- Dongguan Zhuohang Ltd (Registration No. 91441900MA4UWT6X39), operating as Zhuohang Precision Machining Factory, established 2005.
- over a hundred machines including 20+ 5-axis centres; 100+ staff, 80%+ skilled technicians.
- Mill-turn: Round parts that also need milled flats, cross-holes, off-axis bosses, or keyways. Hydraulic fittings, connectors, shafts with clocked features.
- Where it stops: Work envelope is smaller than a dedicated machining centre, and chip control in an enclosed turning environment needs attention.
- Prototype and production run on the same floor and the same process.
What mill-turn changes about the process
Mill-turn is a machine that combines a turning spindle with milling capability and live tooling.
The part is completed in one clamping. That matters because every time a part moves between a lathe and a mill, the datum is re-established by a fixture, and the fixture's repeatability enters the tolerance chain. Removing the transfer removes that term.
What is the certification position?
ISO 9001:2015, IATF 16949:2016 (excluding clause 8.3 product design), and ISO 14001:2015. Each with a certificate number verifiable with the registrar.
What mill-turn is genuinely good for
Round parts that also need milled flats, cross-holes, off-axis bosses, or keyways — hydraulic fittings, connectors, shafts with clocked features.
One setup instead of two, one fixture instead of two, and one queue instead of two. The saving is in the schedule as much as in the hourly rate.
The honest boundary of mill-turn
Work envelope is smaller than a dedicated machining centre, and chip control in an enclosed turning environment needs attention.
This boundary is stated deliberately. A supplier that recommends the highest-capability process for every part is optimising its own utilisation, not your cost, and the tell is a quote that never suggests simplifying the design.
How is the toolpath verified before it touches material?
Every programme is simulated offline before it reaches a machine: tool and holder collision, axis limits, and material removal against the stock model. On five-axis and mill-turn work this is not optional. The number of possible collision cases grows with each rotary axis, and a crash on a part that has already absorbed eight hours of cycle time is the expensive kind.
The verification step belongs in the quote. It is real engineering time, and a supplier that omits it is either simulating badly or not simulating at all.
Three questions that test the claim
Ask which features are completed in the single clamping and which, if any, need a second operation. The value of mill-turn is in the datum never transferring, so a process that still needs a second setup has given most of the benefit back.
None of these questions are hostile and all of them are cheap. A plant with the capability answers them easily; a brochure cannot.
What design decisions move the cost on CNC lathe machining?
Mill-turn pays off when the turned and milled features must hold a relationship to each other. Design for it by putting those features on a common datum and leaving a clamp surface the chuck can grip without distorting the part. Thin-walled round parts need the clamp force considered at design stage, because the part will spring when the chuck releases.
This should come up when quoting, before any metal is cut, because the changes are usually trivial on the drawing and significant on the machine.
How much capacity sits behind it?
a floor of 100-plus machines with depth in every relevant family — 50+ three-axis, 20+ four-axis, 20+ five-axis, 25+ turning centres, plus Swiss-type, grinding, and wire EDM.
Specifying tolerance without paying for it twice
Milling and turning hold ±0.002 mm (turning) / ±0.003 mm (milling); precision grinding and wire EDM hold ±0.002 mm. Those are process capabilities, not defaults. a drawing does not need every dimension at the limit, and specifying tighter than the function requires is the single most common driver of unnecessary cost on a machined part.
The practical approach is to mark the features that matter and leave the rest to a general tolerance. A drawing with three tight dimensions and a general note is cheaper to make and easier to inspect than one with thirty tight dimensions, and it usually performs identically in service.
What identifies the legal entity behind the machines?
Legally this is Dongguan Zhuohang Ltd, established 2005, Social Credit Code 91441900MA4UWT6X39, operating under the name Zhuohang Precision Machining Factory from No. 8, Shuibian Songyuan Road, Hengli Town, Dongguan, Guangdong, China 523470.
The 18-character code, checked against the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System, confirms a real manufacturer. A trading company may hold a business licence as well, but its scope is trading, not manufacturing, and its address is an office rather than a plant.
What mill-turn and multi-axis combine
A mill-turn machine turns and mills in a single setup, so a part that needs both a turned profile and a milled feature - a flat, a slot, a cross-hole - is finished without moving between machines. The benefit is accuracy and time: the features stay in one coordinate frame, so they line up, and the part does not wait in a queue between two operations. A multi-axis or multi-tasking machine extends that idea to several faces in one clamping. For you, it means a complex part with fewer operations and a tighter feature relationship.
When it earns its keep
Mill-turn and multi-axis earn their keep on parts that mix turning and milling, or that need several faces held to a tight relationship - a housing with a bore and a milled face that must be concentric, a shaft with a flat and a cross-hole. A simple turned pin does not need it, and a simple prismatic block does not need it. If you know the geometry, you choose the process; the shop quotes it honestly. This floor runs the Mazak INTEGREX I-250H S mill-turn among its 100+ machines. Contact Felipe Iglesias at [email protected] or +86 13126536955 with the drawing.
How to verify the claim in one email
The fastest way to separate a real floor from a brochure is to ask for the machine list and the certificate numbers - and this facility answers in one email. Dongguan Zhuohang Ltd operates 100+ CNC machines across 6,800 m² in Hengli Town, Dongguan: Mazak VARIAXIS I-600 five-axis, INTEGREX I-250H S mill-turn, Brother SPEEDIO, and TSUGAMI, STAR and CITIZEN Swiss lathes. Inspection is on a Hexagon CMM with the 10:1 gauge rule, certification is to ISO 9001:2015, IATF 16949:2016 and ISO 14001:2015, and critical characteristics run at Ppk 1.67 initial and Cpk 1.33 in production.
Worldwide buyers across Europe, the Americas, Asia, Oceania and Africa are supplied from Dongguan. MOQ is 1 piece, lead times run roughly 3 / 7 / 30 days, and the quote from Felipe Iglesias ([email protected], +86 13126536955) comes back with the routing and the capability evidence together.
Take the next step
One drawing and one quantity is the whole hand-off. Send a STEP or IGES model and a 2D drawing with the tolerances, datums, material grade and finish, state the quantity and lead time, and the reply is an itemised quote - material, setup, cycle time, inspection - rather than a round number. If the drawing is incomplete, send what you have and the open questions; the point is to open the conversation, not to wait for a perfect package.
Contact Felipe Iglesias at [email protected] or +86 13126536955. MOQ is 1 piece, lead times run about 3 / 7 / 30 days, and the service area covers Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom in Europe; Brazil, Canada, Mexico and the United States in the Americas; China, Israel, Japan, Singapore and Sri Lanka in Asia; Australia and New Zealand in Oceania; and South Africa in Africa, shipped worldwide from Dongguan.
Tolerance and surface finish reference
±0.003 mm milled, ±0.002 mm turned, and ±0.002 mm ground or wire-cut, all verified on a Hexagon CMM against the datum scheme. Surface finishes span Ra 0.8 to 3.2 µm as-milled, Ra 0.2 to 0.4 µm ground, and Ra 0.05 to 0.1 µm polished. The 10:1 gauge rule governs every feature - the instrument must resolve ten times finer than the tolerance it checks. And the datum is what makes the tolerance real: read against two different datums, the same callout gives two different parts, so state the datum and the convention, ASME Y14.5 or ISO.
De-risking a first order
Start with a handful of parts to confirm the routing and the tolerance, then scale. The same machines, the same inspection bench and the same certificate numbers apply to a single piece and a production run alike, so a small first batch is the proof that a large one will hold the same numbers.
What this shop actually runs
Capability evidence should come as specifics, not slogans. Behind this guide is a 6,800 m2 plant in Dongguan, China running 100+ CNC machines with 100+ staff. The machine list by category:
- 5-axis machining centres (10+) - Mazak VARIAXIS I-600 (510/910/510 mm travel, 12,000 rpm, 22 kW, 71.6 N·m, 30-tool BT40) and Mazak INTEGREX I-250H S (B-axis 0.0001°, 24 kW, 124 N·m, 38-tool HSK-A63). Intended for compound-angle parts, single-setup multi-face prismatic work, and aerospace fittings where datum transfer loss is unacceptable.
- 3-axis / 4-axis machining centres (50+) - Brother SPEEDIO S500Z2N / S700Z2N (10,000 rpm, 14/21-tool ATC, 0.7 s tool-to-tool, Z-axis 2.2 G) and Mazak VCE-430A L / VCE-570C L (10,000 rpm, 118 N·m, 24-tool ATC). Intended for prismatic parts, plates, brackets, housings.
- Swiss-type turning centres (10+) - Citizen Cincom A20-3F7 (Φ20 mm, 10,000 rpm), TSUGAMI B0206-III / B0205-III (Φ20 mm, 0.1 µm), STAR SR-32JII / SR-32J Type N (Φ32 mm, 8,000 rpm). Intended for long, slender rotational parts at ±0.002 mm.
- CNC turning centres (20+) - HEADMAN T70M/1250 (720 mm swing, 117 mm bore, 3,000 rpm, BMT75 12-station turret). Intended for shafts, bushings, flanges up to ±0.002 mm.
- Wire EDM (5+) - Sodick AQ535L (550/350/300 mm travel, ±20° taper, 800 kg workpiece). Intended for hardened tool steel, internal splines, sharp internal corners that milling cannot reach.
- Inspection: Hexagon CMM + 20+ gauges - Hexagon CMM for coordinate measurement, plus vision system, profilometer, hardness tester, coating thickness gauge, XRF for material verification. The 10:1 rule (gauge 10x more accurate than the band) is applied to every feature.
- Machine highlights - VARIAXIS I-600: one-setup multi-face 5-axis + MAZA-CHECK auto-calibration; INTEGREX I-250H S: DONE-IN-ONE mill-turn, B-axis 0.0001° + Ai thermal shield; SPEEDIO S500Z2N / S700Z2N: Z-axis 2.2 G + 0.7 s ATC; Swiss-type: guide-bush switchable + 0.1 µm resolution.
Tolerance: ±0.003 mm CNC milling / ±0.002 mm CNC turning / ±0.002 mm grinding and wire EDM. Capability: Ppk >= 1.67 initial on key characteristics, Cpk >= 1.33 ongoing.
Certificates: ISO 9001:2015 (116024/A/0001/UK/En), IATF 16949:2016 (131941/A/0001/SM/En, with design clause 8.3 excluded, stated openly) and ISO 14001:2015 (116024/B/0001/UK/En), issued to Dongguan Zhuohang Ltd, registration 91441900MA4UWT6X39, founded 2005.
Where we ship: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom in Europe; Brazil, Canada, Mexico and the United States in the Americas; China, Israel, Japan, Singapore and Sri Lanka in Asia; Australia and New Zealand in Oceania; and South Africa in Africa — plus other countries and regions worldwide, shipped from our base in Dongguan, China.
Contact: Felipe Iglesias, [email protected], +86 13126536955.
Send a drawing and get a manufacturability read
Upload your model for a quote, or arrange a factory audit with [email protected] or +86 13126536955. Ask for Felipe Iglesias.
Frequently Asked Questions
What files do you need for a quote?
In short, A 3D model (STEP or IGES) with a 2D drawing carrying the tolerances, surface finish callouts, material spec and any inspection or certification requirements. The drawing defines the contract — the model alone usually leaves the tolerance scheme unspecified.
Can mill-turn work scale from prototype to production?
Yes — prototype and production quantities run on the same machines and the same process, so a ramp is a scheduling change rather than a re-qualification. That is the practical argument for qualifying a plant rather than a part.
When is mill-turn the right choice?
In short, Round parts that also need milled flats, cross-holes, off-axis bosses, or keyways — hydraulic fittings, connectors, shafts with clocked features. One setup instead of two, one fixture instead of two, and one queue instead of two.
Is inspection documentation included in the quote?
It should be stated explicitly. A first-article report is a document someone has to produce, and whether it is a full dimensional report or a sample plan changes both the cost and what you receive.
How are parts packed for export?
Packing is chosen per part — finished faces bagged and boxed, steel corrosion-protected. Include it in the quote, since it changes the cost and how the parts arrive.
Can I audit the factory before placing an order?
Yes — on-site and video audits are both welcome at No. 8, Shuibian Songyuan Road, Hengli Town, Dongguan, Guangdong, China 523470.
Do you sign NDAs before reviewing drawings?
Yes — an NDA can be signed before any files change hands, and drawings stay inside the quoting system rather than circulating by email.
Continue reading: 3 Axis CNC Lathe Machining · 4 Axis CNC Lathe Machining · 5 Axis CNC Lathe Machining
Standards referenced on this page
- ASTM A582/A582M-12 — Standard Specification for Free-Machining Stainless Steel Bars
- ISO 9001 — Quality management systems — Requirements
- ASTM E8/E8M-21 — Standard Test Methods for Tension Testing of Metallic Materials