According to Wellington Engineering, Colchester lathes provide the flexibility for it to optimize machining of precision components.
With assistance from Mitutoyo, Daco Inc. upgraded and integrated its existing CMM into a flexible manufacturing cell for engine flywheels, thus reducing human inspection duties by 25%.
Wellington Engineering of Hayes in Middlesex, England, is a subcontractor serving the medical, automotive, and general-engineering industries. It is constantly producing wide ranges of components in fairly small batches, and for much of the turning work, it relies heavily on Colchester lathes.
The shop has four Colch-ester lathes, two of which are the Combi K2 and Tornado 220 M. The Combi is a manual/combination-type chucking lathe. It provides both manual and CNC turning. According to Daimon Wellington, managing director at Wellington, the machine is ideal for the shop's batches of up to 10 precision components and provides the flexibility for optimizing machining performance across a whole spread of work.
Programming the Combi is done in several different ways. These include simple digital readout; on-screen CAM-based; electronic handwheel teach and repeat; cut and paste; traditional G-codes; and direct numerical control.
Because of the Combi's 400-mm over-the-bed swing, Wellington often uses it for parts up to 203 mm in diameter and in batches between 5 and 10 parts. Much of the work involves machining aluminum-alloy components with tolerances as tight as 0.02 mm. Such components include bearing heads for motorsports simulation equipment, which the Combi produces, after programming and running the first one, in less than 45 min under full CNC.
Wellingtons's Tornado 220 M is a 3-axis CNC lathe with six driven tool stations and 65-mm barfeed. It lets the company produce complex mill-turn components in single setups. For one component, the lathe eliminated transfer of the part to a machining center for drilling. The result was a 40% decrease in production cycle time.
The Tornado features a 510-mm swing over the bed, full C axis with disc brake, and a 22-kW spindle drive with 3.7 kW at the tool drive. The lathe's Fanuc 21iTB control includes a CAM software package that speeds on-machine programming.
Colchester Lathe Co.
West Yorkshire, U.K.
