FEATURE ON CNC LATHES AND TURNING CENTRES

Robust lathe enables stainless steel broaching

Architectural ironmongery manufacturer Instinct Hardware has spent more than £500,000 in the past two years on a manufacturing execution system, a powder coating plant, a waterjet cutter and an Italian-built Biglia bar-fed, twin-spindle lathe with a ±45 mm Yaxis and 15 driven tools.It is the sixth CNC lathe and by far the most capable to arrive at the 68,000 sq ft factory in Stirchley, Birmingham.

The latest turning centre was sourced from Biglia’s sole UK agent Whitehouse Machine Tools. Whitehouse supplied the machine as a turnkey package with Hydrafeed short bar magazine for feeding 1.5-m long stock up to 80 mm in diameter, and a gantry-type system for unloading components onto a conveyor.

“We bought the turning centre specifically because it’s able to broach a square hole into our stainless steel handles, which Whitehouse demonstrated to us before we committed to the machine,” says director Nil Chohan.“We can now perform all operations in one hit, rather than in five or six operations using our previous production route.”

A case in point is the machining of a component assembled into a stainless steel, oval-profile, mitred lever handle. It previously required six machining operations, consuming a total of 15 minutes machining time plus 10 minutes or more handling and setup for each of the five additional operations – amounting to more than one hour overall. On the Biglia, the part comes off complete in 8.5 minutes, representing an eight-fold time saving, with the added benefit of eliminating work-in-progress and the potential for component damage.

More information www.wmtcnc.com

WFL M80 Boosts Valve Part Machining

Thanks to its investment in a WLF M80 MillTurn multi-tasking machine with 3 m bed, HORA Holter Regelarmaturen says it is setting new standards in the machining of valve parts weighing up to six tonnes. WFL was chosen following an intensive selection process. Several machine manufacturers were in the running, but WFL’s service and availability proved the crucial factors.

HORA is a medium-sized family company employing around 300 people in Schloß Holte-Stukenbrock, North Rhine-Westphalia, where it focuses oncore business areas such aspower generation, gas applications, and process and building technology.Annual turnover is around €50m.

“We wanted to deliver our vision of full digital networking by implementing and digitally connecting what we currently regard as the best machine for our requirements,” says board member Eduard Schmidt. “We needed a supplierthat could support us technologically and serve as a partner in setting a new standard in the digital process. From our perspective, WFL was absolutely the right decision.”

There were several considerations that tipped the balance in favour of the M80 MillTurn, including the turning-boring-milling unit itself, which is the heart of the machine. That WFL manufactures the unit entirely in-house was a decisive factor.

“Machining at this scale is not new for us, but the cutting capacity is truly impressive,” says Michael Beiwinkel, head of production and building technology at HORA.“The cutting capacity was outstanding even during final acceptance of the machine, as the 160 indexable insert drill effortlessly cut heat-resistant stainless steel [1.7335] with two tonnes of feed force and no vibration on the machine cover. In such moments, I like to grab the door but there were no vibrations to be felt.”

More information www.wfl.at/en

Entry-level robot automates machine tending

Dutch firm Halter CNC Automation has introduced an entry-level machine tending cell for
loading and unloading. Availability in Great Britain is through sole agent 1st Machine Tool
Accessories.
Comprising a six-axis industrial robot, the Basic Pro offers a price-competitive automation
solution. With the manufacturer’s user-friendly touchscreen SmartControl, the changeover
time to start a new production process is only a few minutes. Furthermore, the operator
needs no prior experience of robot programming, which takes place while machining of the
previous parts is in progress.
The plug-and-play Halter Basic Pro can be supplied with new machines or retrofitted to
existing plant regardless of machine age and control type. Use of a floor-level, 270° laser
scanner provides a safety zone. The robot slows if the operator approaches and stops
immediately upon breaching the light curtain.
An adjustable air pressure supply is provided for the double gripper, which can have either
two or three fingers for holding raw material and finish-machined workpieces internally or
externally. It is possible to handle workpieces from 10 to 135 mm diameter or square up to
a maximum weight of 12 kg, including the gripper head. The grid plate holding the raw
material and finished parts is adjustable in height to suit the installation and can hold up to
188 workpieces if the locations are sized up to 20 mm, the number dropping to 14 parts as
the size reaches 135 mm.
Halter has more than 1000 installations worldwide feeding CNC lathes, machining centres,
deep-hole drilling machines, grinders and other machine tools, as well as CMMs. Nearly 95%
of customers across 25 countries, including two dozen or so in the UK, report a return on
investment within 5 to 18 months.
More information www.1mta.com

Green energy powers XYZ lathe purchase

Fletcher Moorland, a Stoke-based company that repairs and refurbishes motors, pumps,
gearboxes and fans, has purchased an XYZ RLX 780 flat-bed CNC lathe with ProtoTRAK RLX
control as part of efforts to expand services for its growing customer base.
Says third-generation managing director Matt Fletcher: “We traditionally worked on sub 1
MW motors but, with advances in wind turbines, we’re now seeing repairs required on
equipment up to 2.5 MW. These machines, which weigh around 10 tons, have bigger rotors
and end shields, and we didn’t have a machine to process these larger parts.”
The process of acquiring a large-capacity lathe involved researching the market, which
culminated in two visits to XYZ’s Midlands Technical Centre in Nuneaton.

Electrical-mechanical workshop Manager Matt Sparkes says: “Demonstrations from XYZ’s
area sales manager gave us the confidence that the RLX 780 was the right fit in terms of
machine size and capacity. After seeing the ProtoTRAK RLX control, used both manually and
in CNC modes, we knew it was the best solution for our workshop.”
With shafts and rotors increasing in size, Fletcher Moorland is already benefiting from the
purchase of the XYZ RLX 780.
“Its 160 mm diameter spindle bore is advantageous, especially when we recently machined
a batch of conveyor rollers,” explains Sparkes. “The additional fixed steady we purchased is
also proving its worth.”
In a closing remark, Sparkes says: “We really feel that the ProtoTRAK control is the way
forward. Its ease of use and flexibility aligns with our processes, and we see it enabling us to
produce one-offs quickly and efficiently using the conversational format that the control
provides.”
More information www.xyzmachinetools.com

B-axis tool spindle instead of a turret

Increasing component diversity and diminishing batch sizes tend to extend periods of unproductive set-up. The CLX TC turning centre series from DMG Mori addresses this issue by replacing the tool turret in the company’s CLX lathes with a ±120° swivelling B-axis tool spindle that offers positioning resolution of 0.001°. The new CLX 550 TC model is now available, joining the smaller capacity CLX 450 TC introduced in 2023.

A tool magazine offering space for up to 60 cutters (30 tools is standard) serves a CompactMaster 12,000 rpm turn-mill spindle with 90 Nm of torque. Tools can be loaded and unloaded in parallel with production to minimise machine downtime.

The main and counter-spindle motors are rated at 4000 rpm/720 Nm, maintaining flexibility when programming the machine to produce complex components on six sides in one hit. Users can deploy chucks up to 400 mm in diameter, while bar capacity is 102 mm.

Maximum workpiece size is 550 mm diameter by 1600 mm in length. The use of steady rests, which are available up to a workpiece diameter of 360 mm, is recommended for machining long components. A Y axis with 270 mm of travel allows eccentric machining.

DMG Mori’s Celos X user interface in conjunction with the Siemens Sinumerik One control and ErgoLine operating panel enable the use of multiple software offerings. They include OP Workbench to enhance the efficiency and productivity of machine operators, as well as dozens of app-based technology cycles.

In addition, 3D Shopfloor Programming, a joint development by DMG Mori and Siemens, uses the 3D model of a component from the design department to create an NC program mostly automatically based on underlying data. Automated feature recognition speeds programming time by up to 80%.

More information www.dmgmori.com