This business relationship was preceded by an intensive, but innovative development phase. Siemens Energy has developed a product that will gain a lot of attention in the industry in the future.
WFL and Siemens Energy have worked together very closely over the past few months to be able to celebrate the conclusion of the contract at EMO Hanover 2023.
"We are pleased that WFL Millturn Technologies can contribute to this great and exciting project with a M80 MILLTURN which is now moving to Siemens Energy," said Norbert Jungreithmayr, CEO of WFL.
At their headquarters in Linz, Austria, WFL pursued the fine-tuning of the workpiece prototype to ensure a perfect machining strategy for Siemens Energy.
Since "only" one blank was available to produce the prototype, a zero-defect method was essential for the tests. This posed special challenges for the WFL Applications Engineering department.
At Siemens Energy, rotor workpieces in various dimensions will be machined on the M80 MILLTURN. The dimensions of the rotors range from one metre to four metres in length. The rotors are used in the compression of hydrogen and must therefore rotate at an extremely high speed during operation.
Siemens Energy furthermore requires that the components of their existing product lines can also be manufactured on the M80 MILLTURN to their fullest satisfaction.
The bar was set quite high, but the M80 MILLTURN meets all the requirements as this machine tool performs 5-axis machining perfectly. Among other things, the M80 combines two advantageous features particularly well: dynamic 5-axis machining even of smaller workpieces as well as a powerful and efficient B-axis for large workpieces. Another advantage is the machine’s B-axis housing.
The particularly space-saving installation ensures very good accessibility during machining without any loss in performance. While the installation space of comparable machine tools is much larger, the M80 MILLTURN scores with its compact design.
In addition, a special solution for the coolant supply was developed due to the new requirements. The aim was to bring a particularly large amount of coolant to the tool cutting edge during the machining process.
High coolant pressures of up to 150 bar ensure an ideal cooling effect directly at the tool. This is of particular importance due to the difficult-to-machine materials used with these workpieces.
WFL machine tools are supplied in the UK by Kyal Machine Tools, based in Market Harborough.
