll splines, gears, worms, and threads. A cold-forming machine for production processing of previously machined parts. See broaching machine.
Friction sawing
Sawing with a special band machine capable of achieving band velocities of 15,000 sfm or more. Metal removal is accomplished in two steps: Frictional heat softens the metal, then the teeth scoop out the molten material. Carbon-steel bands are used for flexibility and to maximize band life. Excellent for cutting extremely hard alloys, but cannot be used on most aluminum alloys or other materials that load the teeth of conventional blades. See sawing.
Gang cutting, milling, slitting
Machining with several cutters mounted on a single arbor, generally for simultaneous cutting.
Grinding
Machining operation in which material is removed from the workpiece by a powered abrasive wheel, stone, belt, paste, sheet, compound, slurry, etc. Takes various forms: precision surface grinding (creates flat and/or squared surfaces); cylindrical grinding (for external cylindrical and tapered shapes, fillets, undercuts, etc.); centerless grinding; chamfering; thread and form grinding; tool-and-cutter grinding; offhand grinding; lapping and polishing (grinding with extremely fine grits to create ultrasmooth surfaces); honing; and disc grinding.
A grinding machine powers a grinding wheel or other abrasive tool for the purpose of removing metal and finishing workpieces to close tolerances. Provides smooth, square, parallel, and accurate workpiece surfaces. When ultrasmooth surfaces and finishes on the order of microns are required, lapping and honing machines (precision grinders that run abrasives with extremely fine, uniform grits) are used. In its "finishing" role, the grinder is perhaps the most widely used machine tool. Various styles are available: bench and pedestal grinders for sharpening lathe bits and drills; surface grinders for producing square, parallel, smooth, and accurate workpieces; cylindrical and centerless grinders; center-hole grinders; form grinders; facemill and endmill grinders; gear-cutting grinders; jig grinders; abrasive belt (backstand, swing-frame, belt-roll) grinders; tool-and-cutter grinders for sharpening and resharpening cutting tools; carbide grinders; hand-held die grinders; and abrasive cutoff saws.
Grooving
Machining grooves and shallow channels. Example: grooving ball-bearing raceways. Typically performed by tools that are capable of light cuts at high feed rates; gives high-quality finish.
Gundrilling
Drilling process using a single-lip, self-guiding tool to produce deep, precise holes. High-pressure coolant is fed to the cutting area, usually through the gundrill’s shank.
Hobbing
A gear-tooth-generating process consisting of rotating and advancing a fluted steel worm cutter past a revolving blank. In the actual process of cutting, the gear and hob rotate together. The speed ratio of the two depends on the number of teeth to be generated on the gear, and on whether the hob is single or multithreaded. The hob cutting speed is controlled by change gears that vary the speed of the hobbing machine’s main drive shaft.
Holemaking
Using a consumable tool such as a drill, reamer, punch, liquid medium, or electrode to produce holes in the workpiece. Often a preliminary step to subsequent machining and finishing operations.
Honing
A low-velocity abrading process. Material removal is accomplished at lower cutting speeds than in grinding. Therefore, heat and pressure are minimized, resulting in excellent size and geometry control. The most common application of honing is on internal cylindrical surfaces. The cutting action is obtained using abrasive sticks (aluminum oxide and silicon carbide) mounted on a metal mandrel. Since the work is fixtured in such a way as to allow floating and no clamping or chucking, there is no distortion. Also used to give cutting tools ultrafine edges.
Jig boring
High-precision machining (a sophisticated form of milling) that originally pertained to jig and fixture manufacturing. Basic jig-boring processes include centering, drilling, reaming, through and step boring, counterboring, and contouring. The continually increasing demands for accuracy within many branches of metalworking have extended the application possibilities for jig-boring machines.
Keyseating
Milling or grinding an internal keyway. See slotting.
Knurling
Rolling depressions into the surface of a handle or similar part to provide a better gripping surface. In automotive machining, this process is used to enhance clearances and help pistons and valve guides retain oil.
Lapping
Finishing operation in which a loose, fine-grain abrasive in a liquid medium abrades material. Extremely accurate process that corrects minor shape imperfections, refines surface finishes, and produces a close fit between mating surfaces.
Lathe turning
Machining operation in which a workpiece is rotated, while a cutting tool removes material, either externally or internally.
Layout
Use of scribers, ink, and prick punches to create a part outline that machinists use to visually check part shape during machining of prototypes or during tool-and-die work.
Micro-slicing
Cutting very small or thin parts from a larger base part. Uses a special machine with a thin, tensioned blade that takes a minimum kerf. Process for cutting expensive materials such as silicon, germanium, and other computer-chip materials.
Milling
Machining operation in which metal or other material is removed by applying power to a rotating cutter. Takes two general forms: vertical and horizontal. In vertical milling, the cutting tool is mounted vertically on the spindle. In horizontal milling, the cutting tool is mounted horizontally, either directly on the spindle or on an arbor. Horizontal milling is further broken down into conventional milling, where the cutter rotates opposite the direction of feed, or "up" into the workpiece; and climb milling, where the cutter rotates in the direction of feed, or "down" into the workpiece. Milling operations include plane or surface milling, endmilling, facemilling, angle milling, form milling, and profiling. This is accomplished with microprocessor-based computer numerical controlled machines in which a controller is dedicated to a machine tool that permits the creation or modification of parts. Programmed numerical control activates the machine’s servos and spindle drives, and controls the various machining operations. It can easily hold tolerances to ten-thousandths of an inch.
Offhand grinding
Hand-feeding a workpiece into a bench grinder. Usually utilized in the shop to resharpen tools. Attachments or other mechanical devices are required for increased efficiency and accuracy. See grinding.
Parting
When used in lathe or screw-machine operations, this process separates a completed part from chuck-held or collet-fed stock by means of a very narrow, flat-end cutting tool (parting tool).
Peripheral milling
A form of milling that produces a finished surface generally in a plane parallel to the rotating axis of a cutter having teeth or inserts on the periphery of the cutter body. See milling.
Planing
Machining operation that creates flat surfaces. The workpiece is reciprocated in a linear motion against one or more single-point tools. Also used to create contours or irregular configurations.
Point-to-point system
Numerical-control system normally used for drilling and other operations where center-point location is readily determined. Tool is rapidly moved to a position, then drills, taps, reams, bores, counterbores, countersinks, or performs some other task.
Polishing
Abrasive process that improves surface finish and blends contours. Abrasive particles attached to a flexible backing abrade the workpiece.
Power brushing
Any process that uses a power-driven, rotating industrial brush to deburr, clean, or finish a metal part. Depending on the application, the brush fibers, collectively known as brush fill material, may be metal wires; fiberglass-coated, abrasive-filled plastics; synthetics such as nylon and polypropylene; natural animal hairs such as horsehair; or vegetable fibers such as tampico and bahia.
Profiling
Machining vertical edges of workpieces having irregular contours; normally performed with an endmill in a vertical spindle on a milling machine or with a profiler, following a pattern. See Category III: Machine Tools and Ancillary Equipment: mill, milling machine.
Reaming
A machining process that uses a multiedge, fluted cutting tool to smooth, enlarge, or accurately size an existing hole. Reaming is performed using the same types of machines as drilling. Reaming is simpler to perform than boring, but it is not as precise. See drilling.
RIM, reaction injection molding
A molding process that allows the rapid molding of liquid materials. The injection-molding process consists of heating and homogenizing plastic granules in a cylinder until they are sufficiently fluid to allow for pressure injection into a relatively cold mold, where they solidify and take the shape of the mold cavity. For thermoplastics, no chemical changes occur within the plastic, and consequently the process is repeatable. The major advantages of the injection-molding process are the speed of production; minimal requirements for postmolding operations; and simultaneous, multipart molding.
Sawing
Machining operation in which a powered machine, usually equipped with a blade having milled or ground teeth, is used to part material (cutoff) or give it a new shape (contour band sawing, band machining). Four basic types of sawing operations are: 1. hacksawing: power or manual operation in which the blade moves back and forth through the work, cutting on one of the strokes; 2. cold or circular sawing: a rotating, circular, toothed blade parts the material much as a workshop table saw or radial-arm saw cuts wood; 3. band sawing: a flexible, toothed blade rides on wheels under tension and is guided through the work; and 4. abrasive sawing: abrasive points attached to a fiber or metal backing part stock; could be considered a grinding operation.
Shaping
Using a shaper primarily to produce flat surfaces in horizontal, vertical, or angular planes. It can also include the machining of curved surfaces, helixes, serrations, and special work involving odd and irregular shapes. Often used for prototype or short-run manufacturing to eliminate the need for expensive special tooling or processes.
Slotting
Machining, normally milling, that creates slots, grooves, and similar recesses in workpieces, including T-slots and dovetails.
Spade drilling
Drilling operation in which a machine powers a cutting tool consisting of a holder and flat, interchangeable end-cutting blades. Spade drilling takes over where twist drilling leaves off; requires more power and a larger machine, but offers lower cost and greater rigidity. Large-diameter spade drills are used when trepanning is impractical or impossible. Spade drills are not, however, precision tools. See drilling; trepanning.
Spindle finishing
A mass finishing process in which workpieces are individually mounted on spindles, then lowered into a rotating tub containing the finishing media. In most applications, the spindles rotate at 10 to 3000 rpm, but in some cases the spindles oscillate up and down instead of rotating. The process is sometimes automated for robotic loading and unloading. See finishing.
Spiral milling
Milling while simultaneously rotating and feeding the workpiece to create a spiral form. Often used to mill flutes on endmill and twist-drill blanks.
Spotfacing
Similar to counterboring except that, in spotfacing, material around the original hole is cut. Application example: the recessed area that a washer fits into. See counterboring; countersinking.
Surface grinding
The machining of a flat, angled, or contoured surface by passing a workpiece beneath a grinding wheel in a plane parallel to the grinding wheel spindle. See grinding.
Tapping
Machining operation in which a tap, with teeth on its periphery, cuts internal threads in a pre-drilled hole having a smaller diameter than the tap diameter. Threads are formed by a combined rotary and axial-relative motion between tap and workpiece.
Threading
A process of both external and internal (tapping) cutting, turning, and rolling of threads into particular material. Standardized specifications are available to determine the desired results of the threading process. Numerous thread-series designations are written for specific applications. Threading often is performed on a lathe. Specifications such as thread height are critical in determining the strength of the threads. The material used is taken into consideration in determining the expected results of any particular application for that threaded piece. In external threading, a calculated depth is required as well as a particular angle to the cut. To perform internal threading, the exact diameter to bore the hole is critical before threading. The threads are distinguished from one another by the amount of tolerance and/or allowance that is specified.
Trepanning
Drilling deep holes that are too large to be drilled by high-pressure coolant drills or gundrills. Trepanning normally requires a big, powerful machine. Shallow trepanning operations can be performed on modified engine or turret lathes, or on boring machines. See boring; drilling; spade drilling.
Turning
A workpiece is held in a chuck, mounted on a face plate, or secured between centers and rotated while a cutting tool, normally a single-point tool, is fed into it along its periphery or across its end or face. Takes the form of straight turning (cutting along the periphery of the workpiece); taper turning (creating a taper); step turning (turning different-size diameters on the same work); chamfering (beveling an edge or shoulder); facing (cutting on an end); turning threads (usually external but can be internal); roughing (volume metal removal); and finishing (final light cuts). Performed on lathes, turning centers, chucking machines, automatic screw machines, and similar units.
Turning is performed by a lathe. Turning machines are capable of sawing, milling, grinding, gear-cutting, drilling, reaming, boring, threading, facing, chamfering, grooving, knurling, spinning, parting, necking, taper-cutting, and cam- and eccentric-cutting, as well as step- and straight-turning. They come in a variety of forms, ranging from manual to semiautomatic to fully automatic, with major types being engine lathes, turning and contouring lathes, turret lathes, and numerical-control lathes. The engine lathe consists of a headstock and spindle, tailstock, bed, carriage (complete with apron), and cross slides. Features include gear- (speed) and feed-selector levers, toolpost, compound rest, leadscrew and reversing leadscrew, threading dial, and rapid-traverse lever. Special lathe types include through-the-spindle, camshaft and crankshaft, brake drum and rotor, spinning, and gun-barrel machines. Toolroom and bench lathes are used for precision work; the former for tool-and-die work and similar tasks, the latter for small workpieces (instruments, watches), normally without a power feed. Models are typically designated according to their "swing," or the largest-diameter workpiece that can be rotated; bed length, or the distance between centers; and horsepower generated. Modern lathes often are equipped with digital readouts and computer numerical controls.
Undercut
In numerical-control applications, a cut shorter than the programmed cut resulting after a command change in direction. Also a condition in generated gear teeth when any part of the fillet curve lies inside of a line drawn tangent to the working profile at its point of juncture with the fillet. Undercut may be deliberately introduced to facilitate finishing operations, as in preshaving.
Vacuum bag molding
A process for molding reinforced plastics in which a sheet of flexible, transparent material is placed over the lay-up on the mold and sealed. A vacuum is created between the sheet and the lay-up. The entrapped air is next mechanically worked out of the lay-up and removed by the vacuum; finally, the part is cured.