- 22nd January 2019
- Exhibitor Announcements, Manufacturing
- South2019
Five-axis centre from Whitehouse Machine Tools removes non-productive time
Promoting the machine tool ranges sold into the UK and Ireland under sole agency agreements, Whitehouse Machine Tools’ presence at Southern Manufacturing 2019 will feature the Brother Speedio M140X1 five-axis, 30-taper mill-turn centre. It has a 2,000 rpm direct-drive C-axis table and an A-axis trunnion tiltable from +120 to -30 degree, which allows features to be machined at the rear of components and facilitating loading and unloading of parts at the front of the machine. Axis travel (x/y/z) is 200/440/305mm. A 16,000 rpm Big Plus face-and-taper contact spindle can be specified in place of the standard 10,000 rpm spindle. Every conceivable element of non-productive time has been removed, says the company, with fast speeds during non-cutting motions, but they also take place simultaneously in x,y,x,a and c, together with a tool change. The spindle motor’s rapid accelerate/decelerate and highly responsive servo control enable a 0.2 second start/stop time. Start-up time of the turning table from zero to 2,000 rpm is less than 0.3 seconds.The specification includes 0.9 second tool change from the 22-position magazine, giving 1.4 seconds chip-to-chip time. Rapids of 50m/min in the linear axes help to minimise non-cutting times further, while 30m/min cutting feed rate maximises metal removal rate. Synchronised tapping is claimed to be world-leading at 377m/min peripheral tap speed.
Also shown at Southern this year will be the Brother Feedio robotic component handling system. The plug-and-play automation system, which can be retrofitted to increase the production efficiency of any 3- to 5-axis machining centre in the Speedio range, communicates with the Brother control via a Profibus interface. It is supplied with an ABB 6-axis robot and the manufacturer’s smart teach pendant incorporating a customised Speedio page.
Other machining centres from Spinner, Wele and Axa, Germany, and Akari, Taiwan, are also available, together with CNC turning centres from Spinner and Biglia, Italy.
Visit Whitehouse Machine Tools on stand G270 or find out more at www.wmtcnc.com
