New lathe and turning centre alignment system

Hamar Laser Instruments is releasing its L-703S four-axis lathe andturning centrespindle alignment system. The L-703S mounts directly into spindle chucks and collets for aligning headstock spindle axes to guideways, sub-spindles and tailstocks on lathes, turning centres, and similar machines. It is also useful for guideway straightness checks during preventive maintenance and assembly, and for checking surface plates.

“The next-generation L-703 laser design features significantly higher accuracy and a few nice improvements over earlier models,” says Rod Hamar, president of Hamar Laser Instruments. “Our team’s design allowed us to reduce size, cost and complexity, increase accuracy and get rid of annoying wires by adding Bluetooth communications. With a 40% reduction in axial space over our previous L-700 model, the L-703S is much better suited to smaller lathes and turning centres. To top it all off, the price of the new system is significantly less than our older L-700 spindle kit.”

Small and lightweight, the L-703S laser is suitable for all kinds of turning applications, from small CNC turning centres and Swiss-type machines, to large-bed lathes. With a range of up to 15 m, the laser can also quickly and easily check the alignment of even very large machines.

The L-703S system features Hamar’s next-generation T-1296 five-axis wireless spindle andscan target, which can easily check all four alignment axes of a headstock spindle relative to the tailstock. The T-1296 offers a centre resolution of 0.00025 mm and angular resolution of up to 0.002 mm/m. This extremely high level of accuracy can significantly improve machine performance, reduce scrap rates and increase productivity.
For further information www.hamarlaser.com

Renishaw hosts innovation strategy launch

The Welsh Government recently announced its new innovation strategy for Wales at the Miskin facility of Renishaw. During the launch event at the company’s manufacturing site near Cardiff, the Welsh Government outlined its aspiration to become an innovation-based nation and bring better healthcare, jobs and prosperity for businesses and local communities.

At the event, the Minister for Economy, Vaughan Gething, outlined the Welsh Government’s vision of an innovation strategy for a stronger, fairer, greener Wales, with its plans to cover four mission areas: education; economy; health and wellbeing; and climate and nature. To support this strategy at the event, Renishaw showcased its STEM education centre for local schools, spoke to visitors about its £65m investment to increase manufacturing capacity with a focus on sustainability, and gave tours of its advanced manufacturing facility.
For further information www.renishaw.com

New training centre at MTC Liverpool

The Manufacturing Technology Centre’s Liverpool facility is to be the base for a new advanced manufacturing training centre delivering skills to businesses and learners in Liverpool and the northwest.Courses offered will include a new Level 2 Lean Manufacturing Operative apprenticeship. The one-year apprenticeship programme includes subjects such as lean manufacturing, production, quality control, problem solving, workplace organisation, and health and safety.

The centre will also deliver an HNC in Engineering course over a two-year period. The programme aims to empower students to develop the specialist knowledge and skills to help their organisations effectively harness the power of new and emerging manufacturing technologies.Both courses begin in October with further programmes announced soon.
For further information www.the-mtc.org

Unison’s Steve Haddrell doubles up Nukon Lasers UK

Steve Haddrell, key account manager at Unison Ltd – inventor of all-electric tube manipulation -is now sales director at sister company, Nukon Lasers UK. In addition to his fulfilling his new role, Haddrell will continue to support Unison’s tube-bending machinery customers in the Midlands and south of England. Nukon Lasers UK became the exclusive UK and Ireland distributor for Nukon’s European-made fibre laser sheet and tube-cutting machines in autumn 2021. Previously working for 600 Group’s laser division and Yamazaki Mazak’s optonics division, Haddrell has been akey account manager at Unison since 2009.
For further information www.nukonlasers.co.uk

Next-generation Puma DNT lathe series unveiled

Mills CNC, the exclusive distributor of DN Solutions and Zayer machine tools in the UK and Ireland, has introduced a new range of high-performance, box guideway lathes into the market. The next-generation 8-10” chuck (67-81mm bar diameter) DNT Puma 2100/2600 lathe series is inherently flexible and provides manufacturers with capacity up to 460mm turning diameter and 658mm turning length.

The new series comprises of eight models in total.Fundamental to performance is their rigid design and build, which boasts box guideways on all axes to help prevent vibration and, as a consequence, ensure high part accuracies, long tool life and improved surface finishes even during heavy-duty machining operations.

Spindle power and speeds vary (up to 26 kW and 4500rpm) and are model dependent. A high torque option (378Nm) for the DNT 2100M lathe is also available.

DNT lathes feature 10-12 station servo-driven turrets for fast (0.15 second indexing time) and accurate tool selection: driven tooling models are supplied with the rigid BMT 55P or 65P (base mounted) turret that can accommodate 5.5 kW/6000-10,000rpm rotary tools and facilitate fast and precise milling, drilling and tapping operations.To ensure the machining of longer workpieces, DNT lathes are equipped with manual, programmable or servo-driven tailstocks.

The new lathes feature the FANUC iPlus control with 15” touchscreen iHMI that is both intuitive and attractive.

Says Tony Dale, Mills CNC’s CEO:“New DNT 2100 and 2600 lathes are now available.Their impressive technical specification will, I am confident, have a universal appeal among component manufacturers looking to increase their productivity and deliver ‘right-first-time’ turned parts to their customers.”
For further information www.millscnc.co.uk