± 0.002"/ 0.25° Aluminum Access Panel Frame

APM was approached by a client in the Communications Industry for engineering and machining of a unique part. It was an aluminum access panel frame that would be a component of a military communications application. This multistep process required close tolerance surface contouring and expert CNC machine programming capabilities.
The access panel frame's production process was engineered to conform to the customer specifications. State-of-the-art CAM software was used for efficient programming of the precision Mori-Seiki Duravertical 5100 vertical machining center. Rough machining and finish 3D surface milling were completed in two steps. Made from 1½" thick 6061-T651 QQ-A-25011 aluminum plate, the machined piece measured 6.500" long by 6.500" wide. Plating the aluminum with a chemical conversion coating increased its corrosion resistance. Installing thread inserts completed the assembly.
Various quality measures were utilized including in-process dimensional inspection, first article inspection reports per AS9102, and post production CMM inspection. These advanced quality capabilities verified that the required ±.002" .25° tolerances were met. This project also met geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) per ANSI Y14.5M-1982.