Innovation of CNC Milling Process for Stainless Steel Forklift Leg Guards: Double Improvement in Impact Resistance and Precision

Recently, a high-end equipment manufacturing enterprise announced that it has overcome the difficult problem of precision machining of stainless steel forklift leg guards. Through a customized CNC milling process, it has achieved the integrated molding of complex curved surfaces. This technology breaks through the thickness limitations of traditional casting processes, enabling the leg guards to be both lightweight and highly strong, and has been mass-applied to heavy-duty forklifts in ports. "The core of CNC milling for stainless steel forklift leg guards lies in the planning of the tool path." The process engineer demonstrated a 3D model. There are hundreds of variable-diameter holes distributed on the surface of the leg guards. Traditional machining requires multiple clamping and positioning operations, while the new solution uses a five-axis联动 (simultaneous five-axis) machine tool to achieve continuous machining through a spiral interpolation algorithm. "All features are completed in a single clamping, and the positional accuracy reaches 0.03mm." In order to solve the vibration problem during the milling process, the team has developed a dynamic damping system. The machine tool spindle is equipped with a piezoelectric ceramic sensor, which monitors the vibration frequency in real time and automatically adjusts the feed rate. "This is equivalent to installing a 'tactile sense' for the machine tool," the project leader introduced. The new technology has reduced the surface roughness to Ra0.8μm, an improvement of 60% compared with the traditional process. According to third-party testing, in the collision test of a 5-ton forklift, the deformation of the leg guards processed by CNC milling is 45% less than that of the castings. A port equipment operator has reported that after the new leg guards were put into use, the cargo scratching rate has decreased by 70%, and the maintenance cycle has been extended to 18 months. The enterprise has established a material database covering the milling parameters of various stainless steels such as 304 and 316L. The technical team revealed that they are developing an AI visual inspection system to predict machining defects through deep learning. "Unmanned production can be achieved in the future." With the maturity of the CNC milling technology for stainless steel forklift leg guards, the manufacturing capacity of the core components of high-end forklifts in China is expected to be greatly improved. This technology is not only applicable to logistics equipment, but can also be extended to fields such as rail transit and special robots, injecting new impetus into the precision machining industry.