Product category:
Vertical machining centres (VMC)
News Release from: Hurco Europe | Subject: VM1 vertical machining centre
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 27 May 2005
Quiet VMCs have efficient chip
management
Quietness in operation, even at 10,000 rev/min, and also for the clean working environment that results from efficient chip management determined RP company's choice of VMC.
Rapid prototyping (RP) and short lead-time manufacture of components and moulds using the same technologies are a buoyant sector within a languishing manufacturing industry in the UK, one reason being that the quick turnaround demanded by OEMs almost precludes them going to overseas suppliers One RP bureau to capitalise is Gemini Prototyping, Worminghall, Buckinghamshire, which has grown from a garden-shed industrial modelmaker started by Richard Pike in 1999 to a GBP 1.4 million turnover business in 2005, employing 22 staff
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 5 Dec 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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A core technology underpinning prototype manufacture is CNC milling.
Gemini has chosen two 40-taper VM1 vertical machining centres from Hurco, installed in 2003 and 2005, to supplement manual milling machines (and lathes) employed since the outset.
From a large selection of similar capacity machines on the market, the VM1s with their 660 x 356 x 457mm working envelope were selected in part for their quietness in operation, even at 10,000 rev/min, and also for the clean working environment that results from efficient chip management.
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These attributes are particularly important in modelmaking, not only to allow operators to concentrate on any design modifications they may be required to make, but also to impress customers when they visit, some of which are major household names.
Gemini's user base includes the fast moving consumer goods sector, for which it makes prototypes for structural packaging such as blow moulded bottles and caps, air fresheners, oral care products, medical delivery systems and perfume containers.
For the orthopaedics industry, the company manufactures plastic bones for surgeons to practice implant operations.
Making models of toys for photography, well in advance of the production tooling, is another activity; while work in the automotive sector is growing, particularly under-bonnet prototypes in design-intent materials to support engine development programmes.
Commented Pike, "Our specialism is developing an idea or existing design to a finished plastic part under one roof".
"If we work from a CAD model, we aim to produce the moulded plastic part(s) in five to 10 days by the fastest, most expedient method".
"To ensure short lead times, we have all key equipment and expertise in-house, including design, photorealistic imaging, animation, conventional modelmaking, pattern making, vacuum casting, plastics injection moulding and blow moulding, and tool making"".
"" The most recent development is the installation of a direct metal laser sintering machine from EOS, the third in the UK, to make rapid tooling in 20 micron layers from CAD models".
"Only readily available services like stereolithography and fused deposition modelling are subcontracted out." A prime role for the Hurco machining centres at Gemini is the manufacture of aluminium injection and blow moulds for making up to 5,000-off plastic parts, which can then be evaluated and adjusted before going to the production mould tool.
An example of a metal part machined from the solid is a prototype of a coffee percolator component, simulating a pressing with a wall thickness of 0.4mm.
The high-speed spindle proved invaluable for avoiding wall deformation; and as six cutters were used for the job, automatic tool change from the 16-station magazine saved a lot of operator time.
Acrylic parts for the same project were produced on the Hurcos and other plastics such as ABS, acetyl and noryl are also regularly machined.
The first VM1 was equipped with the manufacturer's Ultimax twin-screen control system that provides powerful programming capabilities at the machine.
However, Pike and his co-director, Peter Blane, found that in practice they were preparing the majority of programs off-line, as many are complex and run for 15 to 20 hours unattended into the evening and overnight.
So the second, VM1 was equipped with the lower cost, single-screen CNC, which like its twin-screen counterpart directly accepts DXF file output from CAD/CAM systems without translation. Request a free brochure from Hurco Europe ...
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