Compared With "turning + Milling" Sequential Processing, What Is The Cost Savings Of Turning And Milling Composite CNC Machine Tool Processing?

Compared with "turning + milling" sequential processing, what is the cost savings of turning and milling composite CNC machine tool processing?

Nowadays, many workshops still frequently move workpieces back and forth between lathes and milling machines. What they don’t understand is that as long as a turn-milling compound machine tool is used, costs can be reduced in four aspects at the same time.

Equipment investment is directly cut by 30%

Under traditional circumstances, the sequential processing solution requires at least one lathe and one milling machine. If there are radial holes in the part, an additional drill press will be required. According to the domestic market conditions in 2024, the total price of these three stand-alone machines is about 1.8 million to 2.2 million yuan.

On the contrary, if it is replaced by a composite machine tool, its quotation will be between 1.1 million and 1.4 million yuan. In this comparison, just by purchasing the equipment, the difference between turning and milling combined processing and traditional turning and milling can be saved by 30% to 40%.

Even the floor space has been reduced. In the past, the combined passages of the three pieces of equipment would have occupied at least 150 square meters. Now, the compound machines used only require 80 to 90 square meters. If the space saved is calculated according to the factory rent standards, the cost can be reduced by hundreds of thousands of yuan a year.

Manual pressure from two people to one person

In the case of sequential machining, each station of the lathe and milling machine needs to be equipped with an independent operator. If parts with complex shapes are involved, special personnel must also be arranged to supervise the operation of the drilling machine. In this case, at least two to three people are needed to complete the work.

In contrast, the use of composite machine tools can directly execute all process steps after one installation . Different from traditional turning and milling , the operator only needs to look after one piece of equipment, or even one person can look after two machines at the same time. After this optimization method, the corresponding number of operators can be reduced by 30 to 40%.

There is a factory in Suzhou that specializes in making hydraulic valve bodies. During the period of 2025, the original 6 separate machines and equipment will be replaced by 3 machines with multiple functions. As a result, the number of workers in the operation was reduced from the previous 9 to the subsequent 5. In this way, the salary and social insurance expenses saved every year will be nearly 600,000 yuan.

Auxiliary time has been greatly compressed

Parts need to be transferred between equipment, need to wait in line, and need to perform secondary tool setting. These auxiliary links account for 20% to 40% of the production cycle. The compound machine can complete all processes in one clamping, shortening the cycle time of a single piece by more than half, and reducing overall energy consumption by about 30%.

The inventory quantity of work-in-progress will then be reduced, the turnover area where semi-finished products are stacked between machine tools can be removed, and the logistics transportation path within the workshop will become shorter. Reducing the distance workers have to walk is equivalent to reducing costs.

Rejection rate reduced from 10% to 1%

When clamping operations are performed multiple times, there are positioning errors in each process. The accumulation of these errors leads to the deviation of the hole position and the non-parallel phenomenon of the flat surface, causing the pass rate to be stuck at around 90% for a long time. When working on a composite machine, the whole process is in the same coordinate system, and the benchmark is not converted at all, and the pass rate is raised to over 99%.

In a workshop, the monthly output is 5,000 pieces, and the scrap rate has dropped from 10% to 1% now. As a result, 450 fewer pieces are scrapped every month. If the unit cost is 50 yuan, it can save 270,000 yuan in scrap losses a year.

The payback period is shorter than expected

Some people think that the sales price of composite machines is on the high side, resulting in a slow recovery of costs. If the price difference of the machine, personnel salary, energy consumption and waste loss are all added together for calculation, it is found that in most usage scenarios, it only takes 24 to 30 months to make up for the extra cost of purchasing the equipment .

By 2025, the delivery cycle of domestic lamination machines has been compressed to less than twelve weeks. If you include delivery, installation and debugging, the fastest it will take is four months from the time you place the order to the start of production. Therefore, the time that this fund is occupied is actually constantly shortening.

Which parts should go to the laminating machine first?

For those shaft parts with keyways on the surface and multiple radial holes distributed, and the outer circle and inner cavity need to be processed simultaneously, this type of product can best reflect the technical advantages of composite processing machine tools. If you are only performing a very simple cylindrical turning operation, there is no need to invest in equipment. When a product has more than three processing features, the overall cost and benefit account must be carefully considered and calculated.

It is recommended that the complex parts with the highest monthly output be used for small-batch trial production first, and the actual operating rhythm and pass rate data be measured on the spot, and then based on the measured results, a decision should be made on whether to replace the original plan on a large scale. This approach is definitely much more reliable than the decision-making based on just patting one's head on the head.

The manufacturing workshop of your company is currently facing a very difficult problem for you. Are the fees that need to be paid to employees too high, or are the losses caused by too high a proportion of unqualified products? Please express your opinion in the comment area. If you think this point of view is helpful to you, please give it a like and forward this message to the director in charge of production management for review.