Product category:
Control systems, DROs, etc, for machine tools
News Release from: ACI (UK) | Subject: Anilam 3300 MK three-axis CNC
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 03 July 2003
One day's training runs CNC milling
machine
A day's training by a CNC/DRO specialist was all it took for a fabricator to get its 3-axis CNC milling machine into production.
A day's training by computer numerical control and digital readout specialist Anilam was all it took for BS EN ISO 9001-accredited Stead and Wilkins Fabrications to get its latest acquisition, a KM80 three-axis CNC milling machine, fully up and running The new machine is equipped with an Anilam 3300 MK three-axis CNC that features user-friendly conversational programming and a wide range of canned cycles, including bolt hole pattern and drill cycles created by simple question and answer routines, and prompted clearance routines for irregular shaped pockets
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 30 Sep 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
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Despite its name, the Dartford (Kent) sub-contractor is more than just a fabricator.
It counts five apprentices among its 30 employees, and its GBP 1.5 million turnover owes much to a strategy based on low volume, highly skilled work.
Most of the activity at the company's 15,000ft2 purpose-built premises focuses on development and prototype components, with machining playing a vital role in a turnkey manufacturing process that embraces all aspects through to mechanical, electrical and electronic assembly, as well as final testing.
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ACI is including tool and workpiece probing cycles as standard features on its Anilam 6000 Series multi-axis CNC system.
Milling in two/three axis cost-effectively
Demonstrations of a two-/three-axis CNC for intuitive knee-type milling operations will highlight the system's cost-effectiveness and user-friendliness.
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As well as demonstrating four-axis DROs, a range of linear scales will also serve to reinforce both the accuracy and performance benefits of its glass linear encoder technology.
The company's six existing metalcutting machines, which include a large horizontal borer, are all manually operated but, according to managing director Gary Stead, the 7.5HP 6,000 revs/min KM80 - supplied by authorised Anilam and Heidenhain retrofitter CSD Controls (UK) of Malvern, Worcs - is the key to reducing lead times on smaller components.
"I don't want to be hanging around waiting for every little modification on a prototype part to be completed," he says.
"The functionality and ease-of-use of the 3300 MK control means we can simply tweak the program, immediately check the result then get on and finish the job.
It guarantees we are in control of everything, and that includes costs.
"The control's storage capacity avoids the need to drip feed programs and as we find more and more things we can do with it, so we are putting more and more work, especially three-dimensional profiling, onto the KM80." Two people, one an older apprentice, have been trained to operate the KM80, which initially was recommended to the company by a customer.
However, Gary Stead insisted on his new machine being fitted with the Anilam control because its Machinist Language programming format is easy to understand and powerful software tools further simplify the programming of complex parts.
These include a Geometry Calculator that has many of the features available in CAM programs.
Completed programs can quickly be verified by viewing the programmed tool path in the on-screen Draw mode, while existing G-code programs can be readily transformed into Anilam's conversational format by running them through the G-code conversion facility.
Gary Stead says that provided a finished article will pass through the factory's shutter doors, he can make it -- even if it weighs 10 tons.
The type of work ranges from conveyor systems for the food industry to the smaller, more intricate parts needed for complex electronic assemblies such as the Airborne Digital Video Recorder (ADVR) to be installed in search and rescue helicopters.
Stead and Wilkins, in co-operation with associate company Rimca, is currently manufacturing a batch of thirty ADVRs, and it is here that the new CNC milling machine with its X, Y and Z axes travels of 800mm by 450mm by 450mm is making its presence felt.
Individual components to be fitted to the custom-made enclosures are machined to the positional tolerances demanded by an operational environment where water ingress poses the biggest threat.
"We can machine just about anything, from aluminium and mild steel through to stainless steels, exotic alloys and even armour plate," says Gary Stead, "so CNC is simply an extension of our existing expertise.
However, I have been so pleased with the results with the 3300 MK I am now contemplating retrofitting an Anilam CNC to the borer and buying a new lathe fitted with the 4200T, Anilam's equivalent CNC for turning.".
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