Product category:
CNC turning centres, mill/turning, multi-tasking centres, horizontal and VTLs.
News Release from: DMG (UK) | Subject: CTX 620 V4 Linear universal mill/turn centre
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 20 July 2007
Mill-turn centre machines turbine shafts
To remove a 'production bottleneck' when turning components, UK steam turbine manufacturer purchased a universal mill/turn centre with Y-axis to eliminate 'second operation' work.
In machining a range of power generation components, the UK's steam turbine manufacturer, Peterborough-based Peter Brotherhood, experienced a 'production bottleneck' Not only could an existing machine not meet demand when working three shifts, and work had to be subcontracted out
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 21 Jun 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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The answer was to invest GBP 210,000 in a Gildemeister CTX 620 V4 Linear universal mill/turn centre supplied by DMG (UK) of Luton.
The CTX 620 V4 Linear with its heavy duty Y-axis turret crossfeed capability not only will eliminate secondary operations, it will also reduce subcontract working.
Peter Brotherhood's then existing turning centre used to machine land-based turbine and gas compressor parts could not machine shaft features such as keyways.
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The keyways were machined as an additional operation.
Furthermore, despite running its existing machine continuously across three shifts, such is the demand, that the company still had to outsource components to subcontract suppliers.
Said Dave Head production manager: "We looked at a number of CNC lathes that we thought would solve our capacity problem, but the CTX 620 V4 Linear from DMG stood out because of its specification, capacity and price.
With a swing of 800mm and Y-axis crossfeed of +70mm we could easily see it would accommodate our work and therefore negate the need for secondary operations.
The driven tool unit on the CTX is also between three and four times more powerful than our existing lathe, so it will easily produce the type of features we have to mill." To give an idea of the scale of turned part requirements at Peter Brotherhood, the current lathe has some 11,000 component programs on file.
* About the Gildemeister CTX 620 V4 Linear - this mill-turn centre hs a 2100mm bed and a Fanuc 160i CNC.
It has a 43kW direct drive spindle delivering 2,500 rev/min and 2,200Nm of torque.
Idle times are reduced to a minimum because of the high dynamics of the linear drives that enables rapid traverse rates up to 60m/min to be reached with an acceleration of 1.5 G in the Z-axis.
Preloaded precision guides combined with direct measuring systems guarantee high accuracy at rapid metal removal rates.
The turbine and compressor parts due to be turned on the CTX have a tolerance requirement of 0.025mm.
Most of the components, including valve covers, gear shafts and valve cages, are machined out of hard steels demanding a turning platform with high levels of rigidity and significant levels of power.
* Peter Brotherhood has over 140 years' experience in supplying customers in energy related industries in more than 100 countries around the world with turbines between 1MW and 40MW.
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