Product category:
Subcontract machining and assembly services
News Release from: H C Holifield (Oxford) | Subject: Subcontract machining
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 31 October 2002
Pick-up spindle VTLs installed to reduce
costs
Another example of the increasing popularity of self-loading vertical turning lathes are the two installed by a contract machinist to keep production costs down.
Another example of the increasing popularity of self-loading vertical turning lathes (VTLs) are the two Hitachi Seiki hanging-spindle CS25s installed in August 2002 at Holifields, Abingdon, a contract machinist specialising in medical, Formula 1 and cryogenic work One of the lathes is equipped with live tooling and a turnover station for complete machining of complex work at both ends
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 10 Jan 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
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Sales Manager, Roy Marshall, commented, "They are the first VTLs in our machine shop and are a reflection of the need to keep production costs down in order to stay competitive in the subcontract business.
One operator can look after two or three of these machines, as the spindle moves across to pick up the next billet automatically rather than having to load them by hand.
"All you have to do is make sure the first-off component is right and then walk away.
Provided that the carousel is loaded with billets, after several hours you are unloading finished parts, restocking the carousel and resetting the machine if a new part is to be produced." These are highly productive lathes with 18.5kW / 4,000 rpm spindles and 30m/min rapid movements capable of machining components up to 150mm diameter.
Billet change time is 18 seconds.
In the case of the mill-turning centre with turnover facility, even parts with dis-similar diameters at either end can be produced automatically using step jaws in the spindle.
Both VTLs are DNC-linked to Holifields' programming office, as are the other 20 CNC machines on site for turning, prismatic machining and water jet cutting.
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