Product category:
CNC turning centres, mill/turning, multi-tasking centres, horizontal and VTLs.
News Release from: Hardinge Machine Tools | Subject: Mill/turn centre, three spindles, two turrents
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 05 October 2005
Mill/turn centre offers lean machining
Lean manufacturing 'one-hit' mill/turning cell features three spindles, a 42mm bar capacity and 100mm chucking diameter, two turrets and a 24 tool magazine.
Taking 'centre stage' among 12 CNC Hardinge lathes and Hardinge-Bridgeport machining centres on the Hardinge stand at EMO 2005 was the European launch of Quest LMC 42, a lean manufacturing 'one-hit' mill/turning cell featuring three spindles, a 42mm bar capacity and 100mm chucking diameter, two turrets and a 24 tool magazine Hardinge, based in Elmira, New York State, USA, with sales of $232 million in 2004, has one of the widest portfolios of metal removal machine tools available from a single company
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 6 Feb 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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Upgraded machining centres start at same price
Added performance and capability at no extra cost on all of the Hardinge produced VMC II range, which have been enhanced with new spindle drives and motors and still start at GBP32,000.
Hardinge speeds up pick-up spindle VTL working
The revolutionary Hardinge / EMAG joint venture produced VL machines provide a guaranteed load / unload time of 4 - 6 seconds - chip to chip - which is critical for cycles of 30 sec and less.
This high profile position was created following the acquisition of the intellectual property rights of Bridgeport Machines and the Sales and Support Services Division based in England and the Netherlands by Hardinge Machine Tools of Exeter, the UK division of the Hardinge Group.
As a result of such a diverse product range, stands E05 and C04 were segmented into four distinct process groups illustrating high precision, high productivity, high performance and competitively priced, entry level machines.
The 425m2 of stand space was complemented by the Hardinge Grinding Group in Hall 11 taking stands D60 and F61 of some 396m2 to feature eight further machines from Kellenberger, which presented the European debut of the Kel-Varia Universal cylindrical grinder and machines from Hauser, Tripet and Tschudin.
Further reading
Pick-up spindle machine includes automation
Automation comes as a standard part of the package with the Hardinge EMAG VL Pick-Up Spindle Lathes, as do a chip conveyor and air filtration unit, all at less than GBP 75,000.
UK: pick-up spindle VTLs are getting there
The Three Toed Sloth is getting there, slowly, says a manufacturer of vertical pick-up spindle CNC turning centres of its progress to encourage UK plants to take up the technology.
Bar and chucking lathes designed for hard turning
Designed for hard turning use, CNC bar and chucking lathes lift the performance / price index by as much as 30%, in terms of productivity on a very wide range of applications.
From the Hardinge stable, alongside the Quest LMC 42, was the Hydrostatic Quest 51 Super Precision Hydro-Glide turning machine, widely quoted as a 'reference' for hard turning applications.
This was qualified by a demonstration of production machining to a repeatability of 5 microns on hardened 62HRC steel while maintaining 0.2 micron Ra surface finish.
A Quest GT 27 super-precision gang tool lathe featuring a high productivity integrated autoloading system demonstrated the hard turning of fuel injection components while the new Hardinge Elite II, a 51mm bar capacity Harcrete polymer composite-filled base machine, with subspindle and two C-axes, is showed its ability to cost-effectively machine tough materials.
Setting the pace for entry level turning solutions was the Tallent 10/78 a 75mm bar, 250mm chucking lathe creating a high specification benchmark with C-axis, live tooling and tailstock and will be shown for the first time with Siemens 810D control loaded with Shop Turn software.
Following the acquisition of Bridgeport Machines, the eyes of many visitors focused on Hardinge-Bridgeport and there was plenty to see with no fewer than eight vertical, horizontal and five-axis machines under power.
Controlled by Fanuc, Heidenhain and Siemens CNC units with a range of different spindle cutting speeds, demonstrations span a high torque 8,000 rev/min drive to a high speed 40,000 rev/min spindle in action on the HSC 500 high speed machining centre.
As with the Quest LMC 42 creating interest from its pinnacle position in mill/turn centre development, the Hardinge-Bridgeport 5AX-500 vertical machining centre portrayed to visitors the economic advantages of five-face, five-axis contour machining at a very affordable price.
This demonstration is performed alongside the 40,000 rev/min HSC 500 vertical machining centre developed to machine graphite and copper electrodes as well as pre-hardened steels.
A new Hardinge-Bridgeport Interact 450 P3, targeted at subcontract type machining operations, is very competitively priced with a 10kW spindle, 40 taper, 10,000 rev/min spindle, 12 tool carousel, swarf conveyor and 450mm by 350mm by 380mm strokes covered at 30m/min rapid traverse rates.
A four-axis travelling column machining centre targeted at heavy duty operations with 30kW direct drive, 15,000 rev/min spindle represented the Hardinge-Bridgeport horizontal machining centre range surrounded by five further variants of vertical machines.
These were under power demonstrating market leading advantages such as increased capacity for the larger than normal machining tasks and a range of options to tailor the machines to specific requirements such as heavier duty cutting, non-ferrous material machining or complex three-dimensional profiling.
A fast cycling VMC 480 DT mini-mill style, drill tap centre is a new addition to the range with 48m/min rapid traverse and 15,000 rev/min spindle and was also being 'put through its paces'.
New from Kellenberger on Stand D60 in Hall 11 was the Kel-Varia universal cylindrical grinding machine which adds totally new levels of precision and repeatability to the grinding process.
With Heidenhain's latest generation Pentium III based Grind plus IT CNC control, hydrostatic guideways and engineering to remove effects of thermal influences and vibration, the modular machine is available with 28 different wheelheads.
From the world leading stable of Hardinge workholding are new rotary indexing units with digital servo control, a special chuck for holding thin wall tube, and new collet blocks for internal and external part location.
All were being demonstrated.
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