What Caught My Eye at Eastec 2010
The climate for new investment in metalworking equipment is starting to heat up—at least that seems to be the evidence at the Eastec show, which ran May 25-27 at the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield, Massachusetts.
The Tsugami S206 Swiss-type lathe made its North American debut at the Rem Sales booth. This 20-mm, sliding-headstock-type machine can be operated with or without the guide bushing mechanism.
The design of the S206 allows backworking Y-axis motion for complex parts. In a demonstration, a twin-lead bone screw was produced using a high-helix thread whirling attachment.
Also shown by Rem Sales was the Hardinge T42 Super-Precision horizontal turning center. It marks a return to classic Hardinge design principles such as a one-piece, 45-degree, slant-bed, Harcrete-reinforced cast iron bed.
A notable feature of the T42 is the BMT-45 live tooling top plate with a tenon tool drive system. The feature allows fine adjustment of tool blocks in the Y-axis plane. Sixteen stations are available for live tooling modules.
Optical Gaging Products, Inc. (OPG) showed its eCAD software/hardware package for especially configured OGP Contour Projectors. It enables a CAD-generated model to be projected onto the optical comparator’s viewing screen as the profile tolerance band, in lieu of the traditional clip-on film overlay. CAD models can be switched instantly and adjusted quickly to speed change-over when inspecting a variety of parts.
The SmartChange System developed by Alberti for KOMA Precision provides quick-change live-tooling capability for mill turn machines. The units have a standard profile with no additional projection to reduce the chance of interference with the machine’s enclosures. The design creates three points of contact between the driven tool holder body and tool holder output surfaces so there is no compromise in concentricity and rigidity to gain the speed and convenience of quick-change tooling. The SmartChange System allows tools to be externally preset.
Although not new, Horn’s broaching system for cutting keyways, splines or slots is a perennial attention-getter at trade shows, the company says. The system enables broaching operations to be performed on a CNC lathe in one setup.
SafeLock is Haimer USA’s answer to users concerned about possible pull out of shrink-fit tooling when roughing titanium or other tough alloys. When cutting these materials, the high forces can create a slight movement of the tool, called microcreeping, which loosens the tool despite the high clamping forces between the cutting tool shank and the shrink-fit chuck. The SafeLock system uses drive keys built into the chuck. These drive keys interface with corresponding grooves on the shank of the cutting tool. Because the grooves run in a direction that tends to pull the tool shank into the chuck, they effectively counteract the microcreeping tendency.
Lovejoy Tool Company, Inc. is putting a major emphasis on its growing expertise in composites machining. One of its new tools for this application is a line of compression trimmers. These tools are used to trim the periphery of composite panels, which are subject to delamination during the machining process. The polycrystalline diamond (PCD) segments are oriented at opposing angles from flute to flute such that cutting action tends to squeeze the layers of composite material together. These compressive forces help counter any tendency for delamination.
Emuge is best known for specialty taps to cut high quality threads in high-end applications. Now the company is moving in a new direction by adding a general-purpose line of taps with high-performance characteristics. The taps are designed to cut a range of materials, including carbon steel, steel alloys, stainless steel, aluminum, cast iron, copper, brass and bronze. Called MultiTap, the taps can produce threads within both 2B and the tighter 3BG class of thread fit. Job shop tool rooms can cover a wide range of threading operations without stocking a variety of tapping tools.
Renishaw’s PH20 tough-trigger probe uses five-axis technology so that the probe head itself provides rotary motion. This means that the probe head does most of the moving instead of the coordinate measuring machine (CMM) structure. The result is the ability to capture many more points on the workpiece surface in a short period of time, compared to conventional CMM probing systems. Improved accuracy and repeatability are the payoff.
The climate for new investment in metalworking equipment is starting to heat up—at least that seems to be the evidence at the Eastec show, which ran May 25-27 at the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield, Massachusetts. Attendance appeared to be strong and engaged. Many exhibitors reported good sales lead generation. Certainly the climate outside the exhibit halls was plenty hot. The air temperature went into the upper 90s during the first two days of the show. Although the show featured many new and interesting products, I managed to get a few representative snapshots or images of the items that caught my eye at the show.
