Mills CNC has supplied Bowers & Jones, a specialist in high-precision roll tooling and equipment for steel and copper mill customers across the world, with a new DN Solutions VTR 1216F: a large-capacity, wide-column, ram-type vertical turning lathe (VTL). The new machine operates at the company’s 1394m² manufacturing facility in Bilston, near Wolverhampton. It sits alongside three other machines supplied by Mills CNC over the past four years, including a Doosan Puma 5100B lathe and a DN Solutions GT 3100L box-guideway lathe.

Says Jane Sommerville, managing director at Bowers & Jones: “We needed a new large-capacity vertical lathe specifically to machine large-diameter straightening rings for the customer. It would also take pressure off an older Berry & Binns horizontal lathe that we acquired some years earlier. We approached Mills and two other suppliers to discuss our requirements and, looking at the proposed investment package as a whole – including cost, availability, machine design and configuration, operator familiarity, and aftersales support – decided to place the order with Mills.”

The FANUC-controlled 50-inch chuck VTR 1216F offers a maximum turning diameter of 1600 mm and a maximum turning height of 950 mm. Equipped with a thermally-stable 45 kW/400 rpm/20,557 Nm spindle, a servo-driven 12-tool ATC and an quad tool holder with fast indexing that enables the use of four tools directly via the ram, Mills CNC says the VTR 1216F delivers fast processing speeds, improved machining flexibility and high accuracy.

Bowers & Jones machines straightening rings on its VTR 1216F from D2, a high-carbon, high-chromium molybdenum-vanadium alloy tool steel that is highly abrasive. Machining takes place from solid round bar (cut to size) in relatively small batches.

More information www.millscnc.co.uk