When Belfast-based McGreevy Engineering (needed to take its first step into five-axis machining in order to move into the aerospace industry, it chose a Vcenter AX800 from Victor CNC (
www.victorcnc.com).
Works manager Tommy Hanna says: “A lot of the work that we’ve been doing until now has required three or four operations on different machines, so a five-axis machine would make us more competitive.
“We already had a Victor CNC lathe that was very reliable, so we bought the AX800, which has a larger capacity than most of its competitors. With 1.6m in the X axis, we can use it as a large-bed three-axis machine as well as a very versatile and robust five-axis machine.
“Additionally, the 15,000rev/min spindle means that we are conducting high-speed machining on a lot of our work. Providing the jobs are set up correctly, we can hit all five sides of the workpiece at high speed, and this is making a huge saving for our business.
“The AX800 has 40 tool positions, and it is our first machine with a BBT40 spindle configuration, which allows us to use the BT40 tools from our other machines.
“As well as the BBT40 spindle, the overall build quality and rigidity of the Victor machine are outstanding. We recently delivered a job to a customer, and they couldn’t believe the surface finish.
“We are expecting to considerably grow our aerospace work in the near future, and we’ll certainly be looking at another Victor CNC five-axis machine.”