Product category:
Horizontal machining centres (HMC)
News Release from: StarragHeckert UK | Subject: Heckert CWK 400D horizontal machining centre
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 08 April 2004
Slant-bed HMC ousts VMC and ups
machining times
When a first tier subcontractor needed to increase its automotive components machining capacity, it replaced a VMC with a state-of-the-art slant-bed HMC that reduced machining times by 15%.
When first tier subcontractor Turnbridge Engineering needed to increase its automotive components machining capacity, it was decided to replace an existing vertical machining centre with a state-of-the-art Heckert CWK 400D horizontal machining centre, supplied by StarragHeckert UK of Brackley This slant-bed, twin-pallet machine installed at the Bradford plant now forms an integral part of a multi-machine cell - comprising CNC turning, honing, washing and pressure testing - which produces a range of turbo-charger housings on a round-the-clock basis
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 9 Dec 2002 at 8.00am (UK)
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The Heckert machine is the first full, four-axis machine installed and was commissioned in October 2003 at Turnbridge's 20,000ft2 factory at Low Moor.
As joint managing director John Shaw describes: "Our move to horizontal spindle working has become a progressive trend over recent years as this configuration of machine is more suited to four-axis production of cast turbine and central bearing housings in quantities of around 25,000 per month." The CWK 400D soon proved its lean manufacturing credentials, cutting machining times by an average of 15 per cent compared against existing horizontal spindle machines, with bonuses of reduced downtime and the provision of greater all-round production versatility.
As one of six machines in the cell, the Heckert CWK 400D conditions the effectiveness of the whole production system as its output is fine-tuned to match the cycle and process times of the other equipment and in particular the two CNC lathes.
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This has been achieved by a combination of multi-fixturing allowing mixed batch production on the same pallet carrying up to four different jobs at a time mounted to the tombstone-type fixture and the machine's ability to produce cast iron bearing housings so much faster.
This reduction in cycle time is particularly noticeable when angular faces and small angle holes are required on certain housings and here the 400D's full, fourth-axis capability really comes into its own.
When it came to selecting the most suitable horizontal spindle machine for the cell, Turnbridge drew up a short list of three.
Said Shaw: "While we had never considered a Heckert before, we were immediately impressed by the design, build quality, cost and performance.
We could see that it looked like it had been developed by engineers with a lot of experience in automotive type applications.
It includes features such as broken tool detection, which operates in the magazine and so doesn't impinge on production time, the high pressure coolant system, and the durable nature of the flat, plate-type guards." He recounts how his company and other automotive component producers have had problems in the past with roof tile and concertina type guards which tend to deteriorate quite rapidly leading to increased periods of downtime.
He says: "Operating 24 hours a day through seven days a week working to a just-in-time schedule means we can't afford to have machines out of action, even if it's for a minor problem." Established 25 years ago and employing 60 people, Turnbridge Engineering is a privately owned subcontract engineering company specialising in the machining of automotive parts, which are mainly produced from castings.
It has special expertise in the manufacture of turbine housings for turbo-chargers and bearing housings - the latter ranging in size from between 60mm and 200mm diameter which are supplied to truck, off-road vehicle such as earth movers, excavator and large, static diesel generator OEMs.
While batch sizes range from just one to 5,000, the company has set up a number of lean cells where it machines a range of materials including cast grey iron, cast SG iron, cast nickel iron, stainless steel and aluminium.
It has some 25 CNC machine tools installed and currently holds both ISO9000 and QS9000 quality standards.
While the new Heckert horizontal machining centre is predominantly used to produce bearing housings, it can also be switched over to produce turbine housings and other work.
Typical bearing operations, following turning, include: face and profile milling of two flanges, drilling and tapping a series of holes and deep hole drilling a small, off from centre line, blind hole some 5 mm diameter by 40mm deep in the main body.
Average machining times are between 10 and 20 minutes.
Positional tolerances on certain hole centres can be as tight as 0.01mm.
The slant-bed CWK 400D uses: 500mm pallets, with a working envelope of 650 mm in X, Y and Z axes.
It has a 31kW high torque 10,000 revs/min spindle motor with rapid traverses of 40 m/min.
The Siemens control is programmed off-line from a CAM system in the production office to produce some 25 different styles of bearing housing and any of the 300 variants of turbine housing which was an important part of the original justification to purchase.
Shaw's overall view of the installation is that the Heckert CWK 400D has certainly lived up to expectations of productivity and capability since its installation.
He says: "It is a faster, more productive and highly flexible production resource which has given us the ability to quote and win new work, while the certainty of on-going technical back-up and support from StarragHeckert UK, is viewed by us as important for such a major capital investment." "We have had problems in the past with certain machine tool suppliers and therefore credibility of the supplier is quite high on our purchase agenda," says Shaw.
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