Product category:
Bar feeders and loaders
News Release from: Kitagawa Europe | Subject: IEMCA Boss 21 bar feeders
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 22 January 2007
Hexagonal bar turning needs better
feeders
When replacing CNC production lathes with higher speed ones, it is not always possible to use existing bar feeders as they may not cope with hexagonal bar higher rotational speeds.
Manufacturer of high pressure hydraulic parts, Jade Adaptors of Hounslow, Middlesex, UK, has installed IEMCA Boss 21 bar feeders from Kitagawa on its CNC lathes These compact units for handling bar diameters from 5 to 51mm are ideal for use in applications where lathe spindle length is limited or space is restricted
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 17 May 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
Multi-stage filters maintain productivity
Traditional oil mist filtration equipment can sometimes struggle to cope with the demands of high productivity machining operations, but Absolent filter units are designed to satisfy.
Indexers offer repeatability under heavy cuts
When Pacson came to evaluate rotary indexing units to enable valve bodies to be machined in a single cycle it should choose Kitagawa equipment; not just once, but twice!
Recommended by DMG which supplied Jade Adaptors with four Gildemeister Sprint 32 linear automatic production lathes nearly three years ago there are now five Boss 21 bar feeders installed on their machines.
The company manufactures around 5000 varieties of adaptor and with some customers requiring quantities of more than one million parts a year, it was vital to have the equipment in place to handle these volumes efficiently.
"Around 98% of the adaptors we manufacture contain a hexagonal feature and the most popular size measures 32mm across the flats, so it doesn't fit into standard 32mm bar capacity machines," explained proprietor Dave Reynolds.
Further reading
New rotary tables from Kitagawa at Mach 2000
Products to be displayed for the first time at MACH 2000 will include the latest additions to Kitagawa's rotary table and chucking package ranges
Major uplift in orders for Kitagawa
Sales are booming for Wiltshire-based Kitagawa Europe, with a major uplift in orders across its product range leading to a 10-year high in business levels during August.
"Once we had installed the new CNC lathes we then needed to replace the bar feeders.
The ones we already had were not able to handle this volume of accurate bar cutting, especially at the high spindle speeds required by the Sprint 32 machines." He said: "The hexagonal profile demanded a much greater level of support to eliminate vibration and obtain the surface finish required on the part.
The Boss 21 feeders exactly met our requirements." The Boss 21 can work with bar lengths of up to 2080mm, thereby eliminating the need to section long bars into three or four pieces and reducing the quantity of unusable remnants.
This compact bar feeder, which can be used with both fixed and sliding headstock lathes irrespective of the lathe spindle length, also includes a remnant recovery feature.
"Because of the quantities of hydraulic adaptors that we manufacture, efficiency and high productivity levels are absolutely essential, which is why we are continually investing in new technology," said Reynolds.
"The Boss 21 bar feeders manage this extremely well and the support and back-up from Kitagawa has been really outstanding." * About Kitagawa Europe - based in Salisbury, Wiltshire, Kitagawa Europe offers one of the most comprehensive ranges of workholding and productivity solutions in the UK.
The company draws on over 60 years chuck development and manufacturing experience and has established its B-series units as the worl''s most popular power chuck range.
Other principal products include Kitagawa rotary tables, IEMCA bar feeders, Chick workholding solutions, CoolJet high pressure coolant technology, Absolent filtration systems and Darex drill and tool sharpening equipment. Request a free brochure from Kitagawa Europe ...
• Kitagawa Europe: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Manufacturingtalk email newsletter
• Manufacturingtalk Home Page
Search the Pro-Talk network of sites
