Multi-Axis Machining: Beyond Mainstream

Jeff Wallace, general manager of national engineering for DMG Mori USA, Hoffman Estates, Ill., reported that there’s been a “huge paradigm shift” among job shop owners with respect to multi-axis machining. Whereas two to three years ago only about 30 percent of DMG Mori’s job shop customers (outside aerospace) were using multi-axis platforms effectively, “I’d say conservatively 50 to 60 percent of our job shops have embraced, or are in the process of embracing, multi-axis.” Klaus Miller, vice president of sales at Absolute Machine Tools Inc., Lorain, Ohio, agreed that this is the trend, but cautioned that for smaller jobs, the transition is happening “one machine at a time,” not as a wholesale switch. “For the most part, that market is still three-axis machining centers and two-axis lathes,” he said.