Mecvona runs 96 rotary axes across 100+ machining centres for 3+2 positional work, plus dedicated simultaneous 5-axis cells for contoured surfaces. Most parts quoted as 5-axis only need 3+2 — we tell you which yours needs, and price it that way.
5-axis CNC machining moves a cutting tool along three linear axes (X, Y and Z) while two rotary axes tilt and turn the workpiece or the spindle head. The tool can therefore approach a part from almost any direction, reaching five faces of a component without releasing it from the fixture.
The two rotary axes are usually named after the linear axis they rotate about — A rotates about X, B about Y, C about Z. Which pair a machine has depends on its configuration, and that configuration decides what it is good at:
Trunnion-style machines tilt and rotate the table, carrying the part while the spindle stays vertical. The tilting cradle limits how heavy a part can be, but the spindle remains extremely rigid, which suits smaller parts needing heavy cuts and tight tolerances.
Head-head or swivel-head machines tilt the spindle instead, leaving the table stationary. Large and heavy workpieces stay supported, at the cost of some rigidity in the head.
Table-head machines split the work — one rotary axis in the table, one in the head — which is the arrangement used on most machining centres fitted with a rotary unit.
Beyond configuration, there is a second and more consequential distinction that decides most of a 5-axis quote: whether all five axes move during the cut, or whether the rotary axes index to an angle, lock, and let a conventional 3-axis toolpath do the work. That is the difference between simultaneous 5-axis and 3+2 positional machining, and it is worth understanding before you compare two quotes.
Mecvona runs both strategies in the same plant, on machines matched to each.
Both run on a 5-axis machine. They use it in completely different ways, they cost different amounts, and they suit different parts. A quote that does not say which one it assumes is not a quote you can compare.
The rotary axes rotate the part to present a face to the spindle, then lock. A conventional 3-axis toolpath cuts that face. The part rotates again for the next face. Five faces get machined in one setup, but no rotary motion happens while metal is being cut.
All five axes interpolate together during the cut, so the tool stays at a controlled angle to a curving surface as it travels. This is what produces a true flowing surface without the faceting that indexed passes leave behind.
The practical consequence: a large share of parts sent out to quote as “5-axis” are multi-face prismatic components — housings, manifolds, brackets with angled bosses, valve blocks with ports on several planes. None of those needs continuous interpolation. They need a machine that can present each face to a short rigid tool, which is exactly what 3+2 does, faster and more accurately than simultaneous work would.
Mecvona tells you which one your drawing calls for as part of the quote. It is the single largest cost lever on this process, and it is the first thing our engineers look at.
Pick the description closest to your component. You will get the machining strategy we would plan for it, why, and what that means for cost.
Six common 5-axis part types
A prismatic part with features on five sides conventionally needs three or four setups on a 3-axis machine, each with its own fixture and its own re-referencing error. Rotating the part instead of re-clamping it means every feature is located from the same origin, so position, perpendicularity and true position callouts across faces hold to machine accuracy rather than fixture repeatability.
Reaching into a deep cavity from vertical needs a long tool, and a long tool pushes away from the cut. Tilting the part so the spindle sits closer lets a short, stiff cutter do the same work — usually with a higher feed rate, a better finish and a longer tool life. This benefit belongs mostly to 3+2, and it is the reason 3+2 often beats simultaneous on both cost and accuracy for prismatic geometry.
On a curved surface, a fixed tool angle leaves scallops between passes that someone has to polish out. Simultaneous interpolation keeps the cutter at a controlled angle to the surface throughout, so the finish comes off the machine closer to final. On aerospace and medical contours that removes a manual operation and the variability that comes with it.
Angled features on a 3-axis machine need an angle plate or a bespoke fixture designed for one part number. A rotary axis presents the same face without any of that. On mid-volume programmes, the fixture that never gets made is frequently the largest single line item removed from the quote.
Every figure is given in metric and imperial because drawings arrive in both.
A 5-axis machine can only reach a face if the fixture is not already covering it. On this process the workholding plan is not a detail settled on the shop floor — it is designed alongside the toolpath, before the quote goes out.
A small dovetail or stub is machined into the blank and gripped by a compact vice, leaving the part standing clear of the fixture. Five faces become reachable at once. The stub is removed in a short second operation, which is usually cheaper than the fixture it replaces.
A repeatable pallet interface lets a part come off the machine and go back on to a known position within a few microns. This is what makes a genuine second operation viable without losing the datum established in the first.
Thin-walled and contoured parts are held by material that is machined away last. It costs raw material and cycle time, and it is often the only way to keep a delicate part rigid through a long cut.
What this means for your drawing: if you can leave 8–15 mm of sacrificial stock on a non-functional face, or tell us which face is free to be gripped, the fixture question usually resolves itself. If every face on the part is functional and finished, say so early — that constraint drives the entire process plan and it is far cheaper to design around at quote stage than to discover at first article.
Multi-axis work concentrates long cycles and unusual tool angles on a single clamped part, so a material’s behaviour under sustained cutting matters as much as its machinability rating.
| Family | Grades we run | What it means on a 5-axis cycle |
|---|---|---|
| Aluminium | 6061-T6 · 6082-T651 · 7075-T6 · 2024-T351 · 5083 · ADC12 | High-speed spindles suit it well, but thermal growth across a long cycle consumes tolerance on large bores. Finishing passes are scheduled late. |
| Stainless steel | 303 · 304/304L · 316/316L · 17-4 PH · 420 · 440C | Work-hardens under a dwelling tool, so continuous engagement and controlled step-over matter more than raw spindle power. |
| Titanium | Ti-6Al-4V Gr 5 · Ti-6Al-4V ELI Gr 23 · CP Gr 2 | Low thermal conductivity puts heat into the tool. Tilting the part to keep a short cutter engaged is often the difference between a viable cycle and constant tool changes. |
| Superalloys | Inconel 718 · Inconel 625 · Monel 400 · Hastelloy C276 | Expensive stock and slow removal rates mean toolpath efficiency is a cost item, not a preference. Simulation before cutting is mandatory. |
| Carbon and alloy steel | 1045 · 4140 · 4340 · 8620 · 16MnCr5 · 100Cr6 · tool steels | Rigidity governs everything. Locked-axis 3+2 with a short cutter almost always outperforms a long-reach simultaneous path here. |
| Copper and brass | C11000 · C14500 · C17200 · C3604 · C36000 | Soft and gummy under a trailing edge. Tool angle control from a tilted setup gives a cleaner cut than reaching in from vertical. |
| Engineering plastics | PEEK · PTFE · POM · Nylon 66 · PEI · PPS | Clamping pressure deforms what measurement then reports. Fixture design matters more than cutting parameters on these. |
Six notes we send back to engineers most often. Handling them at the drawing stage is free; handling them at first article is not.
A cutter reaching more than about four times its own diameter starts to chatter and deflect. Tilting the part shortens the required reach, which is exactly what 5-axis buys you — but a pocket that is genuinely deep and narrow will still need a long tool, a slower feed and a bigger corner radius. Widening a pocket by two millimetres often removes an entire cost tier.
Every internal vertical corner takes the radius of the cutter. Specify at least 1/3 of the pocket depth as a corner radius where function allows; a generous radius lets us use a larger, stiffer tool and cut faster. A sharp internal corner is not a machining feature — it needs EDM, and that is a separate operation.
Five-axis work earns its value by holding a single origin through every face. If features on face A are dimensioned from face A and features on face C from face C, someone has to decide which relationship to protect. Tell us which one the part fails on and the process plan is built around it.
The part has to be held somewhere while it is machined everywhere else. A sacrificial boss, a dovetail allowance of 8–15 mm, or simply nominating a non-critical face as the gripping surface will usually cost less than the bespoke fixture that is the alternative.
A curved surface that must seal, seat or flow needs simultaneous interpolation and tight scallop control. A curved surface that only has to look right can often be produced in 3+2 with a small blending operation, at a fraction of the cycle cost. That single sentence on an enquiry can change the quote substantially.
A drawing with a blanket tight tolerance is priced as though every feature is critical. Mark what matters and open up the rest. You usually get a better price and a better part, because inspection and process control concentrate where they change something.
A 5-axis machine carries a higher hourly rate than a 3-axis machining centre, and multi-axis programming takes longer — a simultaneous toolpath has to be simulated for collisions across the full range of motion before it is proved on metal. Both costs land on every job that uses them.
They are repaid by fixtures that are never built, setups that never happen, and inspection gates that disappear along with them. On a part with features on four or five planes, the 5-axis quote is frequently lower in total than the 3-axis route, even though the hourly rate is higher.
Where it is not: a part whose features all sit on one or two planes gains nothing from a rotary axis. Mecvona’s own manufacturing principle is blunt about this — if a 3-axis machine can do the job well, we do not add cost to the customer. Parts like that get quoted on 3-axis, and we say so rather than letting a more expensive process go unremarked.
Plates, covers and simple prismatic components with features on one or two faces belong on a 3-axis machine. A rotary axis adds machine rate without removing an operation.
Anything fundamentally turned — shafts, housings with a dominant axis of revolution, valve bodies with radial ports — is faster and cheaper on our mill-turn centres, which combine turning with B-axis milling in one clamp.
Pins, contacts and spools below Ø25 mm with a high length-to-diameter ratio want a guide bushing, not a rotary table. Those go to our Swiss cells.
Cutter geometry sets a floor on what milling can produce. Below it, wire or sinker EDM is the answer, and we will quote that as a separate operation rather than pretending a smaller tool exists.
Grinding still wins for roundness, cylindricity and post-heat-treatment diameters. We run centreless and cylindrical grinding in the same plant, quoted as its own line.
A print alone gets you a price. These six get you a price, a proposed strategy, and the notes that change the number.
Multi-axis quoting depends on tool access and collision clearance, which can only be checked against the model.
Sealing and flow surfaces need simultaneous interpolation. Cosmetic curves often do not. This is the largest cost lever on the process.
Nominating a non-critical face, or allowing 8–15 mm of sacrificial stock, usually removes the need for a bespoke fixture.
If features are dimensioned from several faces, someone has to choose which relationship to protect. Better that it is you.
Four releases of 50 is a different job from one order of 200. It changes setup amortisation and fixture strategy.
FAI format, PPAP level, material certificates, RoHS. Named in the quote so it is not a discussion at first delivery.
A Mecvona engineer sends a DFM response within one business day: whether we would run the part 3+2 or simultaneous and why, the workholding approach, the notes that would make the part cheaper, and questions where the print is ambiguous rather than assumptions built quietly into the price.
Mecvona holds ±0.008 mm (±0.0003″) on a single controlled feature, ±0.020 mm (±0.0008″) across a production lot at Cpk ≥ 1.33, and 0.015 mm face-to-face within one setup. Surface finish is Ra 0.4–1.6 µm as machined. Which figure applies to your print depends on the datum scheme, material, part size and lot size, and we state it explicitly in the quote rather than publishing a single headline number.
Mecvona machines parts to 800 × 600 × 500 mm within a 300 kg workpiece weight on our trunnion and rotary cells. Larger prismatic components run on our horizontal and gantry machining centres in 3-axis or 3+1 configuration, and we will say so at quote rather than stretching the envelope.
Mecvona runs two dedicated simultaneous 5-axis cells, four 5-axis trunnion units, and 92 single-axis rotary and indexing units across more than 100 machining centres. We publish the split because it matters: our scale sits in indexed multi-face work, which is what the majority of parts actually need, while the simultaneous cells handle the contoured and undercut geometry that genuinely requires continuous interpolation.
Per machine hour, yes, and multi-axis programming takes longer. In total cost it is frequently cheaper on parts with features on four or five planes, because the fixtures, setups and inspection gates of a multi-operation 3-axis route all disappear. On parts whose features sit on one or two planes it is simply more expensive, and Mecvona quotes those on 3-axis instead.
Mecvona machines aluminium 6061-T6, 6082-T651, 7075-T6 and 2024-T351; stainless steels including 303, 304/304L, 316/316L, 17-4 PH and 440C; titanium Ti-6Al-4V Grade 5 and Grade 23 ELI; superalloys including Inconel 718, Inconel 625, Monel 400 and Hastelloy C276; carbon and alloy steels including 4140, 4340 and 8620; copper and brass alloys; and engineering plastics including PEEK, PTFE, POM, Nylon 66 and PEI.
Mecvona uses three approaches, chosen at quote stage rather than on the shop floor. A dovetail or stub machined into the blank and gripped by a compact vice leaves the part standing clear of the fixture. A zero-point pallet system allows a repeatable second operation without losing the original datum. Sacrificial stock or tabs hold thin-walled and contoured parts until the final pass. Telling us which face is free to be gripped, or allowing 8–15 mm of sacrificial stock, usually removes the need for a bespoke fixture.
First articles in 5–9 working days from drawing approval, production in 12–18 working days after FAI sign-off. Simultaneous 5-axis programming and collision simulation are quoted separately and stated up front. Exotic bar and billet stock adds procurement time, and we tell you that at quote rather than at week three.
Mecvona signs your NDA — send it with the RFQ and it comes back executed. Drawings and CAD models stay within the engineering and production team handling your part, are never used in marketing without written permission, and are not shown to other customers. Partner finishing lines receive only the process requirement, not your model.
Upload a STEP file and a 2D print. You get back a price, a lead time, and the machining strategy Mecvona would use — 3+2 or simultaneous, and why. Where a 3-axis or mill-turn route suits your part better, that is what the reply will say.
