New investment pays dividends at Sanoh UK

MACH Machine Tools has supplied Sanoh UK Manufacturing, a tier-one supplier and manufacturer and distributor of tubular products to the UK automotive sector, with a new vertical machining centre. The machine, a three-axis MACH MDV 1160S equipped with the DynaPath control, arrived at the company’s Engineering Centre facility in Avonmouth in April 2025. It replaced two older semi-automatic milling machines that were part-exchanged to help fund the investment.

Since installation, the MACH MDV 1160S has been put through its paces machining a range of different-sized base plates for gauges and assembly fixtures. The plates are made from aluminium and measure 12.7 mm thick. Machining operations comprise the drilling of pre-fixing holes on the underside, allowing secure clamping on the machine table, before the drilling of application-specific holes on the top side that serve to hold a number of posts and blocks in position.

Says Leyton Dunn, Engineering Centre manager: “Prior to investing in the new MACH machine, these drilling operations were performed on our semi-automatic mills. However, the relatively small worktables meant that we were constantly having to stop drilling to unclamp the plates, move them to a different position and re-clamp.”

On a recent project involving the drilling of a series of holes in 10 different sized plates, the size of the worktable on the MDV 1160S meant the number of plate movements and the related re-fixturing operations required was reduced to just four instead of 24. Moreover, the project was completed in 70 hours less than if it was handled on the Engineering Centre’s semi-automatic machines.

More information www.machmt.co.uk

Heller promotes five-axis machining centres

Heller presented its expertise in the productive and flexible manufacture of complex components at the Paris Air Show earlier this month. The accent was on the company’s F and HF series of five-axis horizontal machining centres (HMCs), which see regular use in the aerospace industry for producing various sizes of engine component, doors, landing gear and structural parts.

Especially with regard to the machining of difficult-to-machine materials, Heller says its robust yet compact machining centre solutions are configurable with a choice of automation options, all models being equally suitable for single-part manufacturing or high-volume production, 24/7.

Since the end of 2023, Heller has rolled out five-axis production centres of various sizes in the new F series. In addition to a small footprint, the machines offer acceleration up to 7 m/s² in the linear axes and positional tolerances in X/Y/Z up to 6 µm. A further advantage is the large working volume relative to the external dimensions.

With one-hit machining playing an increasingly important role in many aerospace manufacturing applications, Heller has embraced this all-in-one concept and offers an optional turning function for combined turn-milling on the F series for machines up to 1.6 m in the X axis. The facilitating high-torque rotary table delivers speeds up to 700 rpm, allowing external or internal contouring in the longitudinal or transverse direction in a single set-up, as well as the production of undercuts and recesses. Even the cutting of external and internal threads is possible.

Error prevention features include a digital twin integrated into the Siemens Sinumerik One control system, which supports virtual mapping of a production process before removal of the first chips.

More information www.heller.biz

New range of simultaneous five-axis machines

Mills CNC has introduced a range of simultaneous five-axis machining centres into the UK market. The second-generation DVF 5000 series, successor to the original series introduced in 2018, builds on the success of its predecessor through improved accuracy, faster processing speed and greater machining flexibility.

Faster X-, Y-and X-axis rapids (42 m/min) and 0.4 g acceleration/deceleration rates combine with increased B- and C-axis rotation speeds (25 rpm) and impressive tool-to-tool changeover times of 1.3 seconds to reduce part cycle times and increase throughput.

Standard second-generation machines are equipped with a directly-coupled 18.5 kW/15,000 rpm spindle capable of processing a diverse range of materials in double-quick time. To increase machining capabilities, built-in high-torque 30 kW/15,000 rpm/230 Nm or high-speed 37 kW/20,000 rpm options are available.

Irrespective of the spindle type selected, all options feature advanced oil-cooling which, working in conjunction with strategically located sensors on/in the spindle head, column and bed, monitor thermal displacement throughout the machining process. Automatic parameter adjustment minimises the effects of thermal expansion and drift.

The incorporation of precision roller-type LM guideways and high-accuracy 0.0001° B- and C-axis rotational mechanisms, with the optional IKC (Intelligent Kinematic Compensation) system to monitor and adjust rotary axis errors, guarantees precision even over extended use and lengthy machining runs.

DVF 5000 second-generation machines can handle larger workpieces than their predecessors and feature 630 mm diameter rotary-tilting tables that accommodate workpieces up to 600 mm in diameter and 500 mm in height. There is also a 26% increase in table size, a 32% increase in the machining envelope available, and a 20% increase in X-, Y- and Z-axis travels.

More information www.millscnc.co.uk

Pushing the boundaries of machining accuracy

German vertical machining centre manufacturer Roeders, whose machines are sold into the UK and Irish markets exclusively by Hurco Europe, is rolling out a new range of milling platforms. The machine feature optional integral grinding capability that can achieve extraordinarily tight workpiece tolerances.

The RPT series of three- and three-axis VMCs is said to achieve tolerances half those obtainable using Roeders’ established RXP machines. Roeders’ latest VMCs can remain geometrically stable to within ±1 µm, even if the ambient temperature fluctuates as much as 3°C.

Achieving this level of precision would normally require housing the machine tool in an air conditioned environment. Roeders concentrated instead on holistic temperature management within the machine, integrating PreciTemp technology to achieve a high level of consistency and repeatability.

Customers can specify three increasingly sophisticated levels of temperature compensation and sensor feedback to the CNC, according to requirements. It can involve a combination of some or all of the following cooling measures: temperature control of the machine table and rotary axis bearings; temperature control of the torque motors in the trunnion-type five-axis machines; and temperature control of the air in the working area, surrounding the axis drives and in upper part of the machine guarding.

Thermal stability of the portal structure and machine bed is maintained by embedded pipework carrying chilled water. There is similar circuitry for the spindle and its surrounding sleeve to prevent growth in the Z axis, which is monitored to sub-micron accuracy by an external, non-contact sensor. Software algorithms derived in the course of machine development compensate for any remaining minimal residual errors.

More information www.hurco.co.uk

A BOLD VISION: ELIMINATING ALL CNC MACHINE CRASHES BY 2030

Dr. Yavuz Murtezaoglu, founder and managing director of ModuleWorks GmbH shares his
insights on how things can improve greatly in CNC machining.
First of all, consider a statement from Volvo, a car maker known for putting great focus on
safety: “Volvo has set a bold vision that no Volvo car should be involved in a fatal or serious
injury crash by 2030.”
Now, imagine transferring this bold vision to CNC machining and consider eliminating all
CNC machine crashes by 2030. For an engineer, such a vision is both exciting and challenging
since there are so many things that require solving to get there. So, is this vision achievable
by 2030?
Our journey started 10 years ago with a European builder of high-end five-axis CNC
machines asking us to provide real-time simulation capable of identifying collisions and
stopping the machine to avoid machine crashes. With great support and collaboration from
the CNC control manufacturer, it was possible to get around 1 second of future data of the
machine position. This allowed the team to calculate all the moving parts of the machine
and the removed workpiece material and reliably decide in this time buffer if there was a
collision ahead or not.
ModuleWorks called this CAS: Collision Avoidance System. When the company entered this
undertaking, ModuleWorks knew at that time that its simulation engine was fast and
powerful enough to detect collisions in real time since one of the largest machine tool
vendors in the world developed its collision avoidance solution based on the technology.
However, only after ModuleWorks started to work directly on the machine that the full
scope of the challenge came to light.
A state-of-the-art CNC machine is like a playing an LP but not knowing what it is playing: a
turntable would strictly follow what is on the LP but will not know if it is playing jazz or rock
music, for example. If there is a defect on the LP, it might play the same track forever.
Fortunately a turntable will not crash due to the LP being wrong. But the turntable does not
know “the context” of what it is doing.
Similarly, a CNC machine gets an NC program and runs this program strictly without knowing
what the NC program is going to do. Basically, a CNC machine must trust the user that it is
being fed with a good NC program either written on the machine control manually or

generated by a CAM system. Most CNC machines have a tool table which numbers all the
tools and applies some basic tool data for the purpose of dealing with wear and adjusting
motion accordingly.
A simulation system running on an IPC with real-time and look-ahead access to CNC control
is able to create (from the NC program) all the positions and orientations of moving machine
parts. It can also update the in-process workpiece during machining, which is very important
to distinguish between real and false collisions in case the current removed material is not
properly used in the calculation.
After several man-years of effort by ModuleWorks, the machine tool vendor and control
maker, it was possible to resolve several hundred problems and achieve the desired result:
the avoidance of collisions both in manual mode and automatic mode safely without any
false collisions.
What are false collisions? Well, the quality of a collision avoidance system is based on two
important factors. Firstly, it should never miss a real collision, which means the machine
should never crash. But at the same time, it should never create a false collision alarm and
stop the machine, since during CNC machining an abrupt stop of machining would create
marks on the workpiece and reduce productivity. The operator might turn off the collision
checking system if false collisions happen.
There is a well-known engineering saying: “Once you resolve the biggest bottleneck, you
end up finding further bottlenecks, which were not so visible at the beginning.”
This is exactly what happened to ModuleWorks: the CAS was working reliably but it required
the tool and holder geometries – and the clamping shape – entered exactly to operate CAS
because, as explained previously, a CNC machine is like a turntable not knowing what it is
going to play next. As a result, even if the next job with its NC program is known to the
machine, it did not have any clue about what we called “Job Setup.” This is the sum of all
the geometries of tools, tool holders, fixtures and so on, which is always specific for each
job. The machine geometry never changes, but each job requires a different set up.
ModuleWorks provided a user interface for machine operators to enter the Job Setup data
interactively and allowed the import of Job Setup through a data format since most CAM
systems have such data already. This Job Setup data format has evolved to become the
MDES (Manufacturing Data Exchange Specification) format, which is today supported by
many CAM vendors, machine tool vendors and control makers.
ModuleWorks ended up creating a well-documented and free licence format to be shared
by the whole industry that would get the backing of all players in the manufacturing space.
With CAS systems installed on all CNC machines and MDES data coming from all CAM
systems, we have a realistic chance to eliminate machine crashes by 2030. Although

ModuleWorks is established, there might be other companies providing similar CAS
solutions using their own technology. If so, they can also freely use this format on a free and
open licence basis.
Integrating a full CAS system to a CNC machine and control might be a big step for some
providers and, as an intermediate step, some of them have an offline simulation (not real
time) on the CNC control that allows users to prove the NC program before machining. Even
this use case is supported by the MDES format since an offline simulation also needs the job
set-up definition, which is inside MDES.
More information www.moduleworks.com