AA65 series VMCs reflect strengths of Wele’s machine tool R&D heritage

Wele Mechatronic has developed the AA65 Series as a general purpose, heavy duty metal cutting machine range with options that allow the specification to be tailored to suit user production requirements. To establish the Wele Mechatronic machine tool building engineering credentials, 2D CNC explains that the company is now part of the JTEKT Group – itself within Toyoda car maker Toyoda Koki – and also owns Mitsui Seiki and Toyoda Machine Tool. At one time Wele provided mechanical research and development for the machine tool industry. The AA65 Series machines incorporate four guideways in a Meehanite cast machine bed to support the saddle. This high quality annealed and age heat treated cast material is also used for the machine column, carriage and spindle head. Each machine frame has some 56 surfaces hand scrapped to a flatness of 3 micron to help achieve geometric tolerances and positioning accuracies of 0.012 mm and a repeatability of 0.006 mm to VDI/DGQ 3441 standards. Direct drive spindles giving higher speeds or two-speed geared heads enabling higher torque machining are available. As standard the AA65 machine range is fitted with an 18.5 kW, 6,000 rpm motor with gearbox and BT50 spindle with BT40, HSK A63 and HSK A100 tapers as options. Spindle speeds of 8,000, 10,000, 12,000, 15,000 or 20,000 rpm are also available. Toolchange via twin-gripper from a 30-tool magazine comes as standard with options of 32, 40 or 48 tool positions. Swarf control strategy involves a coolant flush system feeding to two Y-axis direction screw-type conveyors plus an X-axis direction caterpillar-style conveyor. Coolant through the spindle is standard and 20 bar high pressure coolant supply is an option. Control is via Fanuc OiMD as standard with options of Fanuc 31iMB or Heidenhain iTNC 530. Each has 4th axis preparation.