Unisign has introduced its prototype, high machining capacity Unipro 5 machining centre which differs from the company's existing vertical spindle Univers and Uniport portal designs. Instead of a travelling column (X and Y axis) design, the vertical spindle head in the Unipro 5 traverses 800mm between massive Y-axis beams, which are part of the spindle head carriage. The carriage traverses on an X-axis longitudinal rail mounted in a massive L-frame integral with the machine bed.

Unisign offers a choice of 2m by 1m, 2m by 2m or a long-bed machine of 2m - 6m capacity.

Axes accelerations will be 8m/sec2 up to 60m/min and the standard machine head will have a 26kW, 12,000 rev/min spindle as standard, or options include a 26kW/16,000 rev/min or the 40kW or 55kW/25,000 rev/min heads.

Toolchanging system uses a centrally located, magazine holding 63 SK40 or HSK-63 tools and is served by a manipulator which presents tools ready for a 4.5s toolchange.

Tools can be exchanged in the magazine during machining.

The company has had considerable success with its job-configurable short and long bed production OUnivers1 VMCs used by the automotive industry.

Machines have been supplied recently, for example, to Scania, Sweden and MAN, Audi and Volkswagen in Germany.

For example, the machine for Audi is being used for machining aluminium bumpers for the Audi A8 car being exported to the US market.

These bumpers have to be machined accurately to contain radar equipment, which is part of the A81s active cruise control system.