The CU 2007 and CU 3007 milling centres from Coalville-based Tornos UK Ltd (www.tornos .com) offer manufacturers an ‘all in’ solution with three to five axes.

Moreover, Tornos can customise these machines with options that range from tool changers and high-pressure coolant to full automation systems — and now a seven-axis capability.

As well as a five-axis dividing head, this version of the machine has a second dividing head, featuring both rotary and linear axes that allow it to also work as a bar feeding device.

Moreover, this second dividing head not only provides a means of feeding the spindle with bar sections of the appropriate length but also enables the sixth face to be finished, with part manipulation provided by a pick-and-place system.

A simple automation system is used to store bars up to 330mm long in a magazine located next to the machining area.

Once the first bar has been finished, the magazine opens and the manipulator arm picks the following barup to load it into the five-axis dividing head.

The workpiece is clamped, the magazine closes and the machining cycles can be restarted. If the pick-and-place system is “insufficient in terms of autonomy”, the CU 2007 can be combined with a robot cell; the six-axis robot can load and unload the workpieces and manipulate them as required.

An additional gripper system is used to handle workpiece pallets for an even greater level of autonomy. The machine has three types of tool magazine available, with capacities of 16, 24 or 40 tools.

Three spindle types are available: a 12,000rev/ min high-torque version; a 20,000rev/min version for optimised speed and torque; and a 40,000rev/min high-speed type.