Titanic turning

IMT is a relatively young company founded in 1983 and has quickly grown to become a major European lathe manufacturer. The company has now spread across the world and has facilities in America, China and Singapore.
Having previously worked with IMT supplying numerous IMT machines to the alloy wheel manufacturing industry throughout the UK and Ireland, the two companies are now working together again to supply new customers in the aerospace, oil, gas and nuclear power generation industries.

Chris Boraston, managing director at Dorman explains: “We previously sold a lot of IMT vertical lathes with turning capacities of up to 500mm or so and today IMT still offers small vertical machines, but over recent years it has bought out an entirely new Procast range of gigantic turning machines and it is these that caught our attention at the recent Milan EMO exhibition. These machines are capable of turning 6m diameter parts that weigh up to 100 tons.”

Claudio Caprioli, president and CEO of IMT Europe comments: “The large vertical lathes of the Procast line gives us the chance to become the only company in Europe which is able to manufacture a complete series range – from the small machines used for the production of pistons to the gigantic ones used for the production of enormous turbines.”

The smallest model in Procast's large capacity VBM range has a turning capacity of 2.5m with models available up to 6m diameter. This huge machine has a maximum turning height of 4m with a spindle power rating of 150kW of constant power. To handle the extremes of power and weight, the machines' double central column and mobile crossrail are reinforced in order to ensure maximum rigidity and to eliminate torsion bending and vibration even when running at full power. Components to be machined may weigh up to 100 tons, with the machine itself coming in at a gross weight of 280 tons.

An optional vertical and/or right angled 37kW milling head is also available to allow for high capacity milling operations and the range can also be equipped with an optional grinding spindle to enable the machine to offer true universal turn/mill/grind/drill capabilities. Tool changing is taken care of using single, multiple rotary disc, horizontal or vertical chain type tool loaders with part loading via a pallet system also possible. IMT lathes may be specified with twin vertical slides.

According to Dorman, the success of the large capacity Procast VBM lathes resulted in a further manufacturing hall being created last year at IMT's facility near Milan, Italy, to cope with rising demand from companies throughout the world. By 2004, IMT had manufactured 1,000 vertical lathes, with an output of 100 machines per year during 2008 and 2009 and over 70% of its machines being exported outside of Italy.

Alan Stephenson, Dorman's UK sales manager, concludes: “The IMT Procast range of high capacity vertical lathes is certainly of great general interest to engineers but at first sight would seem to have a very limited marketplace. After all how many people have parts to machine that weigh up to 100 tons? However the range starts with the 15.25 model that has a 1.5m table with a 2.5m maximum turning diameter so you don't actually need to be machining parts larger than some houses to be able to use the machines.

“When we looked more carefully at the IMT range we understood that even at the high tech, high capacity Procast end of the range, IMT has already supplied well over 60 of these large machines and we very much look forward to promoting them to the many UK customers that are active in the aeronautical, petrochemical and power generation industries.”

Dorman
www.dormanmachinetools.co.uk