Branded ‘Another Giant Leap’, marking 50 years since Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the surface of the moon, the open house makes more than a passing nod to the Apollo 11 mission and the moon landing which occurred in 1969.
Says Tony Dale, Mills CNC’s technical director: “The moon landing represented the pinnacle of human and technological achievement, and was immortalised by Armstrong's “one small step for (a) man - one giant leap for mankind” live commentary.
“At our open house in October we are showcasing a total of 15 Doosan machines – a number of which are making their UK debuts at the event. We are also exhibiting our latest industrial and collaborative robot solutions to visitors for the first time. We believe the innovations on show are also out of this world – representing our own technological ‘giant leap’.”
A significant number of the machines on show will be new Doosan models taking their place alongside established machines from Doosan’s extensive portfolio.
The open house also provides the ideal platform for Mills CNC Automation (a recently created division at Mills) to showcase an AutoMill industrial robot system integrated with a Doosan DNM 4500 vertical machining centre and a number of Doosan Robotics’ collaborative robots performing a range of machine tool tending operations. The emphasis throughout is to demonstrate the significant productivity gains that can be achieved via automation.
No Mills open house would be complete without the company showcasing its customer-focused range of pre- and aftersales support services – at the event in October, representatives from the CNC Training Academy, Mills CNC Finance, the Mills CNC Turnkey and Development Centre and Mills CNC Servicing will be out in force.
Worthy of special mention is the CNC Training Academy’s recent agreement with US-based BobCAD-CAM to become an authorised reseller of, and recognised trainer for, its advanced CAD/CAM software systems in the UK and Ireland. The power, flexibility and sophistication of BobCAD-CAM software will be demonstrated at the open house.
New machine highlights
Pride of place will go to a number of new Doosan machines making their UK debuts.
These include the new range of twin-turret, twin-spindle multi-tasking turning centres with Y-axis capabilities on their upper and lower turrets.
The TT1300SYY (42/51mm bar diameter capacity) and TT2100SYY (65/81mm bar diameter capacity) machines are versatile and productive, and can be employed in a number of ways.
The twin turrets allow simultaneous OD and ID cutting on a part in the main spindle; simultaneous milling and turning of components in the machine’s main and sub-spindle enables multiple finished parts to be completed in one cycle; or operations can be combined by machining one side of a part in the main spindle and finishing it in the sub-spindle
Also on view is the latest addition to the Doosan DNM range of vertical machining centres – the large-capacity DNM 6700XL equipped with a 2.1m X-axis. As with other DNM models, the DNM 6700XL has a direct-coupled spindle (18.5kW/15,000rpm) that reduces noise and vibration, a fast servo-driven ATC, a sophisticated thermal compensation system that ensures high precision and process reliability, and roller LM guideways for rigidity and increased accuracy.
Another new and innovative addition, designed to demonstrate the productivity potential from embracing automation systems, can be seen with a new Doosan DVF5000 (5-axis machine) integrated with an Automatic Workpiece Changer (AWC)
The AWC’s capacity can be configured to suit an individual customer’s requirements in terms of the number of pallets available and the size of each pallet. It is supplied with Schunk clamping systems (NSE) and gripping systems (NSR).
In addition to the new models customers can also get up close and personal to a number of Lynx and Puma lathes, a SMX multi-tasking mill-turn machine performing power skiving machining demonstration, and a number of Doosan 5-axis, horizontal and vertical machining centres.
Mills CNC www.millscnc.co.uk
