VMC’s Improved Automatic Pallet Changer Handles Heavier Loads

Hardinge offers Bridgeport’s fully digital Conquest V480 APC E series vertical machining center with Mitsubishi M70 CNC. The VMC is designed to achieve maximum capacity and performance for job shop, OEM, aerospace, automotive and power-generation industries. The machine is built of gray cast iron for reliability. XYZ-axis travels measure 18.9" × 15.8" × 16.9" (480 × 400 × 430 mm). For fast and accurate response, the machine provides rapid traverse rates of 1,417 ipm in the X, Y and Z axes as well as acceleration rates of 6, 4.6 and 3.75 m/sec., respectively.

Options include 12,000- and 15,000-rpm spindle options, 280-psi through-spindle coolant, air blast, fourth-/fifth-axis prewiring, a spindle chiller, a chip conveyor and more.

According to the company, the V480 APC E provides enhancements over the previous GX 480 APC, including improved sheet metal design to ease coolant containment and chip removal; a repositioned operator panel to ease set up; an improved automatic toolchanger with faster tool-change times and automatic recover function; and a redesigned automatic pallet changer that allows for loads ranging to 440 lbs with a clamping force of 4,850 lbs.