50-Taper EC-1600

50-Taper EC-1600

s the aerospace, automotive, and mold-and-die industries trend toward monolithic components and large structures, there is a growing need for large-travel machining centers. To accommodate large-volume machining, Haas Automation Inc. has expanded the capacity of its EC-1600 horizontal machining center with an additional 10" of Y-axis travel.

May 1, 2010

As the aerospace, automotive, and mold-and-die industries trend toward monolithic components and large structures, there is a growing need for large-travel machining centers. To accommodate large-volume machining, Haas Automation Inc. has expanded the capacity of its EC-1600 horizontal machining center with an additional 10" of Y-axis travel. The latest generation Haas EC-1600 HMC features a generous 64"x50"x32" work cube--10 more inches of Y-axis travel than before--as well as a 64"x32" T-slot table and a 6,000-rpm, geared-head, 50-taper spindle. The fully enclosed machine includes multiple chip augers to evacuate chips, and a flood coolant system with 95-gal. capacity. The EC-1600's cast-iron construction increases rigidity and damps vibration, and the standard T-slot table supports parts weighing up to 10,000 lb. The 50-taper geared-head spindle is powered by a 30-hp vector drive system, providing 450 ft.-lbs. of torque for heavy cutting. A 30+1 side-mount tool changer is standard, as well as a color LCD remote jog handle, rigid tapping, 1MB of program memory, a 15" color LCD monitor, and a USB port. For machining all four sides of a workpiece in a single setup, an optional 5-degree indexing table is available. The indexer uses a face-gear coupler design that provides superior accuracy and extreme rigidity for off-center milling and drilling/tapping operations. With a 30" platter diameter and 10,000-lb. weight capacity, the indexer easily positions very large parts to nearly any angle for machining. A full 4th-axis platter is also available for high-speed contouring and fully interpolated motion. For high-speed machining operations, an optional 10,000-rpm 50-taper spindle (30 hp, geared-head) is available for the EC-1600. Other high-productivity options include high-speed machining software with full look-ahead, high-pressure through-spindle coolant systems, a programmable coolant nozzle, linear scales, Haas Intuitive Probing System (tool and work offset) and Ethernet connectivity.

Glossary terms in this article

  • machining center
    CNC machine tool capable of drilling, reaming, tapping, milling and boring. Normally comes with an automatic toolchanger. See automatic toolchanger.
  • look-ahead
    CNC feature that evaluates many data blocks ahead of the cutting tool’s location to adjust the machining parameters to prevent gouges. This occurs when the feed rate is too high to…