Mills CNC, the exclusive distributor of Doosan machine tools in the UK, will show four new lathes on stand 5430, at MACH 2010. They are the Puma 2100SY lathe; the Puma 2600M lathe, the Puma 3100XLY lathe and the Lynx 300M lathe.

The new Puma lathes provide customers with improved accuracy and repeatability figures. This has been achieved by increasing the machines’ rigidity and stability, and by reducing the thermal effects caused during machining.

The latest Puma models benefit from a larger base casting footprint, enlarged Headstock mounting area (90 per cent increase), reduced spindle length to minimise vibration, 40 per cent increase in slide-way contact area, 50 per cent increase in sub-spindle mounting area and heavier duty sub spindle.

Thermal effects have been minimised by isolating heat sources from the machine’s base and spindle, with heat shields and fans, while oil/air lubrication reduces heat build-up in the driven tooling drive mechanism.

The Puma 2100SY has an 8 in chuck/65 mm bar work diameter; a 5,000 rpm, 22 kW/358 Nm, built-in main spindle and 6,000 rpm 15 kW/134 Nm sub-spindle; C-axis, live tooling and Y-axis.

The Puma 2600M has a 10 in chuck/76 mm bar work diameter; 3,500 rpm, 22kW/625Nm, belt-driven spindle; C-axis and live tooling.

The Puma 3100XLY is equipped with 12 in chuck/102 mm bar working diameter. The machine also features a high-torque 3,000 rpm, 30 kW/1,203 Nm, built in spindle, a 12 station milling turret and a 130 mm Y-axis.

The Lynx 300 series is an extension to the range of 2- and 3-axis value driven Lynx lathes. Unlike existing Lynx lathes, the new 300 series machines have a 10 in chuck/76 mm bar work diameter, and have full C-axis and live tooling capability.

http://www.machinery.co.uk/article/25061/MACH-2010—Mills-to-launch-Doosan-Puma-and-Lynx-lathes.aspx

Roger Street, managing partner of LMS, contacted LMT for threading expertise after receiving an enquiry for 4,000 connectors in ENIA.

Production at precision subcontractor LMS is geared to consistency and utilising the commitment and flexible working practices of the 10-man team to service its customers.

‘We are always tooling for total consistency over a batch of components and are able to predict tool changes when we are running out of hours,’ said Street.

‘Although we only run a single shift, everyone has keys to the factory and we are willing to come and go according to the priorities of the day,’ he added.

Street’s working practice is one reason for his conversion to thread rolling in preference to thread cutting, not only due to the stronger thread as a result of the cold forming process, but also the level of consistency, long tool life, minimal adjustment and the positive contribution to ‘bottom line’ costs.

Street qualifies his reasoning with a long-standing aerospace customer that specifies rolled threads on its drawings for parts in stainless steel and inconel.

He added that the level of quality and consistency provided for the customer could never be maintained by any other method of threading.

So when he received an enquiry for 4,000 connectors in ENIA from a new customer, he turned to LMT UK of Meriden, and drew on the expertise of its in-house threading specialist to help with the quotation.

They discussed screw-cutting on Street’s Citizen L20 CNC sliding head turn-mill centre with rolling the M3 thread by 10mm long, which could be carried out in under one second against almost seven seconds for the more conventional threading.

‘I reckon other suppliers quoted against screw cutting because the customer said we were so competitive and we would never have won the contract if like-for-like comparisons were made,’ said Street.

‘Once we produced initial samples the order was increased to 40,000 rather than the customer having to split source,’ he added.

LMS was also able to back up the initial quality in production.

‘The Citizen and the thread rolling was so consistent and once up and running it never stopped for a month, with the part requiring turning on the outside diameter and the thread diameter to 0.025mm and a large conical taper,’ said Street.

Two flats were milled, a cross hole drilled and deburred and the M3 thread rolled at 2,000rev/min before parting-off and being picked up by the sub-spindle to machine a spherical radius.

The thread-rolling process or ‘chipless’ cold forming is quicker to produce external threads, which can be run at up to five times the normal machining speed for thread cutting.

As the material is cold formed under mechanical pressure from the three profiled rollers, the thread is far stronger than when the fibres of the material are cut.

The resulting thread is more accurate, consistent and durable because of the burnished finish of the surface.

LMS has a portfolio of machines carefully chosen to service its covered sectors.

These include two Citizen L-Series CNC sliding-head mill-turn centres, three Nakamura TW and WT mill-turn centres, a twin-spindle, twin turret gantry loaded Takisawa TT200G lathe, one Matsuura horizontal and two vertical machining centres, the former with six pallets and 240 tools.

The most recent installations also include an Aberlink co-ordinate measuring machine, ultrasonic cleaning and an integrated MRP system.

A recent batch of 150 eye bolts in 316 stainless steel was produced on the larger capacity Citizen L32 in a single hit cycle.

Each part 12mm diameter by 70mm overall length required turning, the milling of a 30mm long flat, an 8mm-long angled flat and two shorter flats across the bolt head.

This was followed by the drilling and coning of a 5mm cross hole between the flats then the rolling of an M5 thread 30mm long at 2,200rev/min.

After parting-off, a spherical radius form was machined on the head of the bolt in the subspindle.

Once set and proven in a 4.5 min cycle, Street maintained they had total confidence to run it through the night.

In the morning, with the batch completed, the difference between the first and last part was undetectable.

The use of thread rolling was also employed in the production of high-specification eye bolts for an aerospace contract produced from 718 inconel on the Nakamura WT-150 turning centre.

The MJ6×1.0-4h thread was 28mm long with a surface finish specified at 0.8 micron CLA.

The setters throttle back cutting speeds for greater consistency and run the thread rolling head at 1,910rev/min.

‘This was still very competitive in producing the complete part within seven minutes and maintains that the inconel material rolled extremely well to meet the requirements even with soluble coolant,’ said Street.

http://www.manufacturingtalk.com/news/lmt/lmt157.html

600 Group, the manufacturer and distributor of precision engineering products to international markets, says that high quality conventional and manual/CNC lathes have been the most resilient during the world’s unprecedented economic turmoil.

600 Group sells its machine tools, spares and accessories into over 180 countries worldwide, through leading brands such as Colchester-Harrison, Pratt Burnerd and Gamet Bearings.

The Group says the demand for these machines has been threefold; significantly increased investment in education, a trend towards small batch production as demand reduced, together with a lack of availability of finance for more high tech sophisticated CNC machines.

Mike Berry, managing director of 600 Europe, said: “As unemployment has risen, governments in many parts of Europe have increased investment in the education sector, which is a traditionally strong market for us.”

Like other parts of the World, the US has seen the recent preference for conventional and manual/CNC machines. Don Haselton, managing director for North America said: “Many companies have been forced to reduce inventories to deliver cash flows. This has led the end user to order smaller batch purchases rather than large stocking orders. Our customers have had to adjust from running one large job for several days to small lot runs with several equipment changes per day to run different parts. Conventional equipment is well suited to small runs and quick change over time.”

David Norman, chief executive of 600 Group PLC, believes that much of the CNC machine tool stockpiling that took place at the height of the boom is at long last coming to an end, saying, “I have no doubt that the market for CNC machinery will return. Even during this economic downturn we have continued to develop and enhance our CNC machine capability, so when customer demand switches, we are more than ready.”

http://www.machinery.co.uk/article/24273/Conventional-and-manualCNC-lathes-thrive-in-the-global-downturn.aspx

TOLLAND, CT, Nov 24, 2009 – Mastercam X4 Lathe is here with a new suite of CAD/CAM tools focused on delivering speed and efficiency for your machining jobs. From roughing and finishing to easy grooving and threading, Mastercam Lathe has been designed to reduce programmer interaction and increase machining flexibility.

Mastercam Lathe has multiple grooving styles, including angular part modeling

Mastercam’s streamlined CAD engine makes design work easier than ever before. Each piece of geometry you create is “live,” letting you quickly modify it until it’s exactly what you want.

Precise Turning

Mastercam X4 Lathe delivers a streamlined set of programming tools, including:

• “Quick Toolpaths” for programming parts with just a few clicks.
• Optimized facing including roughing and finishing.
• Complete threading with multiple starts, diameter calculation, and user customizable thread tables.
• In addition to turning, full 3- to 5-axis milling, including machines with B-axis tooling arms.
• Grooving with multiple depth cuts and pecking.
• Easily assign groove depth, width, wall angles, corner radius, chamfer, and corner dwells.
• Stock recognition for optimized turning toolpaths with minimal user interaction.
• Comprehensive lead-in/lead-out controls minimize the need to modify the CAD model to control tool motion.
• Steady rest option supports long work pieces, minimizing deflection from tool pressure and material weight.

Full C-axis machining when combined with Mastercam Mill

Designed for Ease

• Fully associative toolpaths are linked with your geometry. Modify any element of the job and immediately get updated toolpaths without starting over.
• Mastercam’s CAD File Change Recognition tracks files from Mastercam or any other CAD system and will show you what’s been changed for easy toolpath updating.
• Comprehensive insert libraries including Sandvik, Kennametal, Iscar, and Valentine.
• See your part as it will come off the machine with solid model toolpath verification.

For more information about Mastercam X4 Lathe, please visit www.mastercamlathe.com.

About Mastercam

Developed by CNC Software, Inc., Mastercam is Windows-based CAD/CAM software for 2- through 5-axis routing, milling and turning; 2- and 4-axis wire EDM; 2D and 3D design, surface, and solid modeling; and artistic relief cutting. CNC Software is a privately owned corporation founded in 1984. The U.S.-based company provides Mastercam CAD/CAM solutions to more than 124,000 installations in 75 countries in industries including mold-making, prototyping, automotive, medical, aerospace, and consumer products. Mastercam runs under Windows 2000, Windows XP, VISTA, and Windows 7, and is compatible with all other CAD/CAM systems.

http://www.tenlinks.com/news/PR/cnc/112409_mastercam_x4lathe.htm

A CNC machining expert has introduced a new four-axis centre-drive lathe series to maximise workshop efficiency, it has been revealed.

Bardons & Oliver announced that while the 12-station turret machines the front end of the workpiece, a second turret is able to take care of the other end.

This integrated workholding capability is joined by the CNC lathe’s ability to address the critical surfaces at each end of the part and allows them to be machined concentric to each other.

Bardons & Oliver said it can be loaded manually, robot-loaded or configured with an automatic bar feed to create finished parts from full-length raw material.

Vice-president of sales at the company Brian Lane said: “Many of our customers are making plans right now to make the necessary investment in manufacturing systems and factory automation to meet the needs of their customers as we enter into this recovery phase.

“We feel that our centre-drive lathe will be an important investment for our customers moving forward.”

Based in Solon, Ohio, the organisation started producing large capacity CNC turning machines in the 1980s.

http://www.machinetooldirect.co.uk/machine-tool-news/Bardons–Oliver-introduces-new-CNC-lathe-2009-11-1.asp

A step-by-step look how a Comco engineer took a manual process to a new level, an automated, multi-tasking, microabrasive lathe system.

Microabrasive blasting has been around for decades and is in use in a wide range of industries from metalworking to medical. Comco, headquartered in Burbank, CA has been focused on this technology since 1968.

Microabrasive blasting provides a way to pinpoint cleaning, surface texturing, polishing, etching and material removal from hard to reach device surfaces. It projects a blast of clean, dry air mixed with abrasive media, delivered through a nozzle selected to suit the application. Due to the nature of the technology, most processing is still manual. While the PSI, media mixture and safety measures are automatic, an operator still controls the direction of the blast.

Dual ScrewRails and a linear actuator resulted in a series of semi-complex parts in the LA3200 XZ-Axes housing.

Automating A Lathe System

Comco’s core products are high precision microabrasive blasters. When an operator is not accurate or repeatable enough, customers ask for custom automation. In the fall of 2001, Engineering Manager Mickey Reilley was tasked with coming up with an automated stent blasting machine for a customer and saw a future for this product in other applications.

“Our first automated lathe, the LA1500, was designed from a generic standpoint with the goal to adapt it to other applications. It was a basic lathe, a spindle turned a part at a set RPM while the nozzles traveled back and forth over the part, applying the microabrasive blast stream,” Reilley says.

The blast head moved at set speed and bounced back and forth between proximity sensors for a set number of cycles. A PLC was used to tie everything together. In automating the blasting process, the biggest issue Reilley ran into was dealing with micron sized abrasive particles that will destroy bearings.

“We had to find a way to protect the automation components from this abrasive. I optimized the air flow through the machine and I positioned sensitive items as far away from the blast stream as feasible. All sensitive items were protected with an array of fixtures including bellows, seals, wipers and purge air. These efforts paid off. Abrasive contamination is rarely an issue, even with today’s advanced machines,” he says.

The design allowed the system to hold a variety of parts and provide multiple nozzle arrangements. The part tooling and nozzle head were customized for each application, but the basic machine remained the same.

Evolution

Customers readily accepted the LA1500 and with each subsequent order additional features were requested, many of which provided more separation between the technical setup and the production operator.

“Simultaneously, I was already noodling a CNC lathe that would give far more production capabilities. When we received a repeat order from the original lathe customer for a smarter machine, I decided to release the next version that was computer based and fully CNC — the LA3200. This machine gave both us and our customer the ultimate in flexibility,” Reilley says.

The LA3200 upgraded all motion axes to closed-loop stepper motors. User interface was upgraded to a touch screen LCD. The PLC was replaced by a computer, motion control card and a series of custom designed circuit boards, resulting in a three axis CNC machine.

Customer’s technicians could program the machine with G-code and operators were only presented with a list of programs to run. Once a program was selected, the lathe would tell them which part tool and blast head to load. Using proximity sensors and a scanning routine, the lathe would disallow operation until the operator had properly loaded all required parts.

“Microblasters are largely mechanical in nature. Therefore, the software and electronics portions of the LA3200 project were challenges. I solved this by spending several weeks planning and specifically detailing how I expected the software to work. This included describing the various machine states (idle, running, error, etc.) and the expected performance, plus how the machine was expected to transition between states. I also did a complete user interface design mock-up in PowerPoint.

Then I hired two contract software engineers to handle the coding: one for the machine states plus user interface, and another to iron out the motion control and data communications,” Reilley says.

The electrical design was similarly handled. A series of custom boards were needed to interface the various sensors, motors and blaster I/O with the computer. Reilley hired a contract electrical engineer who did the electrical circuit design while Reilley did the board layout. Everything was timed. Just as the first board prototypes were being brought on-line, the software engineers were ready to test the communications and controls. The mechanical was similarly timed. Everything came together at once.

Current Generation

Three years after introducing the LA3200, Comco was approached by an automotive customer who needed an automated machine more akin to a mill than a lathe.

To handle this application, the LA3250 was created. It is a stiffer, faster and cleaner version of the LA3200. The spindle was designed to be modular, so for customers who need XYZ motion the spindle could be replaced with a tooling plate. A Y-axis was designed that would move the tooling plate (or spindle) front to back in the machine. The XZ-axes were redesigned to be far stiffer, and to eliminate a noisy linear actuator. New motors were selected with integrated stepper amplifiers to simplify wiring.

“The LA3250 retains the part holding and blast head fixturing flexibility found in the LA1500 and LA3200, but adds axis flexibility. With an optional y-axis, and easy configuration of the spindle, tooling plate, or custom part holder, it is flexible on many levels, and therefore capable of handling a much larger variety of parts. Each customer’s application is different, and the LA3250 gives us the required flexibility to handle them,” Reilley adds.

Mechanical Redesign

A major mechanical redesign was done for the XZ-axes. The Haydon Kerk Motion Solutions (Kerk) ScrewRails were replaced with recirculating ball bearings on two 1″ circular stainless steel shafts and a single Kerk leadscrew. The Z-axis motor was replaced with an MDrive turning another Kerk leadscrew. “As an experiment, the housing was designed as a single complex piece,” Reilley says. “The previous design was a series of medium complexity parts that screwed together. This gamble paid off. The XZ-axis is far easier to assemble, completely air-tight, and costs less than the sum of the old design’s parts.”

Reilley says that what helped most with the final design is the Galil card. “Motion control can be complex, but Galil has set up a customer support architecture that makes it easy. Their documentation is excellent, and when you have questions they always have an expert available by phone. They knew it inside-out, and were able to give us easy-to-act-on answers.”

The second biggest benefit to the final design was the change to the IMS MDrive motors which cleaned up the inside of the machine immensely, making assembly and service vastly easier.

From Comco’s perspective, the flexibility of the lathe gives them the benefit of being able to solve a wide range of blasting needs in one machine. Interchangeable blast heads and versatile part holding make it easy to apply to any application.

“We’ve had the LA3250 for about a year and a half now,” Reilley says. “We’re still waiting to be stumped by the application that will drive the next evolutionary step.”

Key Components

LA1500:

• Electronically, the system followed some of Comco previous customs. The PLC was a Siemens 6ES7 model with an additional I/O module. The spindle was turned by a Bison DC gearmotor driven by a Minarik motor driver. The X-axis motor was custom made by Pittman, driven by a Comco-designed, constant speed amplifier.
• Mechanically, the design was all new. The X-axis was a ScrewRail by Haydon Kerk Motion Solutions (Kerk). This was selected because it was an integrated linear bearing and leadscrew, which made it compact and easy to protect against abrasive. The Z-axis was driven and supported by a Bimba FT air cylinder. This air cylinder has two shafts, so it wouldn’t rotate, and its shape was conducive to bellows protection.

LA3200:

• To meet the system goals, Comco Engineering Manager Mickey Reilley needed to entirely replace the electronics. For computing power, he considered using an industrial computer, but to save cost and avoid being tied to one vendor, he decided to use a standard, micro-ATX computer.
• For the motion controller card, Reilley considered Delta Tau and Galil. Galil’s DMC-1842 PCI motion controller was selected for one key reason: simplicity. “We understood that the Delta Tau controller was more powerful, but Galil provided such amazing documentation and technical support, that the decision was clear,” he says.
• Mechanically, the overhead drive was changed to have two parallel Kerk ScrewRails for increased rigidity. These were synchronously driven using one motor and a timing belt drive. The Z-axis motor was redesigned to use an Electrocraft (formally Eastern Air Devices) stepper motor linear actuator. This was selected for its compact size and high force value.

LA3250:

• The single most beneficial change was changing from separate stepper motors and amplifiers to integrated units. “We are now using IMS’s MDrive integrated stepper motor and amplifiers,” Reilley explains. “This vastly simplified the wiring inside the lathe by removing an amplifier and breakout board for each axis. This change has helped reduce our final wiring time from three days to one. Plus, the cost of the integrated motor is less than the combined cost of the previous components.
• http://www.pddnet.com/news-editorial-ea-super-lathe-100509/
  

A tool-making company in the US has proudly announced the investment in a third CNC lathe as a means of enhancing productivity in its facility.

Schenke Tool Company revealed that a new Haas SL-20 CNC turning centre has been brought in to increase its capacity to produce complex orders for clients around the world.

The SL-20 has the capacity to turn 10.3 inches in diameter and 20 inches in length, with an additional eight-inch chuck and a through bar capacity of two inches in diameter.

A high speed spindle - another major feature of many Haas CNC lathes - is also included and is able to produce precision parts at “very cost-effective prices”.

Schenke hopes the new system will expand on its 60-year history in the precision parts industry.

Other services provided by the company include CNC milling, abrasive water jet cutting and robotic welding, with quality control systems giving the buyer “complete customer satisfaction”.

http://www.machinetooldirect.co.uk/machine-tool-news/Schenke-announces-new-CNC-lathe-2009-6-22.asp

With a functional range from manual turning to full CNC, the Haas TL-1 Toolroom Lathe features a proprietary conversational operating system that makes cutting parts and creating part programs nearly effortless. The operator chooses an operation, touches off the X and Z surfaces, and is then prompted to enter basic dimension information. Default values for feed per revolution, spindle speed and depth of cut are automatically entered by the control, but may be changed by the operator.

Once all necessary information is entered, a push of the Cycle Start button performs the desired operation.

A Recorder function allows information to be saved for future retrieval.

The TL-1 operates in four modes.

In all modes, the Haas control provides extremely accurate digital read-out (DRO) of position, displayed to 0.0005in when using the manual handwheels or to 0.0001in when using the electronic jog handle.

Electronic soft stops may be set to limit the travel of the lathe.

In manual mode, the X and Z axes are moved via standard handwheels.

In semi-automatic mode, the TL-1 performs simultaneous linear interpolation for both axes using a single handwheel.

ID/OD chamfers and tapers, for example, are easily cut in semi-automatic mode.

In automatic mode, built-in machining cycles (both single- and multi-pass) are available for rough and finish profiling, chamfering, grooving, parting off, threading, drilling and tapping.

In full CNC, the TL-1 is programmed using standard G code, and all axis motion is regulated by the Haas control via a G-code program.

Operations that would be difficult or impossible on a manual machine, such as radii, tapers, profiles, grooving, ID and OD threading, and rigid tapping, are all possible on the TL-1 - without knowledge of G-code programming.

Help menus are available directly on-screen, and a dry-run graphics feature allows operators to check their work before running a part.

MACH 2006 witnessed several new machines from Haas Automation, the largest CNC machine tool manufacturer in the world.

Haas demonstrated machines and metal cutting technology for aerospace, automotive, medical, mould and die and general machining industries.

More than 25 CNC technology products were on show demonstrate vertical and horizontal machining and turning applications.

http://www.manufacturingtalk.com/news/has/has111.html