Coventry-based
Exactaform Cutting Tools, a specialist in the design and manufacture of diamond and carbide tooling for a rapidly expanding domestic and international customer base, prides itself in being large enough to be regarded as a trusted tooling partner to many of the world’s progressive aerospace, automotive and motorsport businesses, while being small enough to provide a personal and technically superior service.
Having achieved preferred supplier status to many businesses in the global composite industry over the past decade, Exactaform is experienced in providing advanced PCD machining solutions that are able to effectively and accurately machine non-ferrous materials such as aluminium, MMC, carbon fibre and glass-filled resins.
In addition, the company designs and manufactures cutting-edge carbide tooling that is able to efficiently machine a wide range of ‘exotics’ such as Inconel.
In order to remain at the ‘cutting-edge’ of tooling manufacture, and to help keep pace with growing demand for its output, the staff of Exactaform continually searches for advanced production equipment that will further improve the company’s capabilities.
The latest addition is an advanced rotary table purchased from Swiss manufacturer
pL Lehmann.
Martyn Biddle, Exactaform research and development director, said: “The global tooling industry is rapidly evolving. Now, customers don’t have to rely on off-the-shelf cutting tools from large global OEM’s.
“Rather than supply a ‘best-fit’ or ‘compromise’ tooling solution, at Exactaform we are dedicated to boosting our customers’ productivity and reducing their costs by supplying optimal tooling answers that reduce lead times, saves money and increases machining performance.
“Our skilled staff are able to design progressive tooling geometries that can overcome a wide range of application challenges. We now supply an ever-growing range of super-efficient, long-lasting PCD and carbide tooling, including countersinks, drills, milling tools and reamers.
“Our highly developed manufacturing systems allow the highly-efficient production of tools to take place. As well as aiding our industry leading lead times, our in-house manufacturing efficiencies enables the delivery of high-quality PCD and carbide tooling at extremely cost-effective prices.
“Exactaform’s skilled staff apply their considerable expertise and use ‘state of the art’ software to design our tools. Although, to further guarantee that our tools deliver superior machining performance, high levels of dimensional accuracy and long lasting qualities, we also perform exhaustive machining trials.
“Through the use of our machining trials the effective operation of tools can be monitored and verified. Alternatively, designs can be further developed until optimum levels of performance are achieved.
“To further develop our capabilities in the important area of tooling trials we recently searched for a large, heavy-duty CNC rotary table that would provide the high-precision five-axis machining that we need, and that could be retrofitted to our DMG Mori DMC 1450 machine tool. After carefully assessing the alternative products from several major manufacturers, we came to the conclusion that an advanced rotary table from Lehmann best matched our demanding needs.
“Lehmann’s knowledgeable technical staff quickly understood our needs and suggested a T1-520530 TOP3 model, the largest 5th axis rotary table in the company’s range. As we were aware Lehmann’s excellent reputation, and as the T1-520530 TOP3 ticked all of our boxes, we were happy to place an order.
“Following the trouble-free fitting into our DMG Mori DMC and integration into the machine’s Siemens controller, our new rotary table soon began to deliver the levels of performance we were promised. The fifth axis provided by our Lehmann rotary table, and its impressive speed and precision, are now making significant contributions to our tooling machining trials.”
Lehmann has been at the forefront of the design and manufacture of high-quality, durable rotary tables for over four decades. The Swiss company’s expertise is reflected in the premium quality of the company’s products.
To help reduce the required part count across the company’s comprehensive range and to enable the availability of Swiss quality CNC rotary tables at a cost-effective price, Lehmann rotary tables are constructed on an advanced modular design concept.
This highly-efficient arrangement enables a wide range of first-class, cost-effective options to be made available that are able to meet customers’ various machining needs and budgets.
The CNC rotary tables are divided into geared and direct drive rotary versions and offer great flexibility. The company’s powerful designs offer many useful features, such as a built-in booster for spindle clamping, an internal monitoring system of all important functions and Bluetooth access for remote service.
Lehmann’s product line also offers a wide range of workpiece clamping possibilities, including options for fully automatic loading, and unloading by robots.
The T1-520530 TOP3 model, as installed in Exactaform’s DMG Mori DMC 1450 machine, is Lehmann’s largest available CNC, fifth axis rotary table and is able to accommodate workpieces of up to 600mm diameter and weighing up to 200kg.
Despite its generous capacity, the rotary table’s clever design means that it occupies a relatively small space within the machine tool. Given the demanding machining applications it is designed to undertake, the robust rotary table boasts high clamping forces of 2,000Nm rotating/7,000Nm tilting.
Aiding machining efficiency, the T1-520530 TOP3 provides 50rev/min rotating and 25rev/min tilting speeds. The advanced Lehmann rotary table is lifetime pre-loaded (adjustable) and backlash-free and delivers impressive accuracy and repeatability figures of 12a rc/sec and 2 arc/sec respectively.
The machining of complex workpiece geometries requires robust, flexible workpiece clamping and rapid, precise compound movements within the machine tool compartment. Throughout the world, and across multiple machine tools and challenging applications, Lehmann CNC rotary tables deliver all of these needs.
Now used on more than 40 different machine tool brands and on over 160 different machine models, the scope of the company’s range means that optimal solutions can be supplied to the vast majority of machining applications.
Lehmann’s products can be fitted to new machine tools or retrofitted to existing machines. In addition, the flexible rotary tables allow trouble free Integration into all known CNC control systems, including Fanuc, Siemens, Heidenhain, Haas, Winmax, Mitsubishi, Brother and Mazatrol.