Fastest cut speed

[IslaWW]

Gary, where do these "price classes" exist? I have been around a long time and have never heard the term as you stated it. Sure, I have heard something like " Such and such is a $100K machine" but that is not a class, just a statement of the cost of the machine. I dunno, I think more in terms of "price ranges" rather than "classes".

Not surprising that you may not have heard the term. Just like the automakers, CNC mfgrs don't refer to them as "price classes" in public as often as they do "size classes". And just like the big auto guys they (the CNC mfgrs) are acutely aware of their competitors pricing and work very hard to be pretty close to them with equal features and similarly priced options. And they do not hesitate in their marketing to use the term "Best in Class"

In each of these size classes ( intentionally patronizing) most brands use a similar bearing type and as you go up the price ladder linear rails are used and their size increases with price. Similarly sized steppers, routers, spindles, etc, etc. You can be sure that as the price, quality and rigidity of these components increases, so does the overall model price and its ability to hold a tolerance at a given feedrate.

Its not my rule, maybe even not a written rule, but rest assured the R & D departments of the OEMs consider the overall machine price with every decision they make. I know because I worked in R&D at 2 US CNC OEMs.

[ger21]

When you get into the big italian machines, they kinda have a good, better, and best class.
Good = $150K
Better = $185K
Best = $200K+

The "better" machine have feedrates in the 60-90 meters/min range.

[TReischl]

I guess we worked in different worlds Gary. A lot of my career was spent with a large japanese manufacturer closely linked to sales and never heard things described that way. I was just curious about what you wrote because machine prices were not based on what the specs were but rather what the machine cost to build. Of course all of what you wrote about figures into those costs and as I said it becomes a matter of physics in the end.

No one ever said "Oh, we can hold .0001 on this machine, therefore it is a $XXX class machine". If they could figure out how to hold that .0001 tolerance and build it for $XX they would have sold it at that price and killed the competition."

[IslaWW]

No one ever said "Oh, we can hold .0001 on this machine, therefore it is a $XXX class machine".

You are correct. I have never heard that said, or even alluded to from anyone but you

[TReischl]

Well Gary, believe it or not I can read, you wrote the following:

"Ability to hold the material, horsepower of the spindle, power of the driving motors (steppers or servos) along with rigidity of the frame are the factors that affect maximum cutting speeds on sub $100k machines. In many cases on lesser priced machines will not even come close the mfgr's recommended chipload.

With all of the above being true, it is the operators job to run at the fastest feedrate and lowest RPM that returns acceptable edge quality and part sizing. This is how CNC machines are placed into "price classes". The ability to hold a given tolerance at a given feedrate in a given material."

Maybe that second paragraph could use a little work, huh?