Posts Tagged ‘cnc machines’

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Investment in two CNC lathes has produced significant business

Thursday, June 11th, 2009

Investment in two CNC lathes has produced significant business benefits to a subcontractor including the winning of its first contract in the aerospace sector.

First investment in CNC machine tool technology creates solid platform for SB Engineering to take-off in manufacturing precision components for the aerospace sector.

Leicester – based precision subcontract specialist – SB Engineering – has recently invested in two Hardinge 6/45-SV CNC lathes.

The machines, both installed at the company’s facility in November 2006, are the first CNC machines purchased by SB Engineering.

In only two months the machines are delivering significant business benefits to a company that has high ambitions and which, (owing to its recent machine tool investment), has just secured its first contract in the aerospace sector – machining complex high-precision titanium fasteners for aircraft wing sections.

SB Engineering is a family business run by three brothers – Sat Bhamra, Harj Bhamra and George Bhamra.

The company was first established in 1984 and was initially involved in machining parts and components for knitting machines.

To undertake this work the company invested in a range of manual machine tools – milling, turning and grinding, etc.

Whilst SB Engineering today still handles this type of general precision subcontract work – the company has raised its ambitions significantly – and sees its future in manufacturing complex, high precision components.

Said Sat Bhamra, director at SB Engineering: “We have the skill, the commitment and now the technology to realise our ambitions.

The investment in Hardinge CNC technology is just the start.” He continued: “We have made a real step change in the way we operate.

We knew we needed CNC capability and we chose Hardinge for two major reasons.

Firstly their machine tools, in terms of performance and price are second to none.

Secondly, they provided excellent pre-sales support – and their technical, applications and after-sales services cannot be faulted.” The aerospace contract won by SB Engineering is vindication of the company’s machine tool investment programme and long term strategic aims.

The parts (titanium fasteners) manufactured on the Hardinge lathes vary in size and batch quantity.

Typically part dimensions can be from 5mm to 25mm – and quantities are required in hundreds or even thousands per week.

Both Hardinge lathes are used to make a complete finished part – and some 8 separate cutting operations are involved.

The first operations (on one of the Hardinge lathes) involve fine turning on the components back end – to remove the ‘blue’ oxidation layer on the titanium and to bring the part into tolerance – +/-0.001mm.

Secondary operations on the second Hardinge lathe involve drilling a small bore in the centre of the part – plus high precision chamfering and grooving operations.

Each part is completed (including set up) in 45 – 50s.

In addition to the Hardinge lathes – SB Engineering has also invested in inspection equipment to fulfil the demands of the aerospace sector – and is well on the way to achieving ISO:9001 (2000) certification.

Concluded Sat Bhamra: “We are changing rapidly to ensure that we can exploit the business opportunities that exist in high-precision and high-growth sectors.

We have plans in the pipeline to relocate our business in the near future to a new and bigger site.

The investments we have made in Hardinge CNC machines will help us take on more profitable work – and will enable us to consolidate our position within the aerospace and other precision manufacturing sectors.” * About the Hardinge 6/45-SV lathe – the Hardinge Talent 6/45-SV lathe is a compact and rigidly constructed 2-axis machine.

It is equipped with a 15kW spindle drive (with Fanuc control) and includes a three-jaw power chuck as standard.

The machine also has an A2-5 (6,000 rev/min) spindle with 45mm through draw bar capacity.

Rotation time for the Talent’s bi-directional 12-station VDI-30 turret is 1s (unclamp/index/clamp) to an adjacent station.

The non-rising turret index is achieved using a separate brushless servomotor and the turret positively locks into position using a three-piece curvic coupling.

Rapid traverse rates for the X and Z axes are an impressive 30m/min and maximum X-axis travel is 153mm and maximum Z-axis travel is 406mm.

The lathe has a ribbed 45 deg slant bed base that provides superior rigidity and durability.

All structural components and castings are qualified by Finite Element Analysis (FEA)-a proven, highly-technical procedure that ensures a stiff, structurally-sound machine tool design.

The machine is available with a MT 4 programmable tailstock (option) for machining longer parts.

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Jones and Shipman (JandS) has launched the next-generation Ultragrind CNC cylindrical grinding machine

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

The Ultragrind CNC is designed for the precision production environment such as aerospace & higher volume manufacture including automotive, as well as high-precision sub-contract machining for biomedical, high-end system tool/die sets, F1 & motor sport engineering.

Jones & Shipman (JandS) has launched the next-generation Ultragrind CNC cylindrical grinding machine that is designed to offer more power & accuracy, and increased component weight handling.

‘We will be demonstrating a working prototype at the CIMT event, so visitors to the show will be able to see all the machine’s advantages,’ said Mike Duignan, sales & marketing director of Jones & Shipman.

Built on a one-piece bed design, the machine combines rigidity, stability & stock removal rates while maintaining precision.

A modular wheelhead design ensures customers have a wide choice of external & internal grinding spindle combinations, effectively allowing the customer to specify a custom machine, but without the cost & build time associated with it.

The modular wheelhead design gives wheel sizes up to 500 x 100mm (diameter) & wheel spindle power up to 15kW, with ultra rigid spindles providing substantially increased metal removal rates & increased productivity.

Angular wheelhead positional accuracy & repeatability are assured by a high-precision 1deg Hirth coupling.

An optional true B-axis programmable to 0.001deg utilising feedback from a high-accuracy encoder mounted directly to the rotational spindle axis means infinitely variable positional resolution can be achieved.

The machine currently offers 650mm or 1000mm between centres (with larger machine length capacities planned) & centre heights of 180mm, 200mm & 250mm.

The increased diameter capacity (of up to 500mm) means there’s options to cater for larger mass components up to 450kg, & odd-shaped components, which can result in high rotational inertia.

The Ultragrind machine uses Jones & Shipman’s Windows-based graphical programming application suite, which further builds on the Easy application that removes the requirement for operators to input code, although ISO programming is fully supported & codes can be viewed & used if required.

The application is built around a Fanuc 320i with touch-screen control process.

This reduces the time needed for operator training, machining set up & changeover times.

A full suite of dressing & grinding programs are obtainable for the operator.

A wide range of additional options including gauging & auto loading are also available.

Jones & Shipman set up pages permit the operator to digitise diamond & wheel positions by means of a simple touch-screen interface.

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Two Doosan Puma CNC lathes are machining high precision, complex components

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

Aberdeen, UK-based oil and gas precision component manufacturer, Omega Completion Technology is using two new Doosan Puma CNC lathes to machine high-precision, complex components for a wide-range of Omega’s high integrity well completion and intervention tools and equipment.supplied by Doosan UK agent, Mills Manufacturing Technology, Leamington Spa, supplied a Puma 400L and a Puma 280L during April and June 2008 respectively.

Two Doosan Puma CNC lathes are machining high precision, complex components for a wide range of high integrity well completion and intervention tools and equipment.

Resources manager at Omega, Steven Smith, said that the company currently supplies over 40 different completion and intervention products to the market.

These include the following.

* Clean-out valves.

* Self-opening sand-face valves.

* Hydrostatic setting tools.

* Roller gauge carriers and more.

In addition to manufacturing and supplying be-spoke solutions to customers, Omega invests significant resources in to new product development and product refinements.

Such investments have included powerful 3D modelling and animation program packages, high-performance measurement and inspection equipment and the two Puma lathes.

The products they manufacture and supply are ‘performance critical’.

Smith said: “We demand a great deal from our machine tools.

they continued: “The new Puma lathes provide us with high-performance turning capability – accuracy, speed, reliability, flexibility and, of coursework, productivity”.

That means that all the product components and parts (manufactured prior to their assembly), are ‘performance critical’ too”.

Parts manufactured on the Puma lathes are cylindrical in shape and are made from a variety of different (and often difficult-to-machine) materials such as carbon steel, Inconel, stainless steels, and Duplex steels.

Component sizes vary: internal parts (such as for hydrostatic setting tools) are typically small and can have diameters from 1/8in to 3in.

They feature complex details including thread forms, internal and external profiles and so on.

Larger parts (capacity up to 22in diameter and up to 7ft in length) are machined from solid, often to tight tolerances (+/-50 micron), and high surface finishes.

These parts, such as the outer sections of sleeves and casings for Omega’s tools and equipment like the sand face and neat out valves, are machined in small batches.

Lead times, as one would imagine in today’s oil and gas sector, said Mills to manufacturingtalk, are incredibly tight and part accuracies (for reliable product performance and safety) are critically important.

The 280L has a powerful 22kW spindle (3,500 rev/min), 10-station turret and has 76mm bar diameter working capacity and a 10in chuck.

* Productivity and precision – the Puma 280L machine is designed for productivity and precision, and can be relied on to deliver both even when undertaking heavy-duty, interrupted machining.

* Turning power – the Puma 400L is a larger and more powerful turning centre that has a a heavy-duty 26kW, 2,000 rev/min spindle to provides high metal removal rates.

The machine has a 550mm diameter turning capacity, 116.5mm bar capacity and a 15in chuck.

Both machines are equipped with FANUC control technology and have simple and easy to use conversational programming facility for fast and accurate job set-ups and data input.

In addition to the new Puma lathes Omega Completion has made previous investments in Doosan turning technology including: a Puma 300L; a Lynx 220 and another Puma 400L.

Smith said: “Our complete business focus is on providing quality products and services – and our machine tools help us achieve these objectives”.

they concluded: “We pride ourselves on our ‘right first time – every time’ approach and our innovative solutions and ability to get them to market quickly is a major differentiator and key strength of our company”.

The company’s reputation and success has been built on the innovation and technical excellence of its products and services.

* About Omega Completion – Omega Completion Technology is a market-leader in the design, development, manufacture, assembly and supply of completion and implementation tools the global onshore and offshore oil and gas sector.

Over the last few years the company has experienced (consistent) double-digit sales growth, reflecting the market’s demand for Omega Completion’s products.

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Jean Michel Vallet has built his engineering workshop by making precision components on CNC machines

Saturday, March 21st, 2009

Engineering workshop utilises Haas CNC machines.Jean Michel Vallet has built his engineering workshop by making precision components on CNC machines for mostly local companies, but always with four eye on his long-held dream of building a race automobile.

In the early 1970s, Vallet was quick to realise the potential of CNC, investing in the first of many numerically controlled machines.

In the late 1990s, the time came to move to new premises; and it was the ideal opportunity to streamline the company’s workshop.

‘When they built this new factory, they had something like six different makes of CNC machine tools,’ said Vallet.

‘For the sake of productivity, they had to standardise.’ In 1998, Vallet took a trip to the Paris machine tool show where, where they came across Haas CNC machine tools.

‘Running the factory was complicated and inefficient.

‘We found the best machines for our growing company,’ they added.

‘All Haas machines have the same control, which means if you can program four, you can program all of them.

The company now owns several Haas machines, including a VF-9 vertical machining centre.

‘Plus, they offer many torque, which is ideal because they often use large diameter end mills on stainless steel.’ they was also impressed with the Haas fourth-axis capabilities.

Today, the company’s bread-and-butter work, the work which will pay for Vallet to pursue his motor racing dream, is mainly making parts for companies building food packaging and processing machines, and some special and secretive aerospace projects.

Vallet began by supplying a local company making machines for bottling plants.

‘We also make five-axis parts for our aerospace customers, which are actually comparatively straight forward to machine.

‘We make scale models of new and prototype aircraft, which are used for wind tunnel testing and are full of sensors measuring airflow and aerodynamic forces,’ they said.

‘These parts often have very tight tolerances, which is a challenge because they have to find ways of making them at the price the customer wants to pay.

‘The trickiest parts they make are for the food processing industry, machined from special stainless steels.

One, a Haas VF-1, runs 24 hours a day using a Kuka robot arm to change parts.

‘It’s demanding work, which we’re able to do because they use accurate but relatively low-cost machine tools.’ In Vallet’s busy workshop is a line of Haas machines including seven CNC vertical machining centres and three CNC turning centres.

PCs interconnect all the machining stations, allowing managers to keep tight control of planning and scheduling.

An adjacent PC, using application designed personally by Vallet, controls the robot separately.

The factory runs four shifts and 24 hours a day; 10 Haas machines jogging through the night with three operators on duty.

‘My objective is to create an entire racing automobile from six solid blocks of aluminium, in 70 hours, using only four tools,’ said Vallet.

No castings, no extrusions, solid parts.

Big blocks of aluminium, they admits, but six, from which they intends to machine all of the major and supporting structural components, including the chassis, suspension, mounting brackets, and so on.

‘But otherwise, we’ll make it here, on four Haas machine, in less than a week of jogging four shifts a day.’.

‘We’ll buy-in brakes, glass, wheels, that sort of thing, we’ll make the body from glass fibre and we’ll use an Alfa Romeo V6 engine, giving 340HP,’ they added.

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Ode To The Delicate Dance Of The Five-Axis CNC Machine

Sunday, March 8th, 2009

We often talk about horsepower, 0-to-60 times and the graceful curve of a hood. It’s time now to pay homage to what makes it all possible, the five-axis body mill.

Often talking of horsepower and 0-to-60 times, they forget the machines like the five-axis CNC mill machine that make it all possible. Watching four mill a concept automobile from scratch should help us pay homage.

Nowadays, you model a piece in I-DEAS or Catia, export it to MasterCAM, which automatically builds a three-dimensional cut path, which is uploaded to the five axis CNC and in a matter of minutes or hours you have a mathematically accurate 3D representation of whatever you imagined at a workstation. and that’s the tiny stuff. We’re not even talking about stereolithography via UV-cured immersed resin baths or printed infrared polymer powder. We’ve come a long way baby.

The first numerical controlled (NC) machines were built in the 1940s and 50s and based on existing tools modified with motors that moved the controls to follow points fed into the system on paper tape. These early servomechanisms were rapidly augmented with analog and digital computers, developing modern computer numerical controlled (CNC) machine tools that have revolutionized the design system.In the last decade, CNC has evolved into a magnificent confluence of speed and accuracy. Used to be (in the 90s) if you wanted a surface with complex curves, you had to model it in clay, scan it into a server and assign approximate mathematics, which would then be transferred to approximate soft tools and then eventually approximate hard tools.

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