Roemheld to focus on workholding

A newly developed range of compact, three- and four-sided tower clamping systems manufactured by the Roemheld group’s Hilma division in Hilchenbach will be launched on the stand (E255) of Roemheld UK.

Intended for use on four- and five-axis vertical machining centres, as well as horizontal-spindle machines, the steel monobloc SCT towers, which are either mechanically or hydraulically actuated, are sealed against swarf and other contamination. Applications range from use on manually loaded machines, through twin-pallet-change centres, up to fully automated flexible manufacturing systems.
For further information www.roemheld.co.uk

XYZ in control

The next generation of ProtoTRAK control systems from XYZ Machine Tools will exhibited for the first time on stand J210.

Three ProtoTRAK controls have been developed. The KMX is specifically for company’s range of turret mills, while the RMX and RLX supersede the existing ProtoTRAK controls on the company’s bed mills and lathes respectively. At Southern Manufacturing the ProtoTRAK KMX will be shown on an XYZ KMX 2000 turret mill, with the RMX ProtoTRAK on an XYZ RMX 3500 bed mill and an XYZ RLX 425 ProTURN lathe highlighting the features and benefits of the RLX control.
For further information www.xyzmachinetools.com

Machine investment reaches £400,000

As one of the UK’s foremost exponents of machining plastic components, Hertfordshire-based Plastic Turned Parts continues to invest in its future. The recent arrival of two Citizen sliding-head lathes means that the company’s total investment in 2018 exceeded £400,000.

The two new machines, a Citizen L20 with its LFV technology and a Citizen B16E sliding-head lathe, bring the total number of CNC lathes to 11, all of which are used solely for the machining of a wide range of plastic materials. Plastic Turned Parts fills the volume niche where injection moulding is not viable due to time and/or cost restraints, or where the plastic material is simply not capable of being moulded.
“Everything we machine here is plastic and we are able to achieve much greater dimensional accuracy, with no concerns over shrinkage,” says Jonathan Newis, managing director. “Three of our Citizen machines have LFV technology, which is ideal for machining plastics as swarf can be controlled precisely.”
Growth at Plastic Turned Parts is coming from old and new customers across a diverse range of industries. One particular client has increased its requirement for two specific components from 50,000 each, to 150,000 each, and one of the two new machines will be dedicated to that work. This increase is down to strong global sales among its customers and a trend in reshoring parts.
“Customers are seeing distinct advantages to having plastic parts machined rather than moulded, mainly around cost and timescale relating to manufacturing mould tools, but also the consistent quality that machining can bring,”
says Newis.
For further information www.plasticturnedparts.co.uk

University chooses Index turn-mill centre

The £7.5m advanced manufacturing technology centre opened recently by Queen’s University Belfast provides manufacturers in Northern Ireland and beyond with services that include consultancy, collaborative R&D, industrial training, and intervention for problem solving and cycle time reduction. Also, the facility can take manufacturing processes from product inception through to pre-production.

Acquiring the new equipment to populate the facility, which opened last year, took 21 months and saw the installation of seven new metal-cutting machine tools and a host of inspection and scientific equipment. The only lathe ordered in the first round of investment was a twin-spindle Index G220 turn-mill centre, supplied by Kingsbury, which was immediately put to use optimising a production process for an air bearing manufacturer in England whilst the company waits for its own G220 machine to arrive.
Head of the facility, Colm Higgins says: “The Index turn-mill machine is currently being used to evaluate the possibility of raising the efficiency of rough-turning stainless steel bar. In collaboration with our customer, we are hoping to develop a technique that replaces single-point turning with a process that instead uses a milling cutter in the B-axis spindle.
“Spreading the cutting load across several inserts rather than just one, as the bar is turning, would considerably increase the feed per tooth and hence metal removal rate, leading to reduced cycle times,” he adds. “Admittedly, accuracy and surface finish would not be as good, but for a roughing operation it does not matter. We are also reviewing other turn-milling processes for this manufacturer.”
The B-axis spindle on the G220 is positioned above the spindle centreline and is supplied with cutters from a 140-tool magazine. There is also a lower turret with 18 driven stations.
For further information www.kingsburyuk.com

Open Mind showcases latest CAM

Any visitors looking to review CAM software solutions will be able to see the latest version (2019.1) of HyperMill from Open Mind on stand B210.

Open Mind has expanded the finishing module of its HyperMill Maxx Machining performance package, while other highlights include in-process optimisation improvements, as well as newly devised functions for reducing calculation times. What’s more, the latest thread milling package incorporates feed rate repositioning and collision checking for the core diameter, while also included is the generation of a cycle output that is dependent upon process parameters.
For further information www.openmind-tech.com