Product category:
Pick-up spindle turning, multi-tasking, turning and machining centres
News Release from: Emag UK | Subject: VSC Series vertical pick-up turning machine
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 12 November 2003
Vertical pick-up turning machine - 4500
installed
Since EMAG presented its vertical pick-up turning machine for the first time at METAV 1992, this machine design has found worldwide acceptance, with over 4500 installed.
Since Emag presented its vertical pick-up turning machine for the first time at METAV 1992, this machine design has found worldwide acceptance The VSC series is "Mother" to not only all vertical and horizontal pick-up machines manufactured by the Emag Group, but to all pick-up machines being built or used anywhere on the globe
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 12 Nov 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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Pick-up spindle machines - does the UK lag behind?
Are UK suppliers - particularly automotive sub-contractors - lagging behind Germany and the US in the take-up of pick-up spindle machining and turning centres? The question is put by EMAG UK.
EMAG is a market leader in vertical machining
EMAG has literally turned machining on its head.
The pick-up-principle simplifies automatic loading and unloading of workpieces at almost no extra cost.
When Emag introduced this new generation of machines the company had two objectives.
Firstly, to become the world's foremost supplier of the fastest, most accurate and environmentally friendly, multi-functional machine tools and related services, and thus to increase the competitive strength of their customers.
In this they have succeeded.
Further reading
EMAG UK - a company profile
Since its foundation in 1984, EMAG UK has established a strong position in the UK automotive market supplying CNC multi-functional production centres.
Turrets feed vertical shaft turning centre
Following on from its earlier horizontal shaft turning machine, Emag has developed a vertical shaft turning machine using two turrets to exchange workpieces as well as perform machining.
Grinding and automation expertise extended
With the integration of Ingersoll Naxos crankshaft grinding machine company into the Emag Group, systems can be developed in conjunction with Karstens, Reinecker, Kopp and Heilig Automation.
Secondly, - and one closely associated with the first objective - to master all the technologies used in the batch production of round and "not so round" metal components.
With the integration into the Emag Group of the top specialists in the various manufacturing technologies the company is moving closer to reaching this objective.
An "intelligent" modular design - a sign of successful "family planning"- the innovative machine design introduced in 1992 - one where the workpiece traverses with the axes whilst the tooling systems remain static - proved so forward looking and the pressure exerted by potential users so great that the two objectives set in 1992 had, to a large extent, been reached and the idea converted into actual products within little more than 10 years.
In line with the demands of the manufacturing industry to reduce the machining process stream through the integration of discrete processes, the company widened its product range within this decade, to cover everything from the original (simple) vertical turning machine to the HVSC 400 MT Combined Vertical/Horizontal Turning and Machining Center.
This product, introduced at METAV 2002, offers the 5-sided complete machining of complex, round and not so round components, employing turning, drilling, milling and grinding operations, to which will be added other technologies in the future.
The Emag product: the individually smartest manufacturing solution - rapid development through total customer orientation - milestones in the development of the product range - and a sign of total customer orientation and service - were the expansion of the range of applications for vertical machines to cover workpieces from 20 to 900mm diameter, and the development of the multi-spindle machines Twin, Duo and Trio, which provided the means to offer the customer a machine suitable for every batch size.
Expansion of the application range proved particularly successful with the integration of further machining processes, from milling to grinding, and from gear cutting to the manufacture of ready-to-install assemblies, within a single machine to include, for example, multiple workpiece loading (four assembly components) - metal-cutting - assembly - laser welding - brushing - gauging.
To ensure that an Emag machine could grind to the highest standards, well-known grinding specialists like Reinecker, Karstens, Kopp and Naxos-Union became part of the Emag Group.
With the formation of Emag Laser Tec in April 2003 Emag also began to further expand its competence into the application of laser technology.
All this led to the transformation of the "simple" vertical turning machine into the Multi-functional Production Center that has contributed greatly to the industry's demand for the reduction of the machining process stream in demanding batch production.
With these machines Emag also paved the way for the increased use of economically and ecologically more favourable hard and dry machining processes as substitutes for many other machining operations.
In the spring of 2003, Emag introduced its VTC series of machines to also turn shaft machining on its head and making it an Emag domain, as Emag had previously done with the VSC series machines for chucked components.
With the introduction of the VL series of standard vertical turning centers - built in co-operation with its American partner, Hardinge - Emag ensured that the sub-contracting industry too was able to profit from the advantages provided by Emag vertical pick-up machines.
The performance factors that lead to ready market acceptance - the major success factor, then as now, is the VSC principle, regardless whether a component is turned, drilled, milled, ground or any other machining process used.
The outstanding advantages of the VSC principle are: * Three main functions on a minimal footprint: workpiece handling - machining - gauging.
* Every VSC machine is a manufacturing cell.
The pick-up spindle is utilised to load the machine, a process that is cost-effective, simple (technologically speaking), safe, and results in short resetting times.
* The workpiece, clamped in the pick-up spindle, traverses with the axes, whilst the tooling systems are fixed in position below the workpiece.
Advantages: * Ideal, unhindered chip flow.
* Robust tooling systems for a variety of machining processes form an integral part of the machine base.
* The close-looped design with its rigid, U-shaped machine base in Mineralit polymer granite offers a thermo-symmetrical machine layout and short, symmetrical force distribution.
* In conjunction with the by far better vibration damping properties of the polymer granite base - compared to that of machine bases made of conventional materials - this design leads to improved surface finish and extended tool life.
* The machine base can be designed to accept a great variety of tooling systems.
This allows for the integration of a variety of technologies - often with a number of different processes being employed on the same machine - as a prerequisite for its multi-functionality and the utilisation of combined processes.
* The hydrostatic guideway that supports the work spindle's Z-axis movement offers optimum conditions for better performance, achieving higher precision, improved surface finish and higher tool life during soft machining and the even more demanding hard machining.
* Extremely short traverses during loading and unloading result in a fast and efficient workpiece flow.
* All elements that influence the machining accuracy are fluid-cooled, which maintains the machine temperature within tight limits of the ambient temperature.
* Integrated - but well protected - measuring system.
* Safe, effective, no-wear, maintenance-free machining area envelope - without the need for telescopic covers that are susceptible to failure.
* Simple linking of several machines into production lines.
* Machining process stream reduction through combined processes in a single set-up.
Result - a highly efficient tool for the demanding batch production of a great variety of workpieces - through soft, hard, wet, dry and complete machining A market success - since the introduction of the vertical turning and Multi-functional Production Center Emag has built a total of 4,500 of these pick-up machines and, in just a few years, increased its turnover six-fold.
Other manufacturers are profiting too: In terms of value, the order intake among German machine tool manufacturers in vertical CNC turning machines (excluding vertical mills) in 2000 already amounted to half the value of that for horizontal turning machines and turning centers.
The advantages inherent in vertical machining have led to a further increase in the popularity of these machines in 2001 and 2002: in 2002, in terms of value, to 61% and in terms of numbers to just under 43%.
The vertical pick-up machine has the potential to remain the leading innovation in metal-cutting machine tools for, at least, another decade. Request a free brochure from Emag UK ...
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