Faster machines for fast making

This involvement with the turbine industry came from Raysun’s early collaboration on the Rolls-Royce Viper Grinding project where both Tyrolit and Raysun engineers were heavily involved with the aero-engine maker in the invention, development and exploitation of Viper technology.

Through this work Raysun had a need to update its toolroom capacity and the addition of Heidenhain controls to the XYZ Machine Tools HD vertical machining centre range brought the two companies together for the first time.

Raysun’s involvement in the Viper Grinding project also opened up opportunities to further diversify the business, which saw the introduction of its ‘fast make’ concept that provides rapid product development of small hot gas turbine components.

“Typically, it could take an OEM 12-18 months to take these parts from concept to production ready parts but with our systems and flexibility, we can achieve this in under six months,” affirms Raysun’s quality manager, Charles Ray.

“Typically, we spend four to six weeks on each stage of the project, with these being design, jigs and fixture production, and final product development, with machining work spread across our toolroom and separate production facility.”

“The result of this fast make concept has been rapid growth over the past three years, and we have several active projects in-hand for major customers, which have placed additional pressure on the ageing machinery within the toolroom.”

A legacy of the work on Viper Grinding meant that virtually every machine at Raysun featured a Heidenhain control, and this would be the first tick box in selecting any replacement machine. The recently added option of the Heidenhain TNC 620 Control to the its HD range of vertical machining centres brought XYZ Machine Tools to Raysun’s attention.

“Without the choice of the Heidenhain control, which we are very familiar with, we probably wouldn’t have even considered XYZ as an option, but when we saw it was available the other aspects of machine choice fell into place,” Mr Ray comments.

“The toolroom works on a wide range of parts some with small high precision features and other much larger items such as assembly jigs for building cars. To cover the range of requirements a machining centre with a reasonable size table was required and the XYZ 800 HD was ideal.

“The combination of the XYZ 800 HD machining centre and the Heidenhain control has definitely impressed us and it fitted our requirements well with the added benefit of being a price competitive package that was available in the timeframe that we had available.”

Raysun now has two XYZ 800 HD VMCs in place with their 800 x 500 x 510mm axis travel and 920 x 480mm table size with a 900kg load capacity being fully employed in a variety of toolroom applications. Constructed around a 4,400kg solid cast base and column with traditional box slideways on all three axes, the 800 HD provides an ideal machining platform for a wide range of components, with a mix of rigidity and agility supported by a 24 position toolchanger and 33hp (25kW)/10,000rpm spindle.

“The Heidenhain TNC620 control and optimised servos is proving to be a popular standard option among customers specialising in the aerospace and toolroom environments, where Heidenhain is traditionally strong,” says Nigel Atherton, managing director, XYZ Machine Tools. “The compact touchscreen user-interface of the Heidenhain control makes it attractive to a wider customer base and, by offering it on our HD range of vertical machining centres we can now offer the optimum machine/control combination to suit a customer’s requirements.”

Raysun also needed to add to its turning capabilities and here it compromised on its desire for Heidenhain control and took delivery of an XYZ SLX355 ProTurn lathe with the SLX ProtoTRAK control. With milling, grinding and EDM being the key areas within the toolroom, turning is an aspect of the business that has a lesser, yet vital, role to play and one where versatility is key.

“The ProtoTRAK control is ideal for what we needed as it allows anyone to step up to the lathe and operate it thanks to its ease of use. As with the XYZ 800 HD the size and capability met our requirements – it’s a no-nonsense machine that does an excellent job day in day out for us,” Mr Ray concludes.

With these three machines from XYZ in place, the Raysun toolroom is better placed to deliver to the expectations of the ‘fast make’ side of the business as well as individual customers for its general toolroom services.

XYZ Machine Tools www.xyzmachinetools.com

Raysun www.raysun.co.uk