Heller welcomes guests to German open house

Under the slogan Passion for Production, Heller machine tools held a four-day open house exhibition at its headquarters in Nürtingen recently.

The event focused on the latest 360° solutions for tomorrow’s production challenges. This included the latest generation F 5000 5-axis machining centre and a newly developed rack-type tool magazine. In addition, the machine manufacturer presented a wide range of services and future-orientated technology, digitalisation and automation solutions.

As well these latest advances, the company also offered guests an extensive programme with presentations on a range of topics including digital twins; automation solutions; shopfloor excellence, and technology excellence. Furthermore, guided tours provided exclusive insights into the world of Heller’s manufacturing.

The open house was the first opportunity for visitors to see the F 5000 up close – another machine model from the new generation of the 5-axis F series, equipped with new features and key components such as motor spindles with an HSK-A-63 tool interface and space-saving rack-type tool magazines.

With its modular design, the high-performance 5-axis machining centre can be configured to suit a wide range of applications, ensuring maximum precision and performance in the production of small to medium batch sizes.

Features include free chip fall, short idle times, optimum automation capability and compatibility with the H and FP series for a wide range of workpieces. The F 5000 also sports a narrow footprint and expandability with technologies such as mill-turn, interpolation turning, grinding or power skiving. Another key element of the F series is the revised drive concept of the linear axes, with a twin ballscrew drive in the Z-axis and a significantly reinforced X-axis.

Dr Manuel Gerst, head of development at the Heller Group, explains: “Both the F 5000 and F 6000 offer increased dynamics in the linear axes. Additionally, we have further improved the positioning tolerances with the PRO package. Overall, this results in top performance for workpiece accuracy and machining time.”

Combined with Heller’s new rack-type tool systems, the F machines retain a compact footprint while still offering high tool capacity. And despite their high storage capacity, they are almost 2m slimmer than the previous models – particularly useful when it comes to automating multiple machining centres.

Four machines can now be placed in a row where previously only three could be installed. The various expansion stages differ only in length. The racks, designed for HSK-A 100 tools with storage capacities of 200, 260 and 340 tools, are no longer than 7,000mm. They provide in total 489 storage locations for HSK-A 63 tools.

The space-saving arrangement of the tools is crucial to the compact dimensions of the machine as it enables a high packing density. The integrated preferential storage module significantly reduces tool provisioning times.

An automation solution with a Heller RSP 12H4 rotary pallet storage was also presented at the open house. This pallet automation with a total of 11 pallet storage locations ensures maximum flexibility in a small footprint.

Another automation solution, an H 4000 machine with a Heller RZ 50 robot cell was also on display. This arrangement allows autonomous changeovers by using different clamping fixtures in combination with a five-position clamping fixture magazine. The flexible workpiece automation, including a Gressel gripper system, is particularly suitable for medium and large batch production.

Additionally, an HF 5500 model automated with the flexible RC 150 robot cell, featured a double gripper and de-palletising function to ensure fast handling of workpieces stored on multiple layers. This flexible workpiece automation solution significantly reduces non-productive time.

Moving on to Heller’s digital solutions, digital twins provide customers with a digital image of their machine with the simulation behaving exactly like a real machine. Its use saves considerable time and money during development, commissioning and optimisation. For example, using tested workpiece programs can help prevent damage to the machine.

Heller’s Setup-Assist actively supports the operator when running in processes. It can be used to prevent collisions between machine components and between tools and machine components. Accuracy-Assist helps to visualise and optimise the thermal stability and accuracy of the machine.

When it comes to maintenance and monitoring, the Heller Services Interface provides users with maintenance and service processes throughout the entire lifecycle of the machine – an option that can also help reduce machine downtime by providing evaluations and statistics.

Heller Lens is a web-based AI parts identification systems for mobile devices, designed to provide customers with faster and more reliable spare part identification; the myHeller customer portal helps customers keep track of their entire machine installation. It means spare parts can be ordered quickly and easily from anywhere, at any time.

Finally, the Heller Academy offers customised and practical training from basic to expert level for operators.

Heller
https://uk.heller.biz