“Machining island” provides five- and three-axis simultaneous production

Citation

(2009), "“Machining island” provides five- and three-axis simultaneous production", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 81 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2009.12781bab.008

“Machining island” provides five- and three-axis simultaneous production

Article Type: Aerospace technology From: Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology: An International Journal, Volume 81, Issue 2

The availability to use three- and five-axis machining operations linked by pendulum production methods on the same bed of a single machine tool can now reportedly be realised with the latest version of the Hedelius RS Kombi moving column, vertical machining centre range employing the company’s ROTA SWING technology that is available through C. Dugard of Hove, Sussex.

Described as a “machining island” the RS60, 80, 100 and 125 Kombi range is said to enable higher productivity pendulum machining cycles to be utilised to tackle the machining of say, each of the six faces of a component or, two totally different parts to be produced simultaneously by loading one side of the table while the other is machining. This capability is claimed to improve productivity by at least 40 per cent and is able to create similar benefits to a pallet changer system at no additional cost.

ROTA SWING technology has been developed by Hedelius for both production and mould and die sectors whereby both three-axis and up to five-axis simultaneous operations can be performed on the same bed. So, for instance, initial clamping on the three-axis flat portion of the bed can enable the machining of the datum face of a component on one side of the table.

It is then relocated from the datum created and the other five faces machined, using the ultra-rigid trunnion fourth and fifth C-axis unit with hydraulic clamping mounted at the opposite end of the machine bed. To further improve the versatility, a fourth-axis unit can be mounted on the three-axis table position. The machine can also be equipped to hold right angle heads, special attachments and oversize tools located in a pick-up attachment for transfer into the machine spindle.

Added functionality can be gained by utilising the Hedelius System 5 Multi-Lok clamping tower that can be secured to the trunnion/indexing table to hold multiple parts in batch machining cycles with the flexibility of rotation and tilt positioning in the same cycle.

The Hedelius ROTA SWING machines are available in four sizes with tables from 775 × 620 mm to 2,550 × 1,000 mm and Y-axis travels between 620 and 1,250 mm. The Z-axis travels are between 520 and 770 mm, spindle tapers are SK50, HSK63 or HSK100 and spindle powers of up to 66 kW with torque levels of 690 Nm and speeds of 16,000 rpm available.

Rapid traverse rates in each axis are 45 m/min on the RS60 and RS80 and 30 m/min on the RS100 and RS125. Swivel range available is +10 to −90° across the range and up to 70 tools can be held in the moving tool magazine enabling tool changes to be made at any position of the X-axis.

Guarding can be specified with a fully enclosed electrically driven roll-up door section to allow overhead loading of the table while the twin guard doors have low-level access with coolant spillage protection on the runner rail.

Details available from: C. Dugard Machine Tools, Tel.: +44 (0) 1273 732286, web site: www.dugard.com