An upscale manufacturer of fly-fishing reels presented Alcoa Global Cold Finished Products with a challenge when they submitted a housing reel that exhibited a broken tip to Massena’s met lab for analysis.  The protruding tip was part of a thin walled section and a number of parts were broken in production.  The tip broke as a result of the machining operations.  When the CNC operation starts to cut the curved shape with the roughing tool it removes metal in a circular pattern.  There is no way to support the thin protruding wall of the housing during this operation.  As the tool exits the part, the tip on the small thin section breaks off. 

Alcoa’s Application Engineer suggested that the reel manufacturer try UltrAlloy® 6020.  The tighter tolerances along with the good anodizing response and excellent machinability of the alloy convinced the manufacturer to give it a try.  A 1-1/2 inch diameter rod was evaluated for the hub part. 

After the evaluation, the manufacturer stated that the enhanced machining performance was a real bonus.  His machine operators reported a 30% increase in productivity as a result of improved machining with the UltrAlloy® 6020 and were very impressed with surface finish.  The anodizability of the alloy was then evaluated and found to be positive gaining a fine finished appearance.  The chip management improvement was a real bonus for the manufacturer’s operation.  Approx. 90% of the original aluminum slug is machined away as scrap in order to make this particular part.  Machined chips of alloy 6061 are long and stringy and as a result these chips take up a large number of chip bins in the small job shop.  The small chips from the UltrAlloy® 6020 product require far fewer chip tubs and are much easier to handle than the 6061 stringy chips.  This further adds value for this manufacturer’s production efficiency.

Alcoa UltrAlloy® 6020 a proven success!