Blum Novotest UK managing director David Mold says: "This new facility will enable us to provide our customers with a comfortable environment to conduct training, refresher courses and product testing and component trials. The new site has plentiful office space and most importantly a demonstration area to highlight why our products are far superior to on-machine measurement products from alternate vendors."
For now, the Bridgeport GX710 will be loaded with Blum metrology equipment such as the TC50 workpiece touch probe, the TC54 tool-setting probe, the Laser-Control NT and the TMAC Tool Monitoring System.
Working in synergy with the probes will be the LaserControl NT-H 3D. This non-contact tool setting technology measures rotating tools as well as the mechanical measurement of non-rotating tools in five approach directions.
For the elimination of broken cutting tools and the resultant damage or scrapping of components, a Tool Monitor Adaptive Control (TMAC) system will protect the CNC machine while providing valuable information regarding the cutting process. The TMAC reduces the high cost of replacement tools, lost production and rejected parts by effectively measuring tool wear in real time. It operates on the principle that the horsepower required to cut a part increases as the condition of the cutting edges of the tool deteriorates.
The German metrology specialist is installing Industrial Tooling Corporation (ITC) cutting tools on the machine, including high precision boring tools from BIG KAISER. The bores created by these tools will be measured by the Blum BG60 bore gauge.
Mold continues: "By taking our floor space from 100 to 234 m2, we have sufficient room to conduct product tests and trials. As we have recently become a technical partner to the ETG Group, we quickly realised that the Bridgeport VMC was an ideal fit for our new demonstration area. When tooled with high specification cutting tools, our industry leading metrology equipment will highlight the cost, cycle time, productivity and above all precision gains that customers can obtain."
