5-axis machining centre investment is made to measure

The VC 630/5AX machining centre was installed at Renishaw's facility in Wotton-under-Edge in March 2010 and is the first Doosan 5-axis machine installed by Mills CNC into the UK. It is unique in that the machine was supplied with a Fanuc, as opposed to a Heidenhain, control system. Jon Kerry, sales & support manager (UK & ROW sales division), explained: "We specified the machine with a Fanuc control because we were designing a solution for checking the alignment and positioning of the rotary axes (A- or B- and C-axis) on 5-axis machines equipped with Fanuc controllers...and needed a high-performance, reliable and cost-competitive machine tool to help with our product development. "We have developed similar alignment and positioning systems for 5-axis machines with Siemens and Mitsubishi-based controls – but needed a Fanuc equivalent to extend the product portfolio, and help us push into and grow market share in the predominantly Fanuc-based Asian and US markets. "Doosan, through Mills, were able to supply a machine to our specification quickly and directly from their manufacturing facility in South Korea and, since acquiring the VC 630/5AX, the Fanuc variation of our 'AxiSet Check-Up' has been developed and is now available." Other Renishaw products used and demonstrated on the Doosan VC 630/5AX machining centre include: Productivity + Active Editor Pro, a solution for producing probing cycles remotely from the machine by using a CAD interface and Renishaw OMV, a PC-based, on-machine component inspection and verification software package.