Manufacturers wishing to carry out prismatic and rotational metalcutting in one hit, within a 300 x 440 x 305mm working volume, can now take advantage of the very high productivity of a Brother 30-taper, five-axis mill-turn centre.

It follows the Japanese machine tool builder's introduction of the Speedio M300X3, which joins the smaller M200X3 that offers 200mm of X-axis travel. Sole agent for sales and service in the UK and Ireland is Kenilworth-based Whitehouse Machine Tools (www.wmtcnc.com).

Both multi-tasking machines are characterised by an 18.9kW/40Nm tool carousel deploying 22 cutters at up to 10,000rpm, or 16,000rpm with the BIG Plus dual-contact spindle option.

Below it is an A-axis trunnion carrying a high output, direct-drive, C-axis turning table. Rated at 4.6kW/1,500rpm in the new machine, it is over one-quarter more powerful than the table in the smaller model and generates up to 102Nm of turning torque. When milling, 30m/min cutting feed rate maintains a high level of productivity and 400Nm of C-axis clamping force ensures accuracy is maintained.

A generous A-axis rotation range from +120 to -30 degrees allows machining of features at the rear of components and facilitates loading and unloading of parts at the front of the machine. The axis is tilted by a backlash-free roller drive to promote accurate metalcutting.

A holding force of 500Nm, without the need for mechanical clamping, delivers high-speed indexing combined with rigidity when milling parts at an angle or turning them in the horizontal plane.

Non-productive time is minimised by repositioning the X, Y, Z, A and C axes simultaneously during tool change, which takes place in 1.5sec chip-to-chip. Linear rapids are 50m/min and the A and C axes move at up to 50 and 200rpm respectively.

The spindle motor's fast acc/dec and a highly responsive servo control enable a start-up and stop time of 0.2sec. The turning table reaches 1,500rpm from zero is less than 0.3sec.

Accessibility for workpiece transfer is ergonomic and the wide door opening can be automated to allow robotic component load/unload from the front, enabling extended periods of unattended and overnight running in high production environments.

Alternatively, all Speedio machining centres are equipped to interface directly with a purpose-built Feedio vision-based robotic component handling system.

Jointly developed by Brother and ABB, whose six-axis robot loads and unloads components from the side, the plug-and-play unit is able to serve one or two machines.

Swarf management is comprehensive, with chip shower and through-tool coolant options. A further design feature is ultra-low use of energy, both during standby and when cutting metal. A high-speed C-00 control system with monitoring of tool change and cutting load completes the package.