Machine Tool Attachments & Accessories

Schenck Corp. says its Tooldyne balancer is a unique offering for balancing tools and toolholders. Today's high-speed tool and toolholder industries demand accurate, fast and reliable solutions for their tooling needs. For these reasons, Schenck developed the Tooldyne balancing machine, the complete balancing system for tools and tool holders.

Joel Neidig, the business development and technology manager at Indiana Technology and Manufacturing Companies (ITAMCO), Plymouth, Ind., was among several guest speakers selected to present at the third innovation forum of "Building Tomorrow's World," which was part of Autodesk University 2015 in Las Vegas.

Mikron Corp. Monroe, which recently unveiled its Mikron XT-one dual-spindle, 5-axis, flexible production center, offers an overview of the new machine in this 3-minute video report produced by the Monroe, Conn.-based company.

IBAG North America offers the HF 120.4 high-speed spindle for Haas and other leading machining centers, delivering up to 42,000 rpm, 16kW and equipped for HSK40 and BT30 Tooling. The HF 120 is ideal for production manufacturing in aerospace, medical, mold and die machining and can be used in hardened steels, aluminum, brass, copper, graphite and various plastics.

The NEMI Tool Setter from Northern Engineering & Manufacturing Inc. enables off-line tool measurement, according to the website for the Zimmerman, Minn.-based company. The tool setter reportedly allows users to measure tools in seconds and be ready for the next job while the machine is still in production.

During machining, high speed is often associated with heat generation. But with the Alberti air-driven turboflex spindles from Koma Precision Inc. it's possible to reach 60,000 rpm without overheating the tool, according to the company. n

END USER: Greene Tool Systems Inc., (800) BUY-TOOL, www.greenetool.com. SOLUTION PROVIDER: ANCA Inc., (248) 926-4466, www.anca.com. CHALLENGE: Produce microscale cutting tools more accurately while lowering setup times. SOLUTION: Two grinding machines designed to produce tools smaller than 2mm in diameter that feature robotic arms for loading and unloading tools and wheel packs.

Machine tool idling, unnecessary pump rotation and continuously running peripheral equipment drive up machining costs. These energy wasters are in the crosshairs of a new suite of power-cutting control applications from Japanese machine tool builder Okuma Corp.

To bring all kinds of useful information right to a machine and facilitate a company's implementation of Industry 4.0 processing tools, INDEX Corp. has begun supplying its machine tools with a new operating system. Called Xpanel, the OS integrates a machine into a corporate network, allowing machine operators to receive information from other parts of an enterprise. Operators can access drawings, setup sheets, user manuals, quality requirements, and circuit and hydraulic diagrams on a machine's control panel.

Setup reduction is a common goal of every machine shop. Setup does not add value because it does not provide any measureable productivity. In short, when you are not running a machine, you are not making chips, and, therefore, you are not making money. Setup involves numerous non-value-added activities, including tool measurement, fixture alignment and setting coordinate systems, or offsets. As the term suggests, value-adding activities make a workpiece more valuable by changing its shape or physical properties. Many years in and out of machine shops and manufacturing plants have given me ample opportunities to see and establish some unique and familiar methods for reducing setup times and generating savings.

Vertical machining centers are machine shop mainstays, owing in no small part to their versatility, small footprint and relatively low cost. However, in high-volume environments, they tend to lag behind their horizontal counterparts. Fortunately, a pallet system provides a fairly simple fix.

If you're shopping for a Swiss-style CNC lathe, the available options and machine configurations are truly staggering. Spindle speeds that compete with many machining centers, convertible spindles that turn a sliding-headstock machine into a chucker, thread whirling capabilities, laser cutting heads and enough axis letters to become the next Words With Friends champion.