FEATURE ON CNC LATHES AND TURNING CENTRES

One-hit turn-milling boosts throughput

Four members of the Toyne family, managing director Chris, his wife and company secretary Christine and two other directors – their son Jason and his wife Julie – runsubcontracting firm Mintdale Engineering of Chesterfield. The company specialises in the CNC turning of bar, tube and billet, as well as CNC milling on five VMCs.

Take, for example, an aluminium gas regulator base produced on the company’s latest turning centre, an Italian-built Biglia B465 T2 Y2 twin-spindle, twin Y-axis turret model supplied by sales and service agent Whitehouse Machine Tools. The 1.25 inch high cuboid part is machined from 2 inch square bar fed by an LNS Quick Load Servo 80 S2 short bar magazine.

This component, which Mintdale Engineering has been producing for 22 years, was latterly machined 20 at a time on a twin-pallet-change VMC. Op 1 involved machining three sides, milling a circular pocket, drilling various holes and then tapping them, while Op 2 after pallet change completed similar features. The floor-to-floor time per base was two minutes.

On the Biglia, Mintdale produces the part in one hit and requires only a small amount of face turning and parting off, the remainder of the cycle being prismatic machining. Both live turrets are deployed at the main spindle for some of the time, followed by simultaneous machining at both spindles using the two tool carriers. Although the cycle time is three minutes, 50% longer per part than before, the big advantage (and saving) is that production is unattended, unlike on the VMC. The finish-machined components pass through the counter spindle onto a conveyor feeding a Hydrafeed Rota-Rack parts accumulator.
For further information www.wmtcnc.com

Subcontractor turns to SMEC turning centre

With the turned components at DGF Engineering increasingly needing secondary milling operations on machining centres, the Royston-based subcontractor recently acquired a SMEC SL 2000M turning centre from Dugard.

“We picked this machine as we needed an upgrade,” states Liam Fernard workshop manager at DGF Engineering.“The machine that we had was only a two-axis machine and we were getting more and more work needing additional milling work. As we were happy with the service we had received from Dugard on our previous acquisition, a Dugard 1000 three-axis VMC, we naturally looked at their lathes and this one ticked all the boxes.”

The SMEC SL 2000M slant-bed CNC turning centre has a 570mm swing over bed and a 460mm swing over the cross slide with a maximum machining diameter of 360mm and a machining length up to 540mm. The 8inch chuck machine has a bore diameter of 76mm that accommodates a maximum bar capacity of 68mm. As with all machines in the SMEC range, Dugard says that the SMEC SL 2000M is a powerhouse with its 15/18kW spindle motor that drives the spindle at a speed up to 4500rpm and a 3.7/5.5kW motor that drives the driven tooling stations in the 12-position tooling carousel.

Discussing the components machined on the new Dugard SMEC turning centre, Fernard says: “We’re a typical subcontract company, so batches are varied and volumes of up to 200 parts is a big batch for us. We will machine a bit of everything on this machine;it will help our production move much faster. Dugard have been excellent and the investment is 100% worth it.”
For further information www.dugard.com

Mazak to build Swiss-type lathes in USA

To support the production of yet another new Kentucky-designed and built line of machine tools, Mazak has expanded the company’s Florence manufacturing campus with the addition of its new Syncrex assembly plant. The 27,000 sq ft building combines engineering, production and applications support for Mazak’s recently launched Syncrex series of Swiss-type turning centres for the precision machining of small parts.

With an output capacity of up to 10 machines per month, the Syncrex building features all the necessary overhead cranes and equipment its employees need to produce 16 different models within the series for the North American market. The machines come in four bar stock capacities (20/25/32/38) and four different axis configurations, up to a 9X model with full B-axis contouring capabilities. Production flow through the building starts with a machined base that progresses through assembly operations and on to alignment, testing, inspection and run-off procedures prior to shipping.

Kevin Sekerak, plant manager at Mazak, says: “Within the new building’s production flow, we’ve incorporated applications support, which is extremely critical for this particular type of machine. That support entails integrating various forms of automation and other ancillary systems together with the machines, then proving them out to make sure they all operate to customer performance requirements and specifications. Often, applications specialists will work side by side with assembly technicians during customer machine run-offs.”

The sliding-headstock Syncrex machines all sit on Mazak high-damping composite castings (HDCC) produced in the US and machined at Mazak Kentucky. This high-rigidity base provides greater vibration damping characteristics, less thermal growth and greater part surface capabilities when compared to cast-iron base machines, says Mazak. The company also produces Syncrex spindles, headstocks, sheet metal and other key components in Kentucky.
For further information www.mazakusa.com

Chocolate system producer opts for Hwacheon

MacIntyre Chocolate Systems, located in Scotland, is a worldwide supplier of chocolate manufacturing and processing equipment – offering ancillary equipment for chocolate manufacture that includes transfer pumps, filters and storage vessels. After agreeing a purchase on a new Hwacheon Hi Tech 850LYMC, Ward Hi Tech’s high levels of stock meant that the company was not waiting for long.

Managing director Joe Gorman says: “Purchasing the new Hwacheon Hi Tech 850LYMC allowed us to remove the risk of external supply chain, price pressure from market volatility and the need to monitor external quality for being ‘right first time’. We now have the ability to turn-mill our main drive shafts, pressure-adjust shafts, pressure sleeves and many other components on one machine.This new capability will drive us to become even more efficient – via improved cycle times – compared to ourprevious machine tools. The new Hwacheon Hi Tech 850LYMC will also give us the capability to offer an internal supplier solution to group partners based in Germany.”

As well as increasing productivity, the Hwacheon Hi Tech 850LYMC meant that where there was a need for three machine tools to cut parts – now only oneis necessary. This provides MacIntyre Chocolate Systems with a long-term cost effective solution.

“The onsite and offsite training sessions were first class and the installation was very quick and professional,” says Gorman.“This allowed us to moveseamlessly into full production.”

The Hwacheon Hi Tech 850 LYMC is a horizontal turning centre suited to large and hard workpieces. According to Ward Hi-Tech, the machine allows users to master demanding machining tasks that require large milling and turning operations.
For further information www.wardhitech.co.uk

Investments critical to future growth plans

Mills CNC, the exclusive distributor of DN Solutions’ (formerly Doosan) and Zayer machine tools in the UK and Ireland, has supplied subcontract specialist JTB Pressings with two new, FANUC-controlled CNC lathes.The machines, a 6”chuck/51mm bar capacity Lynx 2100LYSA and, a similarly sized Lynx 2100, are now in place at one of the company’s three production facilities in Willenhall.

Since their arrival, both lathes have been put through their paces machining, almost exclusively, a range of small, precision turned parts for JCB. These high-volume, short-cycle parts, include six individual components made from a range of materials that include steel, bronze andnylon.

JTB’s decision to invest in the two Doosan lathes was made to help the company increase the range of manufacturing services it provides to existing customers, as well as spearheading a drive to secure new business from different sectors.

Explains Ivan Evans, JTB’s managing director:“We are always looking to improve, diversify and grow.We did consider sliding-head as well as fixed-head models, but ultimately decided on the Lynx 2100 LSYA from Mills CNC owing to its compact size, proven reliability and multi-tasking capabilities.”

With both Lynx lathes’ capacity taken up machining parts for just one customer, JTB has now made the decision to invest further.

Says general manager Steve Lounds: “To free-up capacity on our Lynx machines we hope to invest in another two pre-owned Emi-Mec CNC lathes in the near future. These two-axis lathes will handle the high volume of turned parts currently machined on the Lynx lathes and, as a consequence, enable us to fully exploit the true potential of the Lynx machines and diversify our operations – as was originally intended.”
For further information www.millscnc.co.uk