Tier 1 automotive supplier Arturn Precision Engineering Ltd has increased capacity and throughput on turned parts with a new sliding head machine.
The Hanwha XD38II turning centre was supplied by Dugard and will be used for high volume production runs.
Myles Rudkin from Arturn Engineering Ltd said: “One of the main reasons we bought this machine is because we can turn up to 38mm diameter on a sliding head machine, which in my opinion is pretty impressive, especially when the sweet spot is from 32 to 38mm - that’s where we have a broad diameter of parts, so it means we can expand the range of components that we can machine for our customers.”
He adds that the configuration of the tooling, particularly the driven tools, speed up the setting process.
With the machine supplied as a complete package by Dugard, Arturn also received an LNS Alpha 342 barfeeding system with the machine.
Mr Rudkin explained that the user interface is very user-friendly: “It is just a case of loading the bar, pressing two buttons and the bar passes straight through the machine. It also tells you exactly how many bars you have left and how many components you have left to produce - during machining. We do a lot of mid to high-volume work from 500 to 50,000+ off and this helps. It is good to know whilst I’m running a job, how much bar is remaining. As an operator, I know exactly when I will need to get more bar and how much I will need to keep the machine running. This also helps with scheduling.
“We do a full variety of work on the new Hanwha and this can vary from EN18 materials through to mild steel, 316 stainless and more – the machine has an excellent level of power. With one particular component that requires a large bore and two flats milled on the OD, the Hanwha has taken out two operations compared to our previous method. This means the job can go straight out to the customer as a finished part from the Hanwha XD38II machine and this is a massive saving. The machine also keeps tolerances really well – to within a thou all the way throughout a long production run.”
The machine has X1 and X2 axis strokes of 80mm and 395mm respectively, with Y-axis travel of 422mm and the Z1 and Z2 axis travel of 320 and 280mm.
Mr Rudkin commented: “The long-stroke enables me to turn component lengths well over 300mm - this broadens the scope of what we can machine, as some sliding heads will only machine up to 180 to 200mm in bar length. It means we can turn particularly long shafts up to 380mm long with no problem on the Hanwha XD38II.”