New on the Hurco stand at MACH 2018 was the VC500i five-axis machining centre. This features a cantilever design, a substantial one-piece cast-iron frame, and a 360deg rotary table mounted on a trunnion that swivels through 220deg around the Y axis to give “unrivalled undercutting capability”.

This competitively priced ‘early entry machine’ complements the slightly larger Hurco VCX600i, which allows complex components weighing up to 250kg to be produced in one hit within a 520 x 450 x 400mm machining envelope.

This machine’s 11kW CAT 40 spindle is provided with cutters from a 30-pocket magazine.

Other Hurco five-axis machining centres on show were a VMX42SRTi — Hurco’s best-selling model, this has a B-axis spindle and flush rotary table to provide the extra CNC axes — and a VMX30Ui trunnion-type five-axis machine fitted with an Erowa Robot Compact automated parts-handling system.

There was also a Roeders RXP600DSH five-axis machining centre of trunnion configuration on the stand (Hurco is the sole sales and service agent in the UK and Ireland for the German machine builder).

Hurco also previewed new software being developed for its machining-centre controls, whereby a 3-D DXF or solid model can be imported to allow five-sided parts to be programmed conversationally, directly from a STEP or IGES file, by automatically inserting transform plane commands.