Soraluce Open House reveals technology developments aplenty

This and other major developments, including recently approved patents in mill-boring technology, were presented to more than 300 engineers from 10 countries at Soraluce's 'Innovation' open house recently. Soraluce's patented Dynamic CNC Ram Balance system was shown on a horizontal FXR14000 milling-boring centre fitted with Heidenhain iTNC 530 control. The machine was able to automatically adjust, in real time, the Y and Z-axis positions, using an electro-mechanical system carried in the vertical saddle. As a result, it was able to maintain geometric accuracy within a 40 micron envelope for straightness and parallelism (droop) to the horizontal plane across the working strokes of the machine. The axis travels were 7,000 mm in Y, 1,900 mm in Z and up to 1,000 mm on the extending W-axis of the quill. The ram balance system is integrated with the automatic head exchange and is able to dynamically self-correct the true position of the quill for different heads that can vary in weight between 20 and 1,600 kg. The system operates independently from the fully integrated thermal compensation system. Further breakthrough demonstrations involved the Accur head calibration system, which compensates for any positional deviation of the milling head following exchange and indexing. This is applied to any angle and positioning error, as well as offset error caused by thermally influenced changes over the working volume of the machine. Also launched at the event was a newly patented modular quill development of a fully automatic head and quill changing system that combines the benefits of traditional boring machines with the latest milling machine technology. The system enables automatic interchange of standard heads with quill spindles between 130 and 180 mm diameter and between 700 and 1,000 mm in length.