The HSC series from EMAG: the 'intelligent' machine platform for multi-functional horizontal pick-up turning and production centres for the complete machining of shaft-type components. Since the introduction, in 1992, of the vertical pick-up turning machines and turning centers EMAG has pursued their objective to offer manufacturing departments a multi-functional production tool capable of machining - to use the automotive industry as an example - over 60 percent of all round and 'not so round' metal components in a car. Whereas the VSC machines are dedicated, in particular, to the machining of chucked components, the new HSC pick-up machining centers are designed for the demanding turning and complete machining of shaft-type components.
They will soon allow EMAG to exceed the mentioned share of 60 percent.
Where high quality technical goods are concerned - as in the case of modern cars - customers increasingly demand greater comfort, individualised designs, greater reliability and increased life expectancy.
This forces the manufacturers of such goods to reduce batch sizes and, at the same time, to increase process capability.
Long set-up and run-in periods for production equipment are a thing of the past.
Today, just-in-time manufacturing allows for neither machine downtimes nor the production of scrap components.
Processing costs have to be reduced and complex process sequences simplified.
If we go back to the car and take, for example, the gearbox, any manufacturer would consider it ideal if the two most common components, i.e gears and shafts, could be produced on machines that operate the same way.
Also the floor space requirement of such production tools would have to be reduced, together with the time and money spent servicing them.
Having to prepare or machine clamping and support surfaces onto workpieces needs to be avoided or drastically reduced.
These requirements can only be met by greatly reducing the succession of machining processes by integrating as many machining processes as possible.
The tolerances demanded these days on shaft-type components, in particular, are - with Cm / Cmk 2.0 / 1.66 - already so tight that they can no longer be maintained with any process integrity if the workpieces are machined in 2 or more set-ups.
The new HSC machining centers for shaft components, an ideal supplement to the VSC machines for chucked components, are designed to cover these requirements.
The design of the new series of HSC horizontal machines corresponds to that of the successful VSC vertical machines, with one difference, and that is one of application.
Whereas on the vertical VSC the chucked components are conveyed to the pick-up position lying flat and there picked up by the work spindle chuck, the shaft-type components on the horizontal machine are resting on carrier prisms from which they are 'picked up' by the headstock/tailstock unit and clamped between workholding unit and tailstock center.
To the user's advantage we have achieved quite a feat, by making the machine for shaft-type components largely identical to the machine for chucked components.
The loading distance for shaft components, and thus the cycle time are very short, compared to machines that use gantries for workpiece handling purposes.
The footprint is smaller, too.
As on the vertical machines for chucked components, the shafts, held between workholding fixture and tailstock, carry out all axis movements, with the tooling systems located below the workpiece.
This again results in ideal, unhindered chip flow.
The tooling systems remain stationary, form an integral part of the machine base and are therefore as sturdy as on vertical EMAG's.
The very sturdy machine base is also U-shaped and made of vibration damping Mineralit The front and rear walls are solid and, as on the vertical machines (although on those it is the right- and left-hand walls), extend over the machining area and carry the guideways for the overhead slide.
This results in a sym-metrical, short and thus easily controlled cutting force distribution.
The prismatic overhead slide features a 3-point guideway support and is particularly sturdy.
It carries the vertical slide and the solid headstock/tailstock unit and traverses in X-direction.
All elements that influence the accuracy and operational reliability of the machine are also fluid-cooled: motor spindle, turret, the machine base sector affected by the chip flow, and the electrical cabinet.
As on the vertical machines for chucked components, process integrity is increased by conveying the finish machined component - on its way out of the working area - to the measuring probe outside the machining area.
This ensures that chips, dirt or coolant do not adversely affect the gauging results.
Shaft-type components are measured in their machining clamping set-up - as are chucked components on vertical EMAG machines.
In case that shafts are to be machined very precisely (which is the case quite often), a measuring cut can be measured outside the machining area (but as an in-process measurement) and the workpiece returned to the tooling zone, where it and the following workpieces can be finish machined to size, taking into account any necessary tool compensation established by the probe.
The machining area is particularly open and therefore easy to access, and tools can be changed quickly and efficiently.
Retooling of the workpiece handling equipment is limited to the clamping device, as the pick-up system does not require additional gantry loaders or other loading aids with grippers.
The generously dimensioned machining area offers ample space to accommodate several different tooling systems.
The most common process combination will be the turning + grinding of hardened shafts such as gear and drive shafts for the automotive industry, power transmission engineering, material-handling industry, electrical motor manufacturing and other industrial sectors.
Precision has absolute priority for the majority of shafts.
Such workpieces can seldom be produced under today's SPC requirements without the help of multi-functional machines that can complete machine the workpiece in a single set-up.
The typical machining sequence for such shafts, when using HSC machines that combine turning and grinding, is * hard turning the shoulders to size, * finish grinding or peel-grinding of the O/D; or - in particular - grind- finishing of short seal seats without tool drag out marks, whereby the hard pre-turning operation leaves just a few æm of material for the subsequent finish grinding operation, * hard plunge-cutting of the grooves, * hard threading.
Similar processes, such as band finishing, roller burnishing, polishing, etc., can be integrated, now or in the future, in accordance with machining requirements.
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