New heavy-duty VTC range bridges a gap in the market

The new PV 6300M vertical turning centre

Leamington Spa-based Mills CNC, the exclusive distributor of DN Solutions’ and Zayer machine tools in the UK and Ireland, has introduced a new range of heavy-duty vertical turning centres into the market. The new PV 6300 range, comprising two different models, slots seamlessly in between the firmly established smaller Puma PV 400 series of vertical turning centres and the company’s large and very popular PV 8300 and PV 9300 ranges. They are particularly aimed at component manufacturers machining mid-size parts such as discs, rings, wheels, hubs, and housings, used in and for heavy-duty aerospace, automotive, oil and gas and power generation applications.

The two-axis PV 6300 and the PV 6300M, a VTC with a 5,000rev/min driven tooling capability, have a box guideway design and reinforced spindle motors that ensure high precision and reduced vibration when machining hard and difficult-to-machine materials that includes heat-treated stainless steels and corrosion-resistant super alloys.

With up to 18in chuck sizes, PV 6300 and PV 6300M VTCs are supplied with advanced and powerful 26kW 2,000rev/min 1116N-m spindles as standard, allowing end users to ramp-up speeds and feeds and take more aggressive depths of cut as a route to boosting their productivity. Up to 37kW spindle power and 1638N-m spindle torque options are also available. Both machine models have a maximum turning diameter of 630mm and a maximum turning length/height of 600mm. Meanwhile, linear scales on the machines’ axes are available as an option ensuring that high precision and positional accuracies are achieved and maintained.

Access to additional tools
In addition to their fast and accurate servo-driven 12-station turrets, PV 6300/6300M machines can be equipped, as an option, with an additional eight-tool position (CAPTO C6) automatic toolchanger (ATC) to help improve productivity and process efficiencies. The access to additional tools comes into its own when customers are machining complex parts involving the use of many tools, too many for the capacity of tools stored in the machines’ turrets, and minimises potential machine downtime caused by tool change operations.

The machines can be supplied with the latest Fanuc i Plus with 15in touchscreen iHMI or Siemens 828D controls and, because they are ‘automation-ready’ can be integrated with Mills CNC’s high-productivity and highly-flexible Synergi automation systems to improve productivity and facilitate lights-out, unattended operation.

Features that include improved swarf evacuation, automatic tool setters, large-capacity 340-litre coolant tanks and, for brake disc machining, innovative servo-straddle tooling, improve the machines’ performance and flexibility.

Tony Dale, Mills CNC’s Group CEO, concluded: “The new PV 6300 series has raised the bar for VTCs and provide customers with unrivalled productivity, precision and process reliability, and are ideal for heavy-duty industrial applications.”