New Generation Direct Drive Option:
You may be interested in one of our New Generation Direct Drive Machines.
We replace all of the standard gearbox components with a variable speed motor package. Not only do you eliminate all maintenance problems associated with clutch adjustment, bearing failure, gear wear, etc., but you have all of the flexibility of having variable spindle speeds and feeds without the nuisance of having to change one single gear. Imagine changing speeds and feeds with the push of a button on a color touch screen. You can also enjoy the flexibility of programmable variable low point.
In essence, the procedure is to replace the conventional motor with the two variable speed units, one driving the spindles and another fixed to the gear train. By doing so, it becomes possible to eliminate the high speed clutches, roll clutch, feed clutch, complete brake mechanism, and reverse clutch. Also eliminated are the spindle change gears, feed change gears, spindle range gears, spindle change shaft, feed range gears, feed range shaft, high speed shaft and bevel gears, small worm shaft and gears, roll clutch shaft and gears. In addition to the above eliminations, more than 100 bearings, spacers, nuts, and retainers are no longer required.
All of the above items are noise and maintenance producing items that are replaced with two variable drive motors. The result is a machine which still uses the conventional cam train and change cams for end slide and cross slide motions as well as the Cyclo Index system.
Rotational speeds for both spindles and cam train, however, are controlled directly from variable speed motors. Thus rapid traverse "in high" during tool retraction and index are accomplished by a change feed motor speed rather than by the traditional over-running clutch principle. The result, as can readily be visualized, is a machine which is not only more versatile, but easer to set up and needs less periodic adjustment and maintenance.
Among the benefits for the retrofitted models are faster indexing, partially because the machine can go into high exactly at the top point of the longest cam and remain in full rapid traverse until the first tool almost touches the work with no allowance for braking. Therefore the cutting cycle includes none of the coast-up and dwell delays which are normal with conventionally operated machines. Any unneeded portion of the longest cam can be rapid traversed to actual cutting point.
In addition, rpm's for the spindle drive and cam shaft are independent and infinitely variable. Spindle speed range has been increased approximately 25% and idle time has been reduced by 25%. Some of our customers have reported that on some jobs using our direct drive machines, they have reduced their cycle times by as much as 50%. Individual one and two axis CNC slides can be added to bring the Direct Drive machine to an unprecedented level in automatic multiple spindle machines.
