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Capability — CNC Machining
5-Axis, 4/3-Axis, Turning and the Full Process Chain
Every machining route in the shop, on one page: what each is for, which parts run on it, and the point at which a part moves from one route to the next. All of it runs under one ISO 9001 system, on one traveller, in one building in Baoji.
Every route in the shop, on one page. Tell us the part and we will name the route and the reason for it, so the quotation can be challenged on technical grounds. Send a drawing
Route Selection
The right number of axes is the fewest that hold the drawing
Process selection is driven by part geometry, material and the tolerances actually called out — not by which spindle happens to be free. This is the table we plan against.
| Route | Choose it when | Typical parts | Equipment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5-axis simultaneous | A surface is curved, ruled or twisted; a flow channel is narrower than the cutter head; or features must hold their relationship to one datum in a single setup. | Blisks / IBR, shrouded and unshrouded impellers, blades and vanes, annular casings with compound-angle features | GF Mikron (Switzerland) high-precision simultaneous 5-axis centre; Guangzhou Feihong large turn-mill 5-axis centre |
| 4-axis (indexed rotary) | Features are distributed around a part axis — bolt circles, radial ports, scallops, reliefs, angled faces — and should be cut in one fixturing. | Casings and bearing housings, rings, flanges and seal carriers, scalloped discs | Xiamen Yangsen (YANGSEN) vertical machining centres with rotary index |
| 3-axis | Geometry is prismatic and every feature is reachable from one tool direction, or stock is being staged for 5-axis finishing or grinding. | Brackets, ribs, frames, plates and blocks, hole patterns, semi-finished pre-forms | Xiamen Yangsen (YANGSEN) 3-axis vertical machining centres |
| CNC turning | Geometry is rotationally symmetric, concentricity and runout drive function, or the part needs the datum diameters and faces that later operations locate from. | Shafts and spindles, discs and seal discs, rings, bushes and sleeves, blisk and impeller pre-forms | More than ten high-precision CNC turning centres, including Baoji Machine Tool BoZHI slant-bed and vertical lathes and a Baoji Yiji face lathe; Swiss-type sliding-head lathes for small slender parts |
| Process chain (not a route — an addition) |
The drawing calls for something beyond as-machined cutting: a ground seat, a planed datum face, controlled edge break, blending or matched fitting. | Ground sealing faces and bearing journals, deburr and blend to drawing, fitted assemblies, rework and salvage | In-house grinding, planing and bench fitting |
Jump to: 5-axis simultaneous · 4-axis & 3-axis milling · CNC turning · Full process chain · Materials · Verification
One setup, one datum, one traveller. A part that needs turning, milling and grinding does not leave the building or the quality system between operations. Datum is established once and preserved through the chain — see the full process chain.
Route 01
Simultaneous 5-axis machining
The capability that decides whether integrally bladed rotors, shrouded impellers and twisted aerofoils can be produced from solid at all — and whether the result holds tolerance on every blade, not just the first one.
The tool has to stay normal to a curved surface
An aerofoil is a ruled, twisted surface. Machined with a three-axis path it is approximated by a staircase of small flat steps, which then has to be removed by hand blending — a process that changes wall thickness, introduces residual stress and is impossible to repeat identically from blade to blade.
With the rotary axes cutting together with the linear ones, the cutter axis stays close to the surface normal along the whole path. Contact stays on the intended part of the tool, the scallop height is controlled by stepover rather than by the operator, and blade-to-blade variation becomes a programming parameter instead of a craft skill.
Reach is the second constraint
On a shrouded impeller or a tightly packed blisk the gap between adjacent blades is narrower than the cutter head. The only way in is to tilt the tool — or the workpiece — so the shank clears the neighbouring blade while the cutting edge is still engaged. Tilting the spindle to open clearance is what makes the passage possible; tilting the workpiece lets you reach undercuts and hub fillets without a second setup.
One setup, one datum. Every time a part is unclamped and re-fixtured, datum error is added. Multi-axis work lets hub, blades, shroud-side faces, bolt-hole patterns and balance features be machined against a single established datum — which is what makes positional tolerances between blades and bore repeatable across a batch.
Machine envelope. Simultaneous 5-axis work runs on a Swiss GF Mikron high-precision centre and a Guangzhou Feihong (广州菲鸿) large turn-mill 5-axis centre. Achievable machining accuracy on these machines is ±0.005 mm, quoted per feature against your drawing — not as a blanket tolerance.
5-axis machining centre — full machine view (nameplate may be masked)
5-axis machining close-up (coolant, tool and blade channels)
Guangzhou Feihong 5-axis turn-mill centre (horizontal-vertical conversion, full view)Parts Machined
Part types that run on the 5-axis machines
Grouped by the geometric feature that makes five axes necessary — not by industry label.
Integrally Bladed Rotors (Blisk / IBR)
Blade and disc machined from one piece of stock. Requires continuous multi-axis finishing of the aerofoil, controlled hub fillet radii and a consistent leading- and trailing-edge form on every blade.
Impellers
Shrouded and unshrouded, radial and mixed-flow. Tool access to the flow channel is the defining problem; splitter blades and tight channel exits drive tool length and tilt strategy.
Blades & Vanes
Rotor blades and stator vanes, including thin-wall and highly twisted forms, machined from bar, forged blank or pre-shaped stock with the root form held to the aerofoil datum.
Casings & Housings with Angular Features
Annular parts where bosses, ports, flanges and angled faces must be positioned relative to a bore axis — machined without repeated re-fixturing.
Structural Parts with Compound Angles
Brackets, frames and load-path fittings whose mounting faces are not orthogonal to a single datum plane, plus pockets in multiple attitudes on one part.
Discs & Rotating Rings
Dovetail slots, fir-tree roots, bolt-hole circles and seal features indexed around a rotation axis, where angular position between features is a functional requirement.
Screw rotor parts — 4-jaw chuck on a 5-axis rotary table
Multi-stage blisk / turbine rotor — clamped on a 5-axis rotary table
Large annular casing 5-axis finishing — circumferential windows and bolt-hole patternMethod
Workholding and toolpath strategy
Buyers who have been burned by a supplier usually got burned in the fixtures, not in the spindle. This is how we approach it.
Datum & blank definition
Datum structure is agreed from your drawing before programming starts. Turning produces the reference diameters and faces the 5-axis work will locate on.
Process planningFixture design
Rigid, repeatable location sized to the part — not a generic vice. Thin-wall and slender features are supported against cutting force before the finish pass, not after.
In-houseRoughing & stress relief
Balanced material removal to leave an even finish allowance. Intermediate stress relief is applied where the drawing or material condition requires it.
MachiningMulti-axis finishing
Continuous paths with controlled stepover and tool-axis smoothing to avoid direction reversals that leave witness marks on the aerofoil.
5-axisVerification & deburr
On-machine probing against the agreed datum, then controlled edge break and blending to the drawing's stated limits.
InspectionToolpath decisions we make deliberately
- Tool-axis smoothing to avoid abrupt rotary reversals and surface witness marks
- Controlled stepover so scallop height is a programmed value, not a finishing accident
- Tilt strategy that keeps the shank clear of neighbouring blades in narrow channels
- Shortest practical tool length to hold rigidity on deep features
- Separate roughing and finishing allowances so the finish pass runs on even stock
- Air-cut simulation and verification before the program reaches the machine
Blisk machining — blisk on the rotary fixture, blade channels formedRoute 02
4-axis & 3-axis milling
For casings, housings, rings and structural parts where five simultaneous axes would add cost without adding accuracy — including the rotary-indexed work that holds features around a bore to one datum.
Most aerospace parts do not need five simultaneous axes. A casing with bosses at two angles needs an indexed rotary axis, not a continuous one. Choosing the simpler route keeps the process stable and the quote honest.
Three-axis work covers prismatic parts — faces, pockets, hole patterns — where every feature is reachable from one tool direction. Adding a fourth, rotary axis brings features distributed around a part axis into the same setup: bolt circles, radial ports, scallops on a flange, slots on a ring. Both routes also serve as the roughing and semi-finishing stage before a part goes to the 5-axis machines or to grinding.
Where we still use five axes. If a part has a twisted surface, an undercut that cannot be reached by indexing, or a channel narrower than the tool head, it belongs on the 5-axis route. We will say so rather than force it into three axes and hand-blend afterwards.
Vertical machining centre (Xiamen Yangsen, 3-axis VMC)3-Axis Milling
- Face milling, pocketing and slotting on orthogonal datums
- Hole patterns, threaded holes and reamed fits
- Plate and block work, brackets, ribs and frames
- Semi-finishing stock left for grinding or 5-axis finishing
- Flatness and parallelism on mounting and sealing faces
4-Axis Milling (Indexed Rotary)
- Bolt-hole circles and radial hole patterns in one setup
- External and internal features on rings and flanges
- Features at compound angles to a single datum plane
- Scallops, reliefs and weight-reduction pockets around a bore
- Contoured faces on annular casings and housings
Typical Parts
Parts that run on this route
Each row links to the product page with materials, tolerances and inspection detail.
| Part family | Why 4-axis / 3-axis fits | Usual material | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compressor & turbine casings | Annular body with radial ports, flanges and bolt circles indexed around the bore axis | Titanium, stainless steel, nickel alloys | Details → |
| Bearing housings & supports | Bore concentricity plus face and bolt features on a common datum | Titanium, stainless steel, aluminium | Details → |
| Structural brackets, ribs & frames | Prismatic geometry with mounting faces at defined angles | Aerospace aluminium, titanium | Details → |
| Rings, flanges & seal carriers | Rotationally distributed features needing single-setup accuracy | Titanium, stainless steel, nickel alloys | Details → |
| Discs & rotating rings | Slotting, scalloping and hole work before or after turning | Titanium, nickel alloys | Details → |
| Impeller & blisk pre-forms | Hub and passage roughing staged for 5-axis finishing | Titanium, aluminium, stainless steel | Details → |
Precision-machined structural parts — finished
Precision fixtures — workholding tooling
Titanium alloy precision parts — finishedMethod
How the work is planned
Feature review
Every feature is checked for tool access and assigned to a setup. Anything that cannot be reached by indexing is flagged for the 5-axis route.
Process planningDatum & setup
A datum structure is agreed from your drawing. Rotary work is located on the part axis so angular features and bore features share one origin.
FixturingRough & semi-finish
Balanced removal with stock left for finishing, and stress relief applied where the material condition or drawing requires it.
MachiningFinish & verify
Finish passes on faces, bores and hole patterns, then dimensional verification against the drawing before the part leaves the machine.
InspectionDeburr & document
Controlled edge break, then the dimensional report, NDT results and EN 10204 material certificate compiled for shipment.
QualityRoute 03
CNC turning
Shafts, discs and rings where concentricity, runout and surface integrity decide whether the part works — and the same lathes produce the datum surfaces that every blisk and disc blank is later machined from.
On a rotating part, everything downstream depends on the surfaces established on the lathe. If the hub faces and reference diameters are wrong, five-axis finishing cannot recover them — it can only reproduce them.
We turn in titanium, nickel-based alloys, stainless steel and aerospace aluminium, from bar, forged blank or pre-formed stock. Work includes stepped and slender shafts, discs and seal discs, rings and bushes, and the turned pre-forms that are staged for multi-axis finishing. The turning group operates more than ten (10+) high-precision CNC turning centres, sized for shaft and disc production in these materials.
Balance-critical geometry. Where a drawing calls for controlled runout or balance, we plan the turning sequence around it: rough, relieve if specified, then finish with the part supported so that stock removal does not release stress into the finished surface.
CNC lathe turning a shaft (with chips / coolant)External Turning
Longitudinal, facing and contour turning; stepped diameters, tapers, grooves and undercuts; threads to drawing.
Internal Turning & Boring
Through and blind bores, internal grooves, threaded bores and concentric sealing faces.
Facing & Grooving
Datum faces, hub faces, seal faces and parting features held square and parallel to the rotation axis.
Threading
External and internal threads produced by single-point or thread-milling where the drawing or material favours it.
Slender & Stepped Shafts
Long parts supported with steady rests and controlled cutting parameters to limit deflection and taper.
Pre-forms for Multi-Axis Work
Turned blanks for blisks, discs and impellers, with datum diameters and faces established for later setup.
Typical Parts
What runs on the lathes
| Part family | Defining requirement | Usual material | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shafts & spindles | Concentricity between journals, controlled runout, surface finish on bearing seats | Titanium, stainless steel, nickel alloys | Details → |
| Discs & seal discs | Face flatness, bore concentricity, balanced stock distribution | Titanium, nickel alloys | Details → |
| Rings, bushes & sleeves | Wall uniformity, bore-to-OD concentricity, press-fit surfaces | Titanium, stainless steel, aluminium | Details → |
| Blisk & impeller pre-forms | Datum diameters and hub faces for later 5-axis setup | Titanium, aluminium, stainless steel | Details → |
| Housing & casing components | Annular turning before or after milling operations | Titanium, stainless steel, nickel alloys | Details → |
Vertical CNC lathe (Baoji BoZHI CD125 — dedicated to long shaft / large-part turning)
CNC facing lathe (Baoji Yiji) — facing of discs / rings / flangesCombined Working
Turning and milling on one part, one plan
The useful question is not whether a machine has live tooling, but whether the sequence is planned as one process or handed between two shops.
Turn the datum
Reference diameters, faces and bores established first, so all later features relate to the rotation axis.
CNC turningMill the features
Keyways, flats, radial holes, bolt circles, slots and off-axis faces added on 3-axis, 4-axis or 5-axis equipment.
MillingReturn for finish
Final turning of sealing surfaces, threads or bearing seats after milling, where the drawing requires it in that order.
CNC turningVerify as one part
Concentricity, runout and positional relationships checked against the single datum structure — not per operation.
InspectionFinish the chain
Grinding, deburr and bench work completed in-house before dimensional reporting and packing.
Process chainWhy the sequence matters. Turning a bore after the bolt circle is drilled gives a different result from drilling after finishing the bore. Where a drawing allows sequence choice, we state the sequence we intend to use so your quality review sees the plan, not just the result.
Where grinding takes over. If a sealing face or bearing journal must be ground rather than turned, that happens inside the same facility — see the process chain below.
CNC milling & turning — mill-turn component
Mill-turn component — steps, OD and grooves in one setup
CNC custom parts — mill-turn finished componentRoute 04 — The Chain
Turning · Milling · Planing · Grinding · Fitting
The five conventional operations most shops send out — kept inside one building, under one ISO 9001 quality system, on one traveller.
A part spends a few hours being machined and, in a fragmented supply chain, days being transported, queued, re-inspected and re-documented at each subcontractor. The machining time is rarely the problem.
Keeping turning, milling, planing, grinding and fitting in-house removes the transport and queue between them, and removes the re-inspection that each handover forces: a part that stays in one traveller does not need its datum re-established and re-approved for every external operation.
Accountability does not fragment either. If a ground face and a milled pocket must agree, one party planned both. There is no question of which supplier caused a discrepancy, because there is only one.
Shop floor panorama (lathe / mill / grinder in one view preferred)In Sequence
The five operations, in the order they are used
Not every part uses all five. The point is that when one is needed, it does not leave the building.
Turning
Establishes the rotation axis, reference diameters, faces and bores. Everything after this is located from these surfaces.
CNC lathesMilling
Pockets, faces, holes, slots and — on the 5-axis machines — aerofoils, channels and compound-angle features that turning cannot reach.
3 / 4 / 5-axisPlaning
Flat reference surfaces on large or awkward workpieces, and the straightness and flatness that later operations locate from.
ConventionalGrinding
Sealing faces, bearing journals, datum faces and any surface where the required finish or size is beyond as-machined turning or milling.
GrindingFitting
Controlled deburr, edge break, blending, thread repair and matched assembly work done to the drawing's stated limits — by hand, where a machine cannot do it correctly.
Bench
Shop 1 — CNC machining centre line (YSV-855)
Shop 3 — CNC lathe line (ESK125)| Operation | What it achieves | Typical use on our parts |
|---|---|---|
| Turning | Rotational geometry, datum diameters, faces, bores, threads | Shafts, discs, rings, bushes, blisk and impeller pre-forms |
| Milling | Prismatic and free-form geometry, hole patterns, pockets, aerofoils | Casings, structural parts, blisks, impellers, blades, slots and scallops |
| Planing | Flat reference surfaces on workpieces unsuited to milling, with controlled flatness | Large datum faces, straightedges and setup reference surfaces |
| Grinding | Size and finish beyond as-machined capability; hardened or critical surfaces | Sealing faces, bearing journals, datum faces, precision seats |
| Fitting | Edge condition, blending, assembly fit, thread and hole rectification | Deburr to drawing, blade edge finishing, matched sets, rework and salvage |
Effect on Your Order
What a closed chain changes for a buyer
Schedule
- No transport or queue between operations
- No re-inspection and re-approval at each handover
- One production plan, sequenced internally
- Rework loops stay inside the same building
Quality documentation
- One traveller covering every operation
- Single dimensional report referencing one datum structure
- Material, NDT and dimensional records issued together
- FAI to AS9102 available on request
Technical consistency
- Operation sequence planned as one process, not negotiated between vendors
- Datum established once and preserved through the chain
- Drawing requirements interpreted by one engineering function
Commercial
- One contract, one point of contact, one accountable party
- No subcontractor margin stacked on top of the machining price
- No disclosure question about where the work is actually done
On disclosure. Two legal entities operate in our group: Baoji Tuohang Precision Manufacturing holds the ISO 9001 certification and signs the machining contract; Baoji Qicheng Nonferrous Metals supplies melting, rolling and forging. We state this openly — see the vertical integration statement.
Materials
Cutting titanium is the default case here
Our group melts, rolls and forges titanium in Baoji, so titanium machining is not a speciality we added — it is the material we have lived with longest. Superalloys, aluminium and stainless run on the same machines.
| Material family | Representative grades | What it demands in cutting |
|---|---|---|
| Titanium & titanium alloys | GR1–GR12, TA / TB / TC series | Low thermal conductivity puts heat into the tool, so stable tool engagement and consistent chip load matter more than raw removal rate. Continuous toolpaths keep the cutter loaded evenly rather than dwelling on a corner. |
| Nickel-based high-temperature alloys | Inconel 718 and comparable grades | Work hardening punishes rubbing rather than cutting. Keeping the tool normal and the engagement angle controlled is the difference between a predictable tool life and an unpredictable one. |
| Aerospace aluminium | High-strength wrought alloys | High removal rates with thin-wall deflection risk. Multi-axis access allows balanced roughing and symmetric finishing to keep distortion down. |
| Stainless steel | Austenitic, martensitic and PH grades | Tough, gummy chip formation; consistent tool axis control helps break chips and hold edge condition on angled features. |
Stock with a known history. Material is supplied with EN 10204 3.1 / 3.2 certification, traceable to heat number. Titanium mill product comes from the melting, rolling and forging side of our own group, so the processing route is known before machining begins. We also accept customer free-issue stock with valid certification — state which applies on the RFQ form.
Titanium grades and specifications → · GB / ASTM / EN / JIS equivalency table → · All material forms →
Verification
How a machined part is proven
A complex surface cannot be signed off with a caliper. Verification is planned at the same time as the toolpath, and it is the same plan whichever route the part took.
- On-machine probing. Critical features are measured on the machine while the part is still in the cutting fixture, so a dimensional drift is caught before the part is unclamped — not after.
- Dimensional layout. Full dimensional report against drawing requirements, including geometric tolerances and blade-to-blade consistency, issued with the shipment.
- Non-destructive testing. UT, PT and RT performed to the specification called out on your drawing.
- First article inspection. FAI to AS9102 available on request, with the characteristic list and ballooned drawing agreed beforehand.
- Material certification. EN 10204 3.1 or 3.2 documentation, traceable to heat number, supplied with the part.
CMM measuring an impeller — probe on the blade profileQuestions
What buyers ask about machining here
Can you machine a blisk from solid, or do you need a near-net forging?
Both routes are workable and the choice is economic before it is technical. Machining from solid gives full control of material traceability and eliminates forging lead time; a near-net blank reduces cycle time and tool consumption on large parts. We will quote both when the geometry allows and state the trade-off in writing.
How do you control blade-to-blade variation?
By keeping the cutting conditions identical for every blade: one setup, one datum, one tool with a defined life counter, and a finishing path generated from the same surface model for every blade position. Verification is by on-machine probing and dimensional layout, not by visual comparison.
When does a part need the 5-axis route instead of 3- or 4-axis?
When a feature cannot be reached by indexing the part — a twisted aerofoil, an undercut beneath an overhanging face, or a channel narrower than the tool head. If we see that on your drawing we will route the part to five axes rather than hand-finish a three-axis approximation.
Can you hold positional tolerances between a bore and a bolt circle?
That is what the rotary setup is for: bore and bolt circle are machined in one fixturing against one axis, so the relationship does not accumulate re-fixturing error. Achievable values are quoted against your specific callout rather than as a blanket figure.
Can you turn long, slender shafts without taper?
Slender parts are supported with steady rests and machined with parameters chosen to limit deflection. Achievable straightness and taper depend on length-to-diameter ratio and material; send the geometry and we will state what we can hold.
Can you machine a part that needs both turning and 5-axis work — and grind it afterwards?
That is a normal workflow here, not an exception. The turned datum is established first, the part moves to multi-axis machining, and returns for final turning or grinding if the drawing requires it — all under one quality system and one traveller.
Do you subcontract any operation?
Turning, milling, planing, grinding and fitting are performed in-house. If a drawing requires a specialised process outside our capability — for example a specific coating or heat treatment specification — we will say so on the quotation rather than arrange it silently.
Do you accept single prototypes and free-issue material?
Yes to both. Prototype and development work is accepted, and first article inspection to AS9102 is available on request. We routinely machine stock produced by our own group and also accept customer free-issue stock with valid certification. State which applies on the RFQ form, and say whether the enquiry is development or production — it changes how we plan fixtures and inspection.
What file formats do you need for a quotation?
STEP or IGES for geometry, plus DWG or PDF for tolerances, surface finish, NDT and material specification. Where a native CAD model exists, STEP with the drawing as the governing document is the cleanest combination.
Send the drawing. We will tell you the route.
Upload STEP, IGES, DWG or PDF. We reply with the proposed route, setup, achievable tolerances, inspection plan and lead time — and tell you plainly if the part is outside our envelope.