NCMT

Manufacturers of large, heavy components are increasingly demanding the capability to machine them in a single set-up to achieve short lead times, improve accuracy and reduce work-in-progress. Aimed at these users is the new Okuma VTM-1200YB from UK agent, NCMT. The 30-tonne, double column machine has been designed as a cross between a heavy duty vertical turning and boring facility and a fully-featured, 5-axis machining centre. Structurally it is configured as a bed-type machining centre but instead of a conventional table, it has a 30 kW / 500 rpm / 6,000 Nm torque turning spindle with 360,000-increment C-axis positioning.

New aircraft have to fulfil ever-higher standards of efficiency to reduce emission levels, so increasing use is being made of titanium to take advantage of its lightness and strength. Fifteen per cent of the extra-wide-body version of the Airbus A350 by weight will be titanium, compared with five per cent of the A300 and nine per cent of the A380. Titanium is used widely in all three variants of the F-35 Lightening II (Joint Strike Fighter) and Lockheed Martin has identified its machining as a significant cost driver.

Until the middle of 2010, first-tier subcontract machinist, JJ Churchill, could produce turbine blades only if they had their fir-tree root-forms preground elsewhere, or if they were subsequently added by another subcontractor. No longer is this the case.

A new tool that compensates for synchronisation errors during rigid tapping by reducing the thrust load on both the tap and the workpiece by up to 90 percent has been introduced by BIG Daishowa, Japan. Called Mega Synchro Tapping Holder, it is available in the UK through NCMT.

Designed for complex prismatic metalcutting applications where component quality is paramount, a new, 5-axis, vertical machining centre (VMC) has been introduced by the Japanese manufacturer, Makino.

New from Japanese tooling manufacturer, BIG Daishowa, is a system that allows interchangeable front ends to be screwed into back ends in its FullCut milling cutter range. Users of the so-called Contact Grip tooling can therefore economise on the number of BBT, HSK or Capto toolholders they need to buy from UK agent, NCMT.

A new lapping machine has been introduced by Japanese grinding machine manufacturer, Okamoto, in which it is possible to achieve a mirror finish on any surface, including uneven profiles, in a three- to five-minute cycle. Sole UK agent is NCMT.

NCMT will exhibit grinders from Okamoto, Japan, having been appointed to represent the manufacturer with effect from the start of this year.

NCMT, sole agent for Okuma in the UK since 1976, will demonstrate on stand 5228 the Japanese manufacturer’s two approaches to high-end, multi-functional machining. They are a new turning machine with impressive milling capability on the B-axis, and an established machining centre incorporating a new turning function. Together, they give customers a fundamental choice as to how best to tackle their production applications.