Product category:
CNC turning centres, mill/turning, multi-tasking centres, horizontal and VTLs.
News Release from: Turning Technologies UK | Subject: Nakamura-Tome WT100 mill-turn centres
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 23 August 2007
With CNC mill-turn centres, reliability
counts
No matter how good a CNC mill-turn centre is, in production a key requirement is reliability, and if the machine can not meet that, it is time to change said a subcontractor.
Why UK elecrical subcontractor Dawson Shanahan invested in two Nakamura-Tome WT100 twin-spindle twin-turret mill-turn centres is for their reliability The company said that reliability is crucial when one is machining high-value components in production volumes
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 24 Feb 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
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Adding mill-turn value is key to success
Specialising in very high-precision components, a subcontractor says adding value is the key to success, which is why it has invested in a CNC mill-turning centre.
Compact lathe gives maximum turning productivity
Whether it is shaft work, bar work or chuck work, the key to a compact, twin-spindle CNC lathe's productivity is its one-hit machining capacity in an extremely compact space.
Based in Hertfordshire, Dawson Shanahan has developed an impressively wide customer base.
The company originally began producing copper components for electrical switchgear in the 1990s.
Today, it serves industries as varied as automotive, medical equipment, laser cutting and power switchgear.
Further reading
Centre offers 4-axis mill-turn on two spindles
Twin-turret, twin-spindle turning centre provides maximum one-hit machining capacity from a very compact space, performing 4-axis work on either spindle.
Achieving productive 'one-hit' machining
Twin-spindle twin-turret CNC lathe fitted with a robot part-loading system has transformed a general subcontractor into a world-leading brand in the mountain bike aftermarket.
Mill/turn centre keeps complex work in-house
Starting from a twin-spindle, twin-turret multi-axis lathe, an electric actuator company engineered a manufacturing system complete with tooling and programs for six components.
Batch and volume work varies from a couple of hundred a year up to two million a month in a wide variety of materials.
Uncommonly, Dawson Shanahan (DS) combines cold metal forming with machining.
DS uses the two Nakamura-Tome machines, supplied through UK agent Turning Technologies, to machine cold formed copper blanks into power switchgear components.
As Dawson Shanahan's joint managing director, Les Reeves, explained: "We look to see where our expertise will work best to give us a competitive edge and give the customer what they want.
At the moment the cost of copper is around GBP 4,000/tonne, and once you add on the mill's conversion cost that can become GBP 6,000.
So the key is to use that material efficiently.
By producing a cold formed blank we can achieve material savings of up to 70%.
And by using a near net shape blank we can minimise the amount of machining required to finish it off.
Significant cost reductions have also been achieved in both ferrous and non-ferrous materials using the cold-formed approach".
The choice of the Nakamura machines arose from problems of reliability associated with existing, relatively modern, turning centres.
For production machining the switchgear components, the crucial factor was reliability.
As Reeves said: "We had previously had fairly modern machines from a different manufacturer, and while we were pleased with their capabilities, we were very disappointed by their reliability.
They were fine when they were running, but you couldn't rely on them to get the work out.
So we decided to replace them earlier than we had planned.
We looked at the market to see what would be more reliable and decided on the Nakamura WT100".
He continued: "We were very happy with the machine and its reliability, and impressed with the service and support we got from Turning Technologies.
So much so that within a few months of getting the first one we ordered a second, and we fully expect to be buying a third this year.
We have found the machines to be very competitively priced and everything that we hoped for".
Features of the WT100 machines include the following.
* Maximum turning diameter of 190mm.
* Bar capacity up to 42mm.
* Chucking capcity up to 165mm * Two servo-driven 24-station turrets deliver driven tooling power of up to 7.1kW.
* A Y-axis on the upper turret allows advanced machining operations.
* The machines have a small footprint.
Reeves commented, about the small footprint: "That was very important for us.
We are always under pressure for space, so it is a real benefit to get a machine with this capability in such a small footprint".
The two WT100 machines are used to manufacture around 15 different power switchgear components - around 90% of which are machined from pre-formed billets.
Batch sizes are typically 1,000-off, with an annual requirement of around 100,000 components/year.
Balancing machining operations between the two spindles gives optimised production times, and the machines could produce the complete component in 'one hit'.
Dawson Shanahan finds it more efficient to cut a series of angled slots on the end of the component as a second operation on a stand-alone milling machine".
"Reeves explained: "It is more efficient for us to do this in two operations rather than tying up the capacity of the Nakamuras.
We can do the slotting offline while the Nakamura is doing the bulk of the machining work.
We use the high-capacity, high-capability machine for what it does best"".
He concluded: "The machines do everything you would expect from this type of machine.
But the main point is their reliability - which comes from the quality of components used, the design and they way they are built.
These are very much production machines rather than jobbing machines.
The parts we make on these two machines are selling throughout Europe, North America, India and China - the fact that they allow us to do that gives an indication of just how productive they are.".
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