Large-capacity Doosan vertical turning lathes occupy centre stage at the new Hanwha Aerospace aero-engine parts production facility in Vietnam.
South Korea-based Hanwha Aerospace has announced that its plans to significantly ramp up the production and supply of civil aircraft engine parts (fans and compressors) to the global aerospace market through the creation of a new manufacturing facility in Vietnam, are nearing completion.

The new factory, located near Hanoi, is substantial at 60,000 sq m, making it approximately eight times the size of a football pitch. Once fully operational, it is anticipated that Hanwha Aerospace will be able to increase sales turnover to US$879m.
To help the company achieve its ambitions, Hanwha has invested heavily in a number of large-capacity Doosan vertical ram-type lathes (VTRs). By the end of January 2019, it is expected that 30 Doosan VTRs will have been installed at the new Vietnam factory, rising to 120 machines by 2024.
The Doosan machines supplied to Hanwha Techwin comprise VTR 1012F and VTR 1216F models. Doosan’s F-designated VTR machines have a fixed cross beam design, as opposed to a travelling cross beam design and, as such, are said to be particularly suited
to the machining of smaller, shorter components such as aero-engine rings.
In addition, both VTR models also have a wide column and box guideway design, and are equipped with ram-type spindles (up to 45 kW/400 rpm), as well as large diameter cross-taper roller bearings for heavy-duty machining operations.
VTR machines also feature servo-driven tool changers, swarf evacuation and management systems for increased productivity and trouble-free machining. The maximum turning diameter is 1600 mm (VTR 1216F). Mills CNC is the UK agent for machine tools from Doosan.
For further information www.millscnc.co.uk

Founded in 2016, Geneva-based Badeco SA manufactures high-precision components for the watchmaking industry.

The company produces watch crowns, push-pieces, tubes, pinions, arbors, watch hands and parts for associated sectors, all on its in-house Tornos turning centres.
“We purchased two SwissNano CNC automatic lathes from Tornos as soon as we started our activities,” says managing director Stéphane Menoni. “Right from the start, they have proved to be particularly flexible and precise, while requiring minimum floor space.”
What was decisive, apart from the small footprint, was the flexibility of the SwissNano machines.
“Some high-precision components are manufactured in volumes up to 25,000 off, but it is also common practice to produce in small series or even perform one-off production,” says Menoni. “This means we can efficiently manufacture prototypes or spare parts.
“Since the space in our premises is restricted, we have installed the machines in an inverted position to gain additional space; this arrangement enables full access to the machining cell from the front,” he adds. “The machines are equipped with bar feeders and can be used for back machining as well as gear-cutting operations.”
Commissioning was quite easy, as Menoni affirms: “Just three days after the installation of the machines, the operator was fully familiar with set-up and operation. On the one hand, this was down to simplicity, and on the other it was the intuitive functions of the TISIS code editor. The latter is simply fantastic, since it allows program editing/transfer and tool selection, as well as machining process monitoring.”
For further information www.tornos.com

Heidenhain’s top-of-the-range lathe control, the CNC Pilot 640 is now available with a number of new upgrades.

Most notably, a newly developed Turn Plus feature is now standard on new purchases. Turn Plus allows the creation of a lathe program at the push of a button, with up to 90% time savings, says Heidenhain.
The latest versions of the control software also include other improvements, such as added functional safety (FS) features and expansions that provide the machine operator and machine tool builder with more benefits.
Heidenhain’s CNC Pilot 640 contouring control allows five-axis simultaneous machining and combined turn-mill operations, full surface machining with B axis and counter spindle, as well as up to three channels for asynchronous multi-side machining.
Multi-touch operation permits swiping and zoom functions, while high-resolution 3D simulation graphics have been added. Machining operations with one or several set-ups (multi-channel operation) can be programmed separately through structured programming. The maximum number of controlled axes and spindles has been increased to 24 using appropriate options.
Heidenhain’s CNC Pilot 640 lathe control is available in two screen formats: 19“and 15.6“, with up to 25 configurable fields. The control also now works with Heidenhain’s display hand-wheels HR 520 (FS), and the HR 550 FS radio hand-wheel system. New CFRCompactFlash memory cards and SIKs are also available.
For those interested in connected machining, the CNC Pilot 640 can be incorporated into such systems by utilising the Heidenhain options Remote Desktop Manager (option 133) and StateMonitor for capturing machining data.
For further information www.heidenhain.com