Vertical turning lathe from automotive specialist

The latest VN-40T vertical turning lathe from Fuji Machine Tools uses a fully integrated, single-arm robotic loading system to provide a compact high productivity turning machine ideal for unmanned or limited manning production environments. The VN-40T will accommodate components up to 400 mm diameter by 300 mm long weighing up to 30 kg in a floor area footprint requiring just 1,400 mm by 1,840 mm. The vertical axis 12-station turret with Curvic coupling and hydraulic index motor has a x-axis stroke of 300 mm and z-axis of 450 mm and is also available with live tool options. The 18.5 kW spindle has a maximum speed of 2,400 rpm and is able to carry a 12 inch (304 mm) chuck or fixturing to accommodate odd shaped workpieces such as steering knuckles and housings providing a more stable location of the component than a horizontal spindle machine – an important advantage when using the integrated robot loading system. Fitted within the confines of the machine with a separate guarded area, the Fuji VN-40T has an option of an L450-J single gripper or L451-J double gripper swing-arm robot loader. The single gripper unit has a maximum loading of 30 Kg and each of the double grippers 15 kg each. The robot is able to interface with a work stocker to increase the unattended operational time. Programming of the robot path is via touch screen or pendant that is independent of the machine’s Fanuc 180i-TB control. The Max SPI software creates its shortest time path based upon automatic calculations following destination input, replacing the traditional point to point input method.