To increase the efficiency of aircraft tooling manufacture at its Dukinfield factory, near Manchester, Hyde Tool Company has replaced the motor spindle on one of its 5-axis machining centres with a higher speed version from IBAG.
Retrofitted by Emmaco UK, the 24,000 rpm spindle allows the tier 1 aerospace supplier to reduce cycle times by optimising cutting parameters across a variety of materials.
The complexity of many of the components together with tight drawing tolerances necessitated the use of 5-axis machining. Hyde Tool operates four 5-axis machining centres, the largest of which is a Cyport CP gantry mill with 3m by 2m table from Edel.
It was this machine that required a replacement spindle as the original spindle had failed due to internal failure of the coolant seals that seal off the water used to control the temperature of the spindle, causing corrosion and ultimately failure.
“We did not want to return to the machine manufacturer for a replacement spindle, as we thought that the original was unnecessarily complicated, so we looked at various repair options and at new spindles from independent suppliers,” said Hyde Tool's works manager, Mark Caldwell. “As soon as we made contact with IBAG agent, Emmaco, the company's professional approach convinced us to drop all other options and give them the task of repairing the Edel machine.”
The retrofitted IBAG HF 170 high frequency cartridge spindle was an off-the-shelf item, but the Edel machine needed modification to fully accept the spindle mounting and supplies for the spindle. The Z-axis travel was also extended to allow use of the existing toolchanger without modification.
Emmaco undertook turnkey responsibility for the refurbishment. The failed spindle was removed and the 5-axis head stripped down, which revealed further corrosion and failure of internal parts. Many of the parts/seals were non-standard and had to be specially manufactured.
Caldwell continued: “Emmaco did a fantastic job in a short time scale. The spindle retrofit and associated work were successfully completed and there has been no further problem with the Edel machine since. The IBAG spindle retrofit and machine repair have been exemplary and are delivering the quality and reliability that we need.”
www.emmaco.co.uk
