A560 5-axis Machine Tool

Race Engine shops can now CNC port cylinder heads and blueprint and machine engine blocks on the same machine with no fixtures to swap or realign. The latest CENTROID A560 5-axis machine tool with its patented ball screw driven 5th axis articulating head comes from a long line of CENTROID machines designed specifically for Internal Combustion Engine rebuilding, development and hot rodding. Designed for Race Engine Rebuilding shops, this new machine is sold as a turn-key package so the machine hits the floor running. Both local and factory support is included as well, machine setup, tooling, software and comprehensive training are included.

Mullins Race Engines, located in Mt. Olive, Ill., is a multi-record holding race engine shop and CENTROID user. Chad Mullins says, "With our existing equipment we were at the end of the road with our machining capabilities, with our new CENTROID CNC machine we soon realized our imagination would be our only limitation going forward."

The A560 is really three machines in one, a CNC cylinder head porting machine, an Engine Block blueprinting and machining center and a all-around 5 axis CNC machining center. Engine shops can now perform machining operations on a wide variety of automotive parts that normally would have required multiple machines and operators. The key to the usefulness of the A560 is CENTROID's patented machine fixture design which allow immediate switching from one type of operation to the next eliminating cumbersome fixture swaps and realignment. Switching from decking a block to porting a cylinder head to making parts only takes minutes.

Dan Lamey of Dasa Racing creates a wide variety of custom ATV and Watercraft parts with his CENTROID CNC machine everything from billet crankcases, billet cam carriers, ignition conversion plates, manifolds, covers, impellers to complete engines. Dan says, "Since our first part we made with our CENTROID CNC we've been able to produce many race wining cylinder heads for both our Yamaha factory team and our Honda race team. We took a part that required 20 to 40 hours to make and reduced the time to 2 hours using our CENTROID CNC porting system, its been very successful for us."

The new CENTROID A560 is available in two sizes regular and XL. The XL version is larger and has increased work envelope for bigger diesel work. Both machines have similar features and are equipped with Digitizing and part Probing which is used to copy a 3D or 2D shapes which can then be modified and reproduced. The machine itself can copy and blue print cylinder heads and blocks, with no need for another machine or out of house digitizing services. Engine shops can now reproduce hand shaped combustion chambers, Intake and Exhaust ports on one machine. The digitized shape can also be improved or modified if necessary, the shape is then reproduced exactly on a new casting or billet. New ports and combustion chambers can also be created entirely on the computer based on a stock casting geometry as well.

The probing feature eliminates an immense about of setup time by automatically finding and setting part zero locations, increasing accuracy and decreasing setup time. An automatic tool changer is also included on both machines along with automatic tool height measurement. Tool lengths are measured automatically increasing accuracy and reducing setup time. Equipped with a state of the art CNC control the CENTROID M400 runs on the Windows 7 OS with touch screen and sports, high performance quad core processor and sold state drive.