Milton-Keynes-based Hydrafeed Ltd (www.hydrafeed.co.uk) has complemented its bar-feed, X-Tract and Rota-Rack units for feeding and catching parts on turning centres with the new Turn-Assist and Mill-Assist automatic loading and unloading systems for turning centres and machining centres.

These systems are made by Robojob, for which Hydrafeed is the exclusive UK agent.

Turn-Assist, which can be used with all makes of new and existing CNC turning centres, features a Fanuc robot that is positioned so that the machine opening and swarf tray can still be accessed by the operator.

The robot interfaces with a servo-operated stacking table that accommodates parts from 23 to 180mm in diameter. Turn-Assist can be set up in less than 5min, and no knowledge of robotics is required to operate the system.

Like Turn-Assist, Mill-Assist can be adapted to all makes of CNC machining centre, with Hydrafeed and Robojob providing the full turn-key solution and configuration data.

It can be set up in two ways (front or side); in both cases, machine access remains unhindered. The robot can automatically select a variety of grippers, and it works in conjunction with a patented input and reception plate for parts from 23 to 450mm in diameter.