Case Studies - Turntable Base

Prototype turntable base manufactured from specialist tooling plate reverse engineered from customers existing component and manufactured 10 off.

The customer, who is in the high end audio market, approached Paramount as a local company with an existing component without any drawings seeking help to reverse engineer the component for use in bringing a new product to market. Paramount took the component and using state of the art coordinate measurement tools prepared full 3D engineering files for CNC machining. The Axiom coordinate measurement machine was used which offers measurements in three dimensions to tolerances of +/-0.005mm and direct integration with the Aberlink 3D software. From there the digital specifications were sent through to Solid works where the design modifications were implemented to the model file, as seen in the images below. Using CAD/CAM software the job was then prepared for manufacture and checked in Vericut for any errors that may have occurred in the programming process, as seen below.

The manufacture process required a 2 set up process in a Doosan 500 machining centre, one for facing the top with a particular emphasis on a high end surface finish using specialist aluminium facing tools at appropriate speeds and depth of cut, and the other set up for the profiling, drilling and tapping operations on the reverse side.

The specialist tooling plate was an aluminium alloy machined from solid, grained and black anodised to particular specification. Because of the particular requirements of this job Paramount sourced a specialist surface finisher that could demonstrate the expertise required for the type of finish needed as opposed to using their regular supplier. To achieve this Paramount sent out a number of samples to surface treatment companies after which the customer was allowed to choose the most appropriate finish. As can be seen from the photos, the flat surface had to have an extremely high quality finish as the final product, a record player, was to be retailed for several thousand pounds. 

Standard inspection was carried out with particular emphasis on the quality of the masked threads after anodising and the aesthetic finish of the flat surface which was to be visible in the product.

In total 10 items were manufactured in 1 batch with the intention for future large volume orders.