Machines to reduce production costs

Geo Kingsbury Machine Tools (hall 7, stand 244), which is the sole sales and service agent in the UK for CNC turning, milling and grinding machines from eight different machine tool builders in southern Germany, will promote its solution approach to machine tool sales.

The manufacturers it represents are Index and its subsidiary, Traub, which offer CNC single- and multi-spindle lathes; Hermle, which builds three- to five-axis machining centres; and four large prismatic metal-cutting machine manufacturers, Burkhardt + Weber, F Zimmermann, SHW and Waldrich Coburg. The latter are handled by Geo Kingsbury’s Large Prismatic Machines division in Warwick.
For further information www.geokingsbury.com

Plasma technology in the spotlight

Esab (hall 17, stand 580) will use MACH to host a plethora of plasma-cutting, welding and software technologies, including the Combirex DX gantry system.

The Combirex DX gantry features all-steel construction with machined mating surfaces. Combirex DX can be equipped with air-plasma systems up 120 A or Esab’s iSeries plasma, which allows the machine to cut and mark with the same torch. Being displayed with the Combirex DX at the show will be the M3 system, which performs plasma cutting, plasma marking, thick-plate cutting, dry (multi-gas) cutting and water-injection cutting on a variety of materials.
For further information www.easb.co.uk

Live cutting

Visitors to the 200 sq m stand of Haas (hall 19, stand 570), will be able to see cutting demonstrations on eight CNC machine tools, including: high-speed vertical machining centres; five-axis high-speed machines; mid-sized verticals designed to take big cuts; high-productivity turning centres with live tooling and Y-axis capability; small-footprint mini-mill and tool-room machines; and, making
its UK debut, the Modular Mini Mill.

With a capacity of 406 x 305 x 254 mm and a standard 10-tool ATC, the Modular Mini-Mill houses 40-taper performance into a footprint of 2 sq m. Optional modules can be added for extra flexibility. For example, the coolant module is designed to prolong tool life, aid swarf clearance and achieve better finishes. The production module features a faster spindle and increased rapids. In addition, the high-productivity software module adds macros, spindle orientation, Wi-Fi, rigid tapping, visual programming, co-ordinate rotation and scaling, while the four-axis module runs a rotary table
or indexer.
For further information www.haas.co.uk

Machining systems

Much of the focus on the stand of Emmegi (hall 7, stand 350) will be on the Tekna 944 CNC machining centre with mobile gantry.

This four-axis machine, designed for drilling, milling and threading on aluminium or steel sections, features a high-torque electro-spindle that moves along the A axis, machining on three faces through a full 180°. A clamp unit ensures the correct positioning of sections, while counter blocks can be mounted to introduce more machine versatility. The Tekna 944-4 comes with a choice of four- or 12-piece tool magazine, and is compatible with Renishaw probes.
For further information www.emmegi.com

Major developments from XYZ

XYZ Machine Tools (hall 18, stand 640) will have several exhibition firsts on its stand, including two major developments in
the company’s product range, details of which will be announced closer to the show. The key machine debuts will be the recently announced LR and HD vertical machining centre ranges, along with XYZ’s UMC-5X five-axis machining centre.

The UMC-5X gantry-style simultaneous five-axis machining centre is available with either the Siemens 840DSL ShopMill or Heidenhain iTNC 640 HSCI control systems, which offer traori (transformation orientation)/kinematic functions respectively during five-axis simultaneous machining for improved accuracy. A full 500 mm of Y-axis travel forward of the table is available when it is rotated 90° towards the rear (component facing forward), allowing larger workpieces to be machined in comparison to many competitor models, says XYZ.
For further information www.xyzmachinetools.com