5 Axis CNC Router Trimming

We offer 5 axis CNC routing services as part of our design and production process.  What is a 5 axis CNC router, and how does it allow us complete freedom and control when it comes to creating plastic products?

Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machines have revolutionised production processes across all manufacturing industries.  This is because these machines can perform complex production tasks, with absolute precision and uniformity, ad infinitum.  By putting precise measurements into the computer, we can instruct the equipment to cut away at a block of plastic until the shape we need is achieved.

What does this mean in terms of manufacturing plastic products or packaging?  When we work with you to design a product which will be vacuum-formed, CNC techniques allow us to make the moulds and tools we will need for the process, working to minute tolerances.  In cases where a shape is too complex for vacuum forming, a 5 axis CNC router machine can be used to repeatedly produce identical products of any shape.

How does the 5 axis CNC router we use here at The Plastic Works differ from the 3 axis CNC routing service which may be offered elsewhere.

A 3 axis CNC routing service employs a cutting tool which can move in three planes.  Imagine such a machine were to be used to make a model of a car.  The tool could move forward to form the headlights, and back to form the boot.  It could move left and right to make the rear view mirrors.  It could operate at a higher level when carving the roof and a slightly lower one when working on the bonnet.

But – how would it form the wheels?  To carve the bottom of the model, the 3 axis CNC machine would have to cut through the body of the car, ruining the whole piece.

3 Axis CNC Router Trimming

3 Axis CNC trimming (flat bed routing) is ideally suited for machining on flat sheet which requires no jig or programming, it simply reads the data from a technical drawing in dxf. format and determines the cutting paths from the outlines of the profile sketch.