Product category:
CNC turning centres, mill/turning, multi-tasking centres, horizontal and VTLs.
News Release from: EMCO Maier | Subject: Emcoturn 420MCplus CNC production lathe
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 18 November 2003
Counter spindle NC axis speeds part
transfer
The use of an NC axis for the drive of the counter spindle speeds up part transfer in CNC production lathes while the latest CNC and digital drives have resulted in a fast, more dynamic machine.
If you manufacture for the automotive industry in 3-shift operation, you need a highly reliable means of production The Ingolstadt company Schabmueller, whose customers include Audi, BMW, Opel, VW and Skoda, puts its faith in Emco machines for its lathed parts
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 18 Nov 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
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After very satisfying experiences with the four spindle machines from the 425 series, the new ET420MCplus machines have now been in operation for six months.
The history of Schabmueller and Emco is a story of how an initial contact grew into a development partnership.
Schabmueller's manager Richard Meyer remembers how his company came to use Emco lathes for the first time: "We had already used a six-spindle machine in the past, but as the one machine no longer sufficed, we tested all the options and decided that instead of a new six-spindle machine we should buy three Emcoturn 425 machines for the same price.
Further reading
Short bar loading magazine saves space
The space a machine needs is becoming more and more an issue, which is why short bar loading magazines have been developed to save on space and shorten loading times.
CNC counter spindle lathe shortens cycle times
Ccycle times are shortened and the programming simplified on a counterspindle CNC production lathe that machines two components simultaneously in the main and counter spindles.
Small turning centre gives power and precision
Turning centre with a 25mm bar capacity and 405mm between centres offers very small footprint, a very solid machine bed, a thermo-symmetrical headstock with a precision spindle bearing.
This machine can't keep up with a multi-spindler in producing a large series, but with the typical batch sizes in our company of 500 to 10,000 or a maximum of 15,000 units, this choice makes us much more flexible and economical.
Another advantage is that a four spindle of course needs much less setting up than a multi-spindle." Better value for the money - an evaluation of the lathes available on the market also showed that for follow-up purchases the Emco machines provided exceptional value for the money.
Today Schabmueller uses only Emco machines for its entire range of diameters.
Richard Meyer says: "The value for money at Emco is not only in the machines but also in the service.
For an automotive components supplier this aspect is not to be underestimated.
After all, service speed and quality are also decisive factors in our reliability as a supplier." So it is no wonder that at the end of last year, as Schabmueller had to acquire a new machine for turned parts of up to 25mm, it chose the successor to the 425.
In the Emcoturn 420MCplus the Austrians have created what is in principle a new machine.
It features fast-traverse speeds in all axes, pre-stressed guide rollers and high performance drive motors.
Another thing that convinced Christian Stoehr, the head of CNC turning at Schabmueller of the value of this machine was the use of an NC axis for the drive of the counter spindle: "The old machine had a pneumatic axis.
With the NC axis the part transfer is now much faster and more precise.
That is a huge benefit for us." Furthermore, with its Sinumerik 840D control unit and digital drive technology, the machine is much faster and more dynamic.Schabmueller claims credit for some of these improvements, and rightly so, as Emco regional sales manager Guenter Rapp explains.
"The experience we had gained in the many years of close collaboration with Schabmueller with the 425 machines had a great influence on the new construction of the machine as a 420." Highly productive machining - just as its predecessors, the 420 machines are now proving their mettle in the highly productive Schabmueller factory.
Complete with a bar loader magazine the machines run in three-shift operation.
An average of one employee supervises all three machines at any given time.
As has long been tradition at Emco, the bed plates of the smaller machines are welded steel constructions.
Stoehr says on this subject: "One shouldn't believe that this means the machines lose robustness.
With a bar clearance of 25mm and the correspondingly low cutting forces there are no stability problems." Rapp, explains why: "The important thing with machines with welded steel is to take the stress off the bed plates after welding.
Emco has a lot of experience here.
If this process is mastered, there are advantages over other cast bedplate constructions." One machine is cheaper than two - after six months of tough production, general manager Richard Meyer is now also convinced of the quality of the first machine from EMCO: "The way I see it, nobody has a four spindle machine like the ET420MCplus that EMCO has to offer.
The alternative solution for us would have been to buy two machines, which would have been much more expensive.".
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