CNC sliding head mill-turn centre operates with or without a guide bush

Designated TNL18, the mill-turn centre has a capacity of 20 mm. With the TNL18 mill-turn centre bar may be gripped conventionally by a collet and fed, by up to 205 mm, through the guide bush. Or the bar is clamped by a collet in the spindle and moved, 80 mm into and out of the cutting zone, using the Z-axis motion of the headstock, travelling at up to 40 m/min. This means the mill-turn centre has the combined versatility normally achieved with two separate lathes. The mill-turn centre features two turrets that can be positioned at any angle through 360 degrees, so multiple toolholders can be used, allowing up to 54 cutters in the working area. All stations can carry either a static turning tool or a live cutter. An 8-station turret is mounted above the mill-turn centre's spindle centreline, below which is a 7-station turret. The latter moves in three orthogonal axes, while the top turret has a x-axis plus a simulated y-axis, whereby its rotation is interpolated with the x-axis and the main spindle's c-axis. Chip-to-chip time is under 0.3 second for adjacent turret stations. The 3-axis counter spindle is mounted on the same compound slide as the lower turret and swivels independently around the same axis, as the turret, to offer a parted-off component to seven rear endworking tools, three of which are live. While work is in progress on the back of a component, front-end turning and prismatic machining, with one or two tools, can be carried out simultaneously in the main spindle, allowing up to three tools to be in cut simultaneously. Geo Kingsbury Machine Tools is the sole agent in Britain and Ireland for Traub turning machines, as well as, those manufactured by Traub's parent company, Index. [Products covered: CNC mill-turn centres, CNC mill-turn centers]