Sub-contractor opts for 30-taper production centre

Wisbech-based sub-contractor Avant Manufacturing was using four 40-taper, three-axis vertical machining centres (VMCs) when, towards the end of 2024, an upturn in existing and new business meant that an extra machine was needed hastily.

Dominic Roach, who founded the company in April 2021, wanted to install a five-axis production centre to reap the benefits of fewer reclampings of parts. The advantages are principally higher speed of production, and less risk of errors and damage to workpieces due to excessive manual handling. He also wanted to be able to produce more complex components, preferably in ‘one hit’. However, the space remaining on the shopfloor was limited and five-axis machines tend to be large.

The solution to the conundrum was to install a Brother Speedio U500Xd1 five-axis, swivelling-trunnion vertical machining centre (VMC) with a 30-taper spindle supplied by Whitehouse Machine Tools (WMT), sole UK agent for the Japanese manufacturer. Having a 1,560 x 2,026mm footprint, the machine fitted neatly into the available space when it was delivered in December 2024.

40-taper rigidity
Sub-contractors are increasingly leaning toward the 30-taper interface, especially with the BIG-Plus face and taper contact option, as it combines 40-taper rigidity with the exceptionally high-speed motions of which the smaller form factor machines are capable.

Mr Roach said: “The Brother practically sold itself. We couldn't find a 40-taper machine that would fit, while other 30-taper equipment suppliers had a limited number of production platforms and automation possibilities in their range, which would have limited our future options. Additionally, I was drawn to the Brother because it is a true five-axis machine, not a three-axis model with a bolt-on compound table. An added bonus is that WMT offers unlimited ongoing technical support and is very quick to respond when we have a query. Someone always gets back to us within 30 minutes.”

As he was swapping to a smaller diameter tool holder that he had never used before, Mr Roach was keen to satisfy himself that the Brother machine was powerful enough to remove metal quickly. Admittedly most of the material going through the shop is aluminium, with the remainder mainly plastic, but often billets are reduced to 10% of their original size, such as a medical robot part that is regularly produced. In one recent instance, a 72kg block of 6082 aluminium was milled down to a weight of 4 kg, a reduction of more than 94%.

With a similar aluminium billet and some Ceratizit roughing end mills, he drove 100 miles west to WMT’s showroom and technical centre in Kenilworth to put a U500Xd1 through its paces. He said: “I was impressed not only by the metal removal rate, but also by the size of parts that can be produced in such a small footprint. I would have no hesitation producing components from tougher materials either, as it is an easy matter to change the machining strategy to limit the width and depth of cut and increase the spindle speed and feed rate.”

Since there was an urgent need in Wisbech for the additional spindle, he decided to rent a U500Xd1 straight away ahead of taking delivery in April 2025 of a more capable model, a U500Xd2. WMT duly supplied the rental machine and provided two days of on-site training.

Full five-axis control
The upgraded U500Xd2 has longer travels in the X and Y axes, giving a working volume of 500 x 450 x 380mm. Rotary axis motions are the same, as are the 16,000rev/min BIG-Plus spindle and the 28-position tool magazine, but the control is full five-axis rather than 4+1. A high-accuracy mode option with 1,000-block look-ahead has been selected, as well as 35bar high-pressure coolant, and Blum probes for checking cutter length and workpiece position. Chip-to-chip time is fast at 1.4sec owing to simultaneous tool change and rapid traverse in the linear and rotary axes.

To indicate how much faster the U500Xd1 is, and the U500Xd2 will be, compared to one of his 40-taper VMCs, Mr Roach cited a scientific part produced from solid aluminium that formerly required four separate set-ups on three-axis machines. The number of operations has been halved and the same component is now produced in 36% of the time. That is because although Op1 is the same, Ops2, 3 and 4 are now completed on the five-axis Brother in a single clamping using the rotary axes to position the part for five-sided machining.

A job completed in January 2025, involving drilling 60 holes at eight different angles into a medical plastic block, could not have feasibly been done on the three-axis machines. So the availability of the Brother is allowing Avant Manufacturing to gain new business that it previously had to turn down. A difference that was noticeable immediately the U500Xd1 was installed was the better milled surface finish on components, which far surpasses any customer requirement received to date. Dimensional tolerances held are tight, down to below 10µm, despite there being no temperature control in the factory.

Looking to the future, for obvious reasons Mr Roach is looking to move to larger premises and has first refusal on an adjacent unit on his current industrial estate in Wisbech. He is committed to continuing the journey towards 30-taper, five-axis machining to provide increased capacity for both large- and small-batch production, especially for the medical, pharmaceutical and scientific industries that he mainly serves, as well as for the control, automation and defence sectors.