26 November 2008
High productivity and lower emissions with 30 taper machining centre
High productivity and lower emissions with 30 taper machining centre
A key benefit for the 30-taper Brother TC-S2D user is the servo-driven tool turret, which together with rapid acceleration/deceleration of the spindle allows one tool rotating at 10,000 rpm to be replaced in 1.6 sec with the adjacent tool accelerated to the same speed, compared with a typical 2.9 sec. Even the furthest tool in the turret, necessitating 180 deg indexing, is exchanged in 2.4 sec, around one-third faster than average. Chip-to-chip times are also fast, as tool change takes place without stopping the Z-axis feed.
Other factors leading to short idle times are 50 m/min rapids in all linear axes, cutting feeds of 10 m/min in X / Y and 20 m/min in Z, and a 16,000 rpm spindle option.
As far as the environment is concerned, the TC-S2D is one of the least polluting machine tools in the world. It uses 60 per cent less electricity to produce the compressed air consumed, compared with the pre-existing Brother TC-S2C; and 70 per cent less than the best of the 30-taper competition. Power consumed by other machine functions is down by 40 per cent. These figures translate into 15 per cent lower CO2 emission than the TC-S2C and 45 per cent less than the greenest 30-taper machine from other manufacturers.
Compared with equivalent 40-taper machines, the reduction in this greenhouse gas is fourfold. Based on annual production of 50,000 components, Brother calculates that whereas the amount of CO2 emitted by a 40-taper machine would be 6.8 tonnes, a TC-S2D produces just 1.7 tonnes.
There are three TC-S2D models in the range with X-axis travels of 300, 500 or 700 mm.
Author
Celia Cadwallader
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