Product category:
Vertical machining centres (VMC)
News Release from: Haas Automation | Subject: CNC lathe and machining centres
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 26 June 2007
CNC lathe and machining centres chosen
carefully
After a careful evaluation of the options and price, value-for-money, ease of programming and ergonomic efficiency, a UK military model kit company chose a CNC lathe and two machining centres.
Manufacturing kits for one-sixth size, operational military models - such as tanks - calls for good quality precision machine tools After a careful evaluation of the options and for a combination of practical and business reasons including price, value-for-money, ease of programming and ergonomic efficiency, Amortek chose Haas CNC machine tools
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 17 Jul 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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The machine tools chosen include a Haas TL-15 dual spindle lathe with a Servo 300 bar feed, which can operate in a 'lights out' mode, thanks to its automated loading capability.
Amortek also chose the Haas VF-1 and Haas VF-3 machining centres.
These have to be manually loaded, but they can handle multiple set-ups and so can be left to produce batches of parts.
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Using steel, aluminium and occasionally brass, Mark goes to great lengths to faithfully reproduce the scale size and thicknesses of the armour and the component parts of the real vehicles, many of which were protected by armour ranging from around 70mm to 100mm thick.
Models may have plate steel skins from around 12mm to 16mm, which partly explains why the finished product can weigh so much.
Mark says that actual machining operations are relatively straightforward and involve mostly drilling, milling and profiling routines.
But that doesn't mean that just any production equipment would have sufficed.
Instead, he chose the Haas CNC machine tools after a careful evaluation of the options and for a combination of practical and business reasons including price, value-for-money, ease of programming and ergonomic efficiency.
"There are a lot of cheap, nasty machine tools out there and a lot of good, but also very expensive ones.
Haas is the only reliable company in the middle ground.
In my opinion, nothing does day-to-day machining as well," said co-owner of Amortek, Mark Watkins.
"One particularly useful attribute of the machines is the quality of the control, which makes programming very easy." The fact that the founder of Haas Automation, Gene Haas, used to run his own machine shop is evident, Watkins claimed, in the ease-of-use of the products: "They're obviously designed with the operator in mind," he said.
He also added that the machines are well suited to unsupervised operation; an important consideration given the demands on his time as owner-manager, designer, machine programmer, etc.
After the machine tools have finished making parts they're easy to clean and make ready for the next batch.
"In a job-shop environment," Watkins observed, "There is absolutely no point in having high speed rapids (rapid feeds) and tool changers if it takes forever to clean the swarf out of the machine." Armortek's commitment to Haas CNC machine tools is reinforced by the fact that in preparation for the introduction of two new, but as yet undisclosed, scale models later this year, the Mark Watkins and his co-owner, and wife, Gill Watkins, have already ordered a new Haas Super Speed VF machining centre.
"I have no hesitation about choosing Haas again," Mark Watkins said.
"They're versatile, reliable, great value for money and easy to use.
They're the right tools for the job".
* Designing and building the military models - Even at one sixth of its real-life size, an Armortek reproduction of a WWII Tiger tank is an impressive sight.
More so, as like the 'real thing' it's made of steel and aluminium, can manoeuvre over rough ground or through water, and even 'fire' its gun with a satisfying eruption of flame, smoke and an authentic boom.
This is the realism that customers of the Dunkeswell, Devon, UK, based company have come to expect from one of the world's top suppliers of scale military models.
Every year Armortek makes around 250 self-assembly kits of model tanks and other armoured vehicles.
The company was founded in 2001 as part of a group of manufacturing ventures.
In 2006 the Mark and Gill Watkins acquired sole ownership of the Armortek business.
Apart from the impressive 'Tiger', Armortek also makes 'Sherman' and 'Panther' tank kits, a scale Sd.Kfz 7 half-track vehicle and a Flak 36, 88mm gun.
Across the range, the kits vary from low-end models for static display to top-of-the-range products with in-built motors and remote control systems.
"Some of our customers prefer not to drive their models, but spend hundreds of hours recreating dioramas of actual events from the Second World War," said Mark Watkins.
"The attention to detail is stunning." Those clients who want to 'drive' the machines can choose to supplement them with sound systems, smoke generators and gun barrels that use 12 gauge shotgun cartridges to simulate the effects of real tank cannon firing.
Armortek's customers are, typically, military model-making enthusiasts from around the world.
Some 50% of the company's output is exported, mainly to the United States.
"Some of them have a standing order for pretty much everything we build," said Watkins.
To grow its business in the USA, the company is currently on the lookout for a local manufacturing partne - perhaps another Haas user with the capacity to help us better serve our growing US customer base.
Irrespective of the way the models will be used, all Armortek's customers demand not just accuracy in the details and proportions of the models, but also - especially when they are used in harsh outdoor conditions - appropriate robustness.
The build quality and the price of the models reflect their fidelity to the military specifications of their real life counterparts; a fully equipped model Tiger, for example, weighs 160kg and costs in the region of GBP 5,000.
To achieve the consistent manufacturing standards one would expect for what some might consider a very expensive toy has meant investing in reliable, high-productivity CNC machine tools.
Which is why US machine tool supplier Haas Automation was chosen.
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