Alpine F1 Team’s recent investment in eight Mikron MILL P 500U five-axis machining centres has had a dramatic and positive impact on the productivity and efficiency of its manufacturing operations. The machines – four with integrated automatic pallet changers and four without – are now operational at the F1 Team’s manufacturing facility in Enstone, Oxfordshire. These eight MILL P 500Us replaced six Mikron HPM 450U five-axis machines that were acquired in 2016. Whilst still performing satisfactorily, the HPM 450U’s days were numbered.

Ian Pearce, Alpine F1 Team’s head of supply chain, says: “The Mikron HPM 450Us are good machines but changing situations and circumstances within our own manufacturing operations dictated that they needed to be replaced as a matter of some urgency.”

The arrival of the new machines has enabled Alpine F1 Team to take advantage of fast rapids (61 m/min) and 1 G acceleration/deceleration rates, as well as gantry-type construction and a trunnion rotary tilting table (with tandem support on its tilt axis).

Front uprights are among the parts now undergoing machining on the MILL P 500Us.
Says Bruce Foster, metallics production manager at Alpine F1 Team: “The uprights are primarily 3+2 machined from solid aluminium, with full simultaneous five-axis machining taking place when and where appropriate and beneficial. Cycle times are about 12 hours per upright, while geometric tolerances across the part are 10 µm or better, along with Ra 0.2 µm surface finish.”
In addition to the front uprights, the MILL P 500U machines produce the cars’ hydraulic manifold from (solid) aerospace-grade aluminium to exacting tolerances. Over 85% of the material is removed during the roughing process, leaving a complex part exhibiting a number of delicate and intricate features.

For further information
www.gfms.com