Manufactured by Kitamura and available in the UK from Nuneaton-based Leader CNC Technologies Ltd (www.leadercnc.co.uk), the 3XD vertical machining centre features a C-frame structure that has been designed to optimise rigidity and vibration damping, plus heavy-duty roller-type linear guideways to ensure high levels of precision.

Suitable for mould-and-die work, as well as general sub-contract machining, the machine has a work envelope of 760 x 510 x 510mm, a rapid-traverse rate of 48m/min, and a dual-contact BBT40 spindle rated at 26kW and offering a maximum speed of 12,000rev/min.

The 24-tool ATC offers a tool change time of 1.9sec and accommodates tools up to 75mm in diameter (150mm with adjacent pockets empty) and 240mm long.

Control is via a Kitamura Arumatik-JR CNC system, which features high processing speeds, a 675-block look-ahead, USB connection and Ethernet interface.

It also offers a workpiece co-ordinate system (54 sets), co-ordinate system rotation, 400 tool offset pairs, 3-D tool-radius compensation, rigid tapping and helical interpolation, as well as many other features.