Super Precision & Productivity Magazine - Volume 2, Issue 2 - (Page 21)

www.bransonultrasonics.com Matter of value John Powers reflects on the decision to buy the new Bridgeport 610XP3 and 760XP3. Setup, he says, is very quick and easy. One of the options he’s particularly pleased he chose are the two Renishaw® probes, one for tool setting and the other for workpiece inspection. “If you look at a chunk of titanium sitting on the bed waiting to be machined into an ultrasonic welding horn, the piece might be worth $3000 to $4000 — not a great deal of money, but when you consider how much titanium we go through, we cannot afford to scrap out even one job,” Powers says. “We use one Renishaw probe to locate exactly where the contour is going, and it makes setup very simple and easy. We do one-offs and go from one part to another, and 15 minutes later we’re cutting the next part. This is very quick for us.” Many of the things Powers’ team does are simple, common sense things. For example, they keep the same tools in the same pockets in the ATC, so they become “standard” tools and are always in the machine. The Bridgeport 610XP3 has a 24 tool ATC and the Bridgeport 760XP3 has a 30 tool ATC. Both change tools in four seconds, chip-tochip. “The Renishaw tool probes make it easy to change from a worn tool to a new one,” Powers says, “and if you consider that we’re cutting titanium for 7, 8, or 9 hours on a single job, we use multiple, redundant tools to remove the chance of breaking a tool halfway into an 8 or 10 hour job. The Renishaw probe tells us when to change, and we change out tools pretty frequently.” Powers says that when they looked at the new Bridgeports, he thought the price was reasonable, but when he looked closely at the specs, he was surprised at the value for the dollar. “The control and all the drives are top of the line Fanuc — bullet proof,” he says. “The overall construction, the large ball screws, everything seemed rigid, stable, very robust. In fact, we run them lights out. We put the large contours on when the guys from the day shift are leaving, and we’ll run those contours overnight. We needed a machine we could rely on, because we’re running nearly a three-shift operation here, and these machines are cutting chips all day long.” Coolant - getting it in, keeping it clean Another huge advantage offered by the new Bridgeports is through-spindle coolant at 290 psi, according to Powers. “We machine some really deep contours, and we’re able to use this option to get coolant into places we never thought we could, and this makes a significant difference in the quality of the finish machined part.” One of the things that Powers hadn’t planned on was fine shavings and slivers in the coolant. He explains: “We’re using small tools, perhaps a 0.0625” ball nose endmill to get into the little, fine, tight corners and small areas — perhaps a 0.0060” or a 0.0090” tool — we’ve actually run a 0.0040” endmill. Most of the time, we’ll run from 0.0625” to 0.500”, and most of the time the finished work is done with a small tool, perhaps a 0.125”. Consequently, we started seeing little, fine chips which eventually would plug up the coolant supply. Hardinge designed and installed an inline filter, much like your car’s oil filter, and it traps these fine shavings and slivers. End of problem.” S.P & P Magazine . . 21 http://www.bransonultrasonics.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Super Precision & Productivity Magazine - Volume 2, Issue 2

Super Precision & Performance - Volume 2, Issue 2 Contents Corner View Worth Noting World View Jig Grinding From Farm Branson-Tooling Radical Sportscar Creating The Impression Hardinge QUEST GT 27 S Hardinge ELITE 27 MS Propelling Productivity Bridgeport FGC 2

Super Precision & Productivity Magazine - Volume 2, Issue 2

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