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Machine tool company is putting more investment into re-manufactured VTL’s - having acuired more ‘carcasses’ to offer competitive CNC vertical borers to the aerospace and turbine industry

To find competitive CNC vertical borer solutions for the demands of the aerospace and turbine industry, Pennine has expanded its ‘VTL Re-Engineering’ programme with the addition of seven vertical turning lathe (VTL) carcasses for its 2006 programme.

The seven machines are, three Morando VLN-12, two Schiess DE14 and two Schiess DE18 models.

The Morando type VLN-12 machines are elevating rail, ram machines with 1200mm tables (1600mm swing) and 12 station toolchangers.

Schiess DE 14 machines are elevating rail turret machines with 1250mm tables (swing 1400mm).

The Schiess DE18 are elevating rail turret machines with 1600mm tables (swing 1800mm).

All will be supplied with new CNC controls and drive systems (Fanuc) although a particular customer requirement maybe possible.

The re-manufactured stock build programme takes sound machine carcasses, which are subsequently rebuilt, re-engineered and retrofit with the latest CNC technology.

Result is large capacity, sturdy accurate machines at a reduced cost (compared with new) having as new accuracy and performance.

These machines are then sold with full warranty John Ginley, Pennine’s managing director, explains, “Typical parts which are produced on these VTLs are large rings with complex profiles to tight tolerances from exotic materials, such as titanium and nimonic alloys.

A significant priority is placed on accuracy, machine rigidity and high torque and power at relatively low cutting feeds and speeds.

Re-manufacturing and Re-engineering a sturdy carcass machine, such as the Schiess and Morando variants, provides an excellent base to achieve these priorities.

A re-manufacturing and re-engineering programme starts with a complete assessment of the machine condition, followed by dismantling of the machine for examination, logging and a quality audit of all the major sub assemblies.

At this stage, depending on the examination results, a decision is taken on which aspects of the machine will be retained and which will be re-engineered.” Typical areas that maybe re-engineered are: * Replace the existing axis drive arrangement with the latest digital servo motors, coupled to the ballscrews through torsionally rigid couplings or timing belt drives, to improve positioning response and reduce backlash.

* Replace an existing multi-speed table drive gearbox and fixed speed motor with a 2 speed electric change unit and modern digital spindle motor.

This gives infinitely variable speeds, a better power profile, less noise, less driveline backlash and allows the use of constant surface speed control.

* Fit a table encoder to provide screw cutting and feed per rev operation.

* Replace the axis lubrication system (pump, distributors, piping, etc.) and enhance monitoring to aid precise positioning and to minimise wear.

* Replace the original hydraulic installation with a new compact system to reduce oil capacity, lower power consumption and allow greater monitoring (levels, pressures etc).

The more compact tank can often be fixed to the machine carcass, removing the need to disconnect the hydraulics when the machine is moved.

f* Fit an enhanced guarding system to meet current health and safety requirements and provide improved coolant and swarf control.

The guarding arrangement can accommodate a swarf conveyor if required.

* Replace existing wiring with new to meet CE requirements.

* Select a new CNC control to suit machine type with digital control, to provide latest features at the machine and with enhanced communication capabilities to allow connection to customer networks.

* Add direct axis measurement, particular to the X (diameter) axis, for enhanced accuracy and improved repeatability.

j* Upgrade the toolholding arrangement to incorporate modern systems, such as Sandvik’s Capto.

k* Take advantage of modern compact electrical and electronic equipment to reduce the size of the electrical panels.

Where possible these are mounted on the machine carcass to ease maintenance, reduce floor space, remove the need to disconnect the machine when moving and provide a single machine lift.

* Decide on operator station type and position to provide flexible viewing and operation available with new compact CNC controls.

Fixed or portable handwheel arrangements can be incorporated to aid machine setting.

* Consider the fitment of tool setting and/or workpiece inspection probing systems.

The same care and attention to detail is applied to the elements of the machine that are being retained.

* After a thorough cleaning of all parts, the slideways are inspected and re-ground as necessary.

PTFE-based anti-friction material is fitted to the moving elements to reduce stiction and aid positioning accuracy and repeatability and/or linear bearings replaced or refurbished to return the machine alignments to British Standards for vertical CNC borers.

* Gearboxes (eg elevating rail and retained table drive components) are stripped and all bearings and any worn gearing replaced.

* Table bearings are inspected and, if required, replaced with new.

* The table bearing and gearbox lubrication system is overhauled and, where possible, improved and then checked for correct operation.

* Tool holding systems (turrets or toolchangers) are completely overhauled.

f* Ballscrews are refurbished or, if necessary, replaced with new.

New support bearings are fitted.

* Telescopic steel slideway covers are refurbished, with the fibre bellows type being replaced with steel telescopic units.

* The machine’s moving elements are precisely aligned and adjusted using calibrated granite artifacts, and finally checked with Pennine’s Renishaw laser interferometer.

* The re-assembled machine is now rewired using appropriate wiring, conduits and drag-chains and with due regard to CE requirements.

* Sensors and solenoid valves on the machine are wired directly to the CNC’s distributed I/O, which allows a comprehensive software interface to be written to control the machine and provide the necessary safety interlocking and enhanced diagnostic support.

* In addition to cable routing meeting new CE requirements, the latest cabling, tubing and drag-chains provide a more modern appearance.

* Finally, a suitable enclosed and interlocked guarding system is designed, manufactured and fitted.

At the end of the Pennine re-manufacturing process, the machines are ready to meet the customer’s 2006 production demands.

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Among second-hand machine tools currently available from a UK company are a large Craven travelling wheel head roll grinder and a Butler CNC floor-type, high power travelling column Elgamill.

The UK-built Craven Travelling Wheel Head Roll Grinder has a swing over bed of 2000mm, and a maximum grinding diameter of 1829mm.

Its maximum grinding length is 8600mm.

The machine accepts a maximum roll weight of 75 tonne and the machine tool price is GBP 175,000 (plus VAT if applicable), ex-site.

Gribben expects keen interest in this roll grinder.

The second machine is a UK-built Butler CNC Floor type Hi-Power Elgamill (serial number 28211) a travelling column type machine with up to 7000mm of X-axis travel.

The column’s universal, 2000 rev/min Huron-type machining head has 2000mm travel (Z-axis).

The floor plates are 8400mm x 1925mm.

Gribben advises that these details are approximate.

The CNC with the machine is a Heidenhain 360 system.

The price is GBP 80,000 (plus VAT if applicable).

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GoIndustry Michael Fox International will conduct an online auction of approximately 150 lots of late model CNC machine tools and metal fabrication equipment during July/August 2006.

GoIndustry Michael Fox International Inc, one of the world’s largest providers of used industrial asset disposition and acquisition services, will conduct an online auction of approximately 150 lots of late model CNC machine tools and metal fabrication equipment.

Online bidding begins on July 19 and ends on August 10, 2006 at 12.00 noon (EST).

The highly sought after metalworking equipment includes a plasma cutter; machining centers; turning center; boring mill, and tool holders.

A full list of items and further details about the online auction are available on-line.

On-line auctions allow buyers to participate in the bidding process from the comfort of their own office or home.

Travel costs are not necessary and time away from the office is saved.

Buyers in every corner of the world can access equipment information and place bids at any time of day, in every time zone, as online sales run 24h/day - a huge benefit of the online auction sale format.

“This auction will be a great opportunity for buyers of metalworking machinery and equipment to benefit from the range of equipment for sale.

The equipment is in great condition, buyers are going to be very pleased with their purchases”, commented Paul Shoniker, director of Auction Sales and Services, GoIndustry Michael Fox International.

* About GoIndustry Michael Fox International - GoIndustry Michael Fox International is a global leader in the auction, liquidation, and appraisal of machinery and equipment, inventories, and business assets.

The GoIndustry group of companies includes over 250 staff in 25 offices in 16 countries that provide local service with global reach to clients all across the globe.

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Company dealing in second-hand and re-engineered machine tools is offering two Butler ‘Elgamill’ long-bed, travelling column, horizontal spindle, milling/boring machines.

Gribben Davies Machine Tools have available for sale from site in the UK the following two two Butler ‘Elgamill’ long-bed, travelling column, horizontal spindle, milling/boring machines.

Details are as follows.

* Butler CNC Elgamill Model HE 10000 Bed Mill, built in 1990s and refurbished in 2001.

Control: Heidenhain TNC355.

Table Size: 10m x 1000mm.

X: 8280mm, Y: 1670mm, Z: 1050mm.

Machine spindle taper: 50INT, 3,000 rev/min and 22kW motor.

Price: GBP 190,000.00.

* Butler Elgamill Model DR12 Bed Mill, built in mid-1980s.

Table: 6000mm long.

X: 4200mm, Y: 1100mm, Z: 970mm.

Machine spindle speed is 2,000 rev/min, spindle taper: 50 Int.

Pendant Control Price: GBPGBP 5,000.00.

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Latest used machine tools offered for sale include an Elb CNC rotary table surface grinder, a 5-axis Dixi jig borer, a horizontal CNC miller and a bevel gear grinder.

Recently acquired CNC and non-CNC machine tools offered for sale by Gribben Davies Machine Tools UK include an Elb CNC Model 10-10 Rotary Table Surface Grinder.

The machine has a tilting table diameter of 1200mm and maximum grinding diameter of 1000mm.

Other details are as follows.

Maximum grinding height - 300mm.

Table load - 3000kg.

Grinding spindle tilting range - +/-90 deg.

Grinding wheel diameter - 400mm maximum.

There are two Swiss-built Dixi CNC machine tools including a Dixi 400N 5-axis CNC Jig Borer with a table size of 1350mm x 1000mm.

Its condition is described as ’superb’.

The other Dixi machine is a CNC horizontal milling machine, Model 350A.

It has double loading pallets with pallet and tool changers.

Also for sale is a Gleason Model 463 Bevel Gear Grinder.

Full details prices and photos on application.

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As well as accommodating the large on-line auctions with as many as 500 lots, UK machine tool auctions firm’s software is also cost-effective for auctions with relatively few items.

Stephen Dugard founded Brighton-based Apex Auctions seven years ago, yet even in this short period of time he has seen dramatic changes in the volume of machinery and equipment that is being sold via Internet-based auctions.

Just two years ago, event-based auctions - a live auction generally held at the selling company’s premises - accounted for about 50% of the machines sold by Apex Auctions.

The events included bout two live on-site auctions and as many as six on-line auctions being held every month, said Apex.

Dugard was adamant that his company would not follow the route taken by e-Bay.

He told manufacturingtalk.com: “We structured our systems and software to accommodate event-based sales, not item-based sales.

The idea of an event had historically been important to people buying, because they knew that all the machines and equipment had to come out of that factory by a specific date, and this fact generated attractive prices for the buyer”.

Apex launched its software two years ago and it was configured to simplify the whole buying process.

Everything was done on the one screen.

Every change in circumstances - such as a higher bid on a particular item - was immediately visible on the screen.

* Smaller auctions are cost-effective - the capability of this type of ‘auction software’ (most major auctioneers have developed their own systems) was such that, as well as accommodating the large on-line auctions with as many as 500 lots, auctions with relatively few items were also cost-effective.

Moreover, said Apex, this new-found capability also provided an outlet for selling individual items on-line in turn gave Apex access to new markets.

While appreciating that the company’s systems could easily combine any number of such individual items, Dugard said that he felt that applying this capability to sell dealer stock on a collective basis risked losing the integrity that conventional on-line auctions had firmly established.

“We did not want to change the concept of the event-driven on-line auction, as we knew this worked well.

However, we could see the benefits of offering individual items for sale, provided that the process was transparent to the buyer.

Indeed, we are quite open about the fact that we are now offering such a service, and we have adopted a different branding and format for our two offerings - Apex Auctions’ event-based sales are branded blue and the machines marked ‘a’, while ‘The Marketplace’ for selling individual items is branded with orange tones and the machines marked ‘m’”.

Dugard added: “The Marketplace covers all types of machinery under a variety of headings, including turning, milling, borers, drilling, grinding, fabricating/sheet metal, presses, gear machines, plastics machinery, inspection equipment and many others.

Moreover, there are no search restrictions; by simply typing in a keyword, users have access to a cross-site search - event sales and ‘The Marketplace’ - or they can filter to one or the other.

The Marketplace default is to show machines in the order of those ‘finishing’ soonest”.

* No requirement to log in - users can browse, search and watch events close without logging in, but anyone wanting to bid has to log in, which provides access to whole new areas of activity, including ‘watching page’.

This is an area where the user can collect everything that is of interest to them, and not necessarily what they are bidding on.

They can, for instance, see how much time is left to bid, the current bid, the bid increment and the number of bids (an indication on the level of activity).

With regard to the level of confidence users can have, Dugard said: “We ‘police’ all our sales, and we have to approve everything before it goes on either site.

Moreover, we know every dealer and we approve every seller - not like e-Bay, where anyone can put items up for sale.

Bidders on either of our sites can be assured of ‘fair play’, as absolutely no one in the company has the authority to take a machine off the screen once bidding has started, except me, and then only for very specific reasons.

We have more than 2,000 regular bidders who come back week after week, confident in what we offer.”.

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Apex Auctions has announced that it will be selling a large number of high-quality CNC machinery throughout September.

The first sale to close is a 104 lot auction of CNC and fabricating equipment available due to the closure of Bearing and Engineering Products Ltd.

The sale includes a virtually unused Okuma four-axis CNC lathe manufactured in 2007.

A 2002 Daewoo Puma CNC lathe, a Yang CNC lathe and a 2001 Dugard Eagle machining centre will also be open for bids.

A slightly smaller auction of 36 lots from Advanced Manufacturing Limited will also take place.

This sale consists of a selection of CNC and manual machine tools, including Yang, Eagle, Ajax, Taiwan, Takisawa and XYZ.

Following this auction there is 128 lots of equipment from Leecar Manufacturing, which ends on 16 September.

All machines in this sale are available due to retirement.

A DMG twin pallet horizontal machining centre is already attracting bids, as well as a Gildermeister CNC lathe and a Richmond vertical machining centre - all of which were manufactured between 2000 and 2003.

The auction that Apex said is attracting the most attention is the second phase of the equipment available from Flight Refuelling.

Lot one consists of a Makino CNC flexible manufacturing system, which was installed in 2000.

The FMS comprises two Makino A77 high-speed horizontal machining centres, a 16-position pallet system, transporter and load/unload stations, and a tool presetter.

Also attracting interest, according to Apex, are two Mazak Integrex high-powered CNC turning centres and a Mazak SQT CNC turning centre.

The auction ends on 18 September, with viewing of the equipment available by appointment only.

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Apex Auctions has announced that it will be offering for sale a selection of large capacity gear manufacturing equipment in spring 2009.

The machinery is currently in operation at the Reid Gear Company, which is closing due to the retirement of its managing director, Tom Reid.

More than 280 lots of engineering equipment have been made available for sale, including: Maag SH450/500s heavy duty gear cutting machine; Maag SH350/500 heavy duty gear cutting machine; Maag SH100/140 gear cutting machine; Maag SH100 gear cutting machine.

All equipment will be available for auction online through the Apex Auctions website with the major machines available for immediate sale.

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Having ordered a Soraluce TA-35A travelling table CNC milling centre on the Ward CNC stand at MACH, MNB Precision of Coventry was also introduced to a Hartford HCMC 15AG vertical machining centre.

The company duly returned to the stand to double its required amount of Ward CNC-supplied machines.

During the past five years MNB Precision has placed special emphasis on the oil and gas sector, which now represents around 90 per cent of business for the 60-employee company.

With sales increasing to an array of leading oilfield customers such as Sondex (now GE Energy) and Halliburton, the company identified a potential problem with production bottlenecks.

‘We considered a number of machines but we couldn’t find a match for the price and availability of the Soraluce TA-35A,’ said Elliot Benton, the company’s production manager .

Large, complex oil industry components such as down-hole collars, stabilisers and drilling tools already feature among the typical parts machined by the Soraluce.

Most are manufactured from tough specification materials such as Inconel and Duplex and some have tolerances as tight as +/- 0.008mm.

‘Not only will the machine reduce the bottleneck, improving our throughput and lead times, but it will also help attract new business,’ said Elliot Benton.

The Soraluce TA-35A travelling table milling centre features a 20-station ATC and a Heidenhain iTNC 530.

This high-end specification machine is equipped with a fully programmable 2.5 by 2.5 automatic universal milling head of unique design offering high accuracy and performance via its 24kW/3,000rev/min motor with through-spindle coolant facility and auto tool clamping, without the need for external pipe work.

The machine has a table size of 3,700mm by 1,000mm able to accommodate workpieces of 7,000kg, and travels of 3,500mm by 1,250mm by 1,000mm with rapid traverse rates of 25m/min.

‘Ward CNC introduced us to the Hartford HCMC 15AG vertical machining centre,’ said Elliot Benton.

‘We also considered competitor models on other stands, however, and while we could better the price, it was always at the expense of quality.

‘Furthermore, as we already had two Hartford machining centres we were aware of their capability.’ This is just as well because the first job that MNB Precision has in mind for its new Hartford VMC (delivered in the first week of June) could not be more important.

‘We have a brand-new Inconel job from a US customer,’ he added.

‘It’s only 12-off but these are complex parts and each piece comprises around 45 hours’ machining time.

‘The customer says that if we get these correct and deliver on-time we have a chance of landing a bigger contract with scheduled annual volumes.’ The Hartford Tornado HCMC 15AG is a heavy-duty vertical machining centre that has a table of 1,650mm by 820mm/2,000mm by 920mm to accommodate 2,200/3,000kg loads.

It has travels in X, Y and Z axes of 1,500mm by 820mm by 700mm/1,800mm by 920mm by 700mm (optionally 800mm).

The standard 15kW spindle motor produces 10,000 rev/min (direct drive) and tool capacity is 40 via the arm-type automatic toolchanger.

Of heavy-duty cast iron construction, the machine incorporates four shear-hardened and ground box slideways, 20/25 bar through-spindle coolant, fourth axis interface and is capable of rigid tapping.

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KMT Robotic Solutions has launched the Robotrim FT-502, a small footprint robotic routing system for the trimming of thermoformed, blow-moulded, rotationally moulded and composite products.

The Robotrim FT-502 is an enclosed robotic router trimming system with manual front doors with a single-base system structure and built-in fork lift pockets.

It features a wall-mounted, six-axis Accutrim R-44 robot, its R-30IA robot controller and a Fanuc IPendant colour teach pendant.

Parts up to 915 x 1,525mm in size can be placed on the stationary fixture table in the centre of the system’s steel enclosure.

The manual front access doors (equipped with safety interlocks) enable operators to easily load and unload parts, while the system’s steel enclosure and built-in safety devices ensure safety for the operator by separating them from the trimming area.

In addition, cycle start, e-stop and robot start buttons are mounted onto a pedestal so they can be easily accessed by the operator.

The wall-mounted Accutrim R-44 robot, equipped at the end with a 2.3kW fan cooled routing spindle, trims parts on the stationary fixture table in the centre of the cell.

The system’s standard software tools include KMT’s Routerware application software for part programming, Fanuc’s Collision Guard software to protect the robot and fixture in the event of a collision and KMT’s remote administration feature to connect to KMT service technicians via a phone line or Ethernet connection.

Additional optional mechanical and software features can also be added to suit the specific requirements of a customer’s production environment.

The additional mechanical options include automatic front doors and an automatic tool changer.

Software options include the Trimpro CAD-to-Path programming software and the Campro CAM-to-Robot programming software.

The RT-502 is part of KMT’s range of cost-effective, turnkey robotic router trimming systems designed for use on polymeric parts produced by thermoformers, plastics moulders and composite manufacturers for a range of industries including white goods, electrical appliance, automotive, bathroom equipment, consumer goods, marine craft and boatbuilding.

The routing systems are also suitable for use in the aluminium industry.

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