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Thursday 16 December 2010

Latest 5-axis centre

Breton launches Raptor, a vertical high-speed machining centre and the ideal solution for milling, contouring, trimming and boring light alloys, resins and composite engineered materials.   This machining centre is perfect for machining 3-D workpieces satisfying the most demanding requirements across a number of industrial applications as the aerospace  and engineered materials industries.
In the  last two years one of the few markets  that has managed to ride out the economical global crisis is the aviation industry with names as Boeing  787 and Airbus 380 and countries as Russia and the emerging new markets as China are registering a more than positive  recovery.  When talking about the aerospace and aviation industries, we have to talk about precision 5-axis milling  operations for machining not just metals but also composite and engineered materials consisting  of several layers of different materials.    Raptor,  our latest machining centre, has been designed and developed  to satisfy these precise production requirements.
The machining centre for demanding production
Raptor is a vertical high-speed machining centre and the ideal solution for milling, contouring, trimming and boring light alloys, resins and composite engineered materials. 
Raptor is, without doubt, the machining solution  for milling 3-D workpieces typical of the aviation industry, but not only, as this type of production process is now used in  nautical and energy applications.  
Raptor is the perfect solution for heavy-duty production requirements thanks to the structural rigidity and machine dynamics offering improved high-speed machining combined with greater milling power. These important features are further enhanced by the fast linear axes which reach speeds of up to 80 m/min,  and the tilting and twist head, axis C with a rotational capacity of   ± 200°  and axis A rotates from 0° up to +115°, makes this machine highly versatile when working with 5 continuous axes ensuring maximum precision and performance even when performing undercuts. 
The twist head with direct drive can be positioned at any angle.
Increased milling performance is guaranteed by a 20 kW spindle reaching speeds of 28,000 rpm/min.
Our Raptor machining centre offers greater linear axis  - X, Y and Z -   travel, respectively 3,800mm, 2,800mm and 1,200mm.
Another important quality of the latest Breton machine  is high machining and milling precision.  In fact the linear axes offer guaranteed positioning with a ±0,015 mm/m tolerance margin and repositioning precision tolerance of  ± 0,007  mm/m. 
The rotary axes offer precision positioning with a ±0,025” tolerance margin and repositioning precision tolerance of ± 0,017”.
Our Raptor machining centres are fitted with tool magazines for holding up to 14 tools and as optional accessory can be increased to accommodate up to 100 tools.  
The closed structure and drive assemblies mounted on the top part of the machine, ensure maximum operator safety and maximum machining precision, performance and reliability.   

Monday 29 November 2010

Axes of accuracy

Although it’s still true to say that you can’t make a silk purse out of a pig’s ear, Dr Neil Calder discovers it’s now at least possible to make a good CNC machine tool significantly more accurate.

Presentation on Slideshare
Nothing in life is ever quite what it seems, and similarly no machine tool axis is ever perfectly straight or aligned. Once you add in the effects of rotational axes in 5-axis systems, and the long cantilevered axes found in larger machine tools, then inaccuracies at the tool centre point really do start to build up. In the more craft intensive precision machining industry of previous times, the black art of an operator’s knowledge of a particular machine’s sweet spots could achieve increases in accuracy beyond the machine’s nominal. Now there is an electronic sixth sense that enables this.

Siemens has a solution to enable optimised machine tool accuracies in its Volumetric Compensation System, or VCS. Siemens cites 21 independent inaccuracies that are summed geometrically at the tool holder: six error types for each of the three linear axes (Cartesian positioning and orientation) plus three angular errors from rotary axes. In larger machines, the volumetric error caused by an unfavourable constellation of the axis positions can reach several hundred microns.
The Sinumerik 840D control, which for some years has been one of the mainstays of the high precision machining sector and something of an unofficial industry standard for 5-axis systems, can now provide realtime internal compensation for geometric and feedback errors. The ‘internal’ bit is important here as the algorithms for compensating for the deviations in drive and encoder positions from their nominal values are achieved within the controller rather than externally as in many other systems which interrupt the drive system to achieve compensation accuracy. The system, incorporating innovative Sinamics S120 drives, has been designed to have an architecture which is distributed, scalable, open and interconnected. The 840D sl (solution line) VCS corrects the position, movement and orientation vector at the tool centre point, resulting in a substantial improvement in volumetric accuracies for 5-axis machines with fork head kinematics. Absolute accuracies of between ±50 - 75µm have been demonstrated in practice over long machine tool beds of some tens of metres.


A blueprint for precision
The work here has significance for the entire F-35 Joint Strike Fighter programme supply chain as it is being taken as the technical standard for achieving required tolerances on machined components. This technology has been selected for use by Northrop Grumman to achieve high tolerance machined parts and has been the outcome of collaboration with Siemens stretching back to 2002 with a CNC technology symposium in Fort Worth, attended by Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems. This collaboration has involved development of the Siemens Sinumerik 840D controller to include the capability to compensate for measurable machine tool axis inaccuracies in all five axes simultaneously. Northrop Grumman Corporation Aerospace Systems is now strongly and unequivocally encouraging its supply chain to explore the use of Siemens’ Sinumerik 840D sl CNC and its VCS to achieve high tolerance machined parts for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter programme.
The technical requirements from Northrop Grumman have been listed as robust machine tool design, repeatability, machine tool responsiveness, environmental temperature stability, and stable machine tool foundations.
Volumetric errors can be initially determined using state-of-the-art laser measuring equipment. The VCS has been configured to interact seamlessly and automatically with many popular systems by equipment suppliers like Renishaw, Automated Precision and Etalon to dramatically reduce the time and cost of using these systems to map the machine tool’s working space in all its various dimensions. To perform the task of mapping data points and creating a high fidelity set of compensation data manually would in most cases not be viable as it is so resource intensive.

A case study of the effectiveness of the VCS technology was carried out by Siemens in conjunction with Italian machine tool manufacturer Breton. In this trial, a Breton Flymill - was calibrated using Renishaw XL-80 laser interferometry equipment, with optics for measuring position, rotation and translation. Without the integration of measuring equipment, machine shops were only able to identify errors and did not have the possibility of being able to directly make improvements. Users with the new VCS as part of their machine control capability can now directly use the error curves that they have measured for use in volumetric compensation. In close cooperation with Siemens, Renishaw developed an automatic converter for this purpose. This simply and reliably converts the data recorded using the XL-80 into the VCS data format.
A significant improvement during this trial was indicated by the Renishaw circularity test, which uses a number of axes moving together to provide an easily verifiable toolpath. This was carried out in all three planes in space. In the YZ plane, the rectangularity error was reduced from 8.6µm/m to 0.1µm/m and circularity deviation was improved from 24µm down to 18µm.
Good shopfloor housekeeping always plays a part here too, and there is no way of achieving very high repeatability without taking into account external factors such as thermal stability of the shopfloor environment. Coast Composites in Irvine, California, has made something of a science of this technique in high accuracy machining of Invar composite mould tools, not necessarily controlling the shopfloor temperature, but in understanding how this affects the dimensions of the machine tool beds and axes. Part of the Hampson Industries group of companies, Coast Composites has devised its temperature compensation system to overcome these variables in ambient factory conditions whilst still maintaining an accuracy that often exceeds the customer specification in a range of typical materials.
It has proved that it is possible to effectively retrofit the VCS enabled controller to its older machine tools, with specific experience in using this for Henri Liné, Nicolas Correa, SNK and Amura machines. Coast also reports a changing philosophy on the shopfloor of turning every machine tool into its own coordinate measuring machine. Laser trackers are now only used for final checking of machined parts.

Thursday 25 November 2010

Thursday 18 November 2010

Winning partnership - Team-play champions!

In the course of time, Breton introduced a series of high-speed milling centres which are capable of meeting all the requirements of the automotive industry.
There is someone, however, who works in even more sophisticated and technologically demanding sectors using the same machines. An example is the Formula 1, where Red Bull, winner of the Drivers' and Constructors' World Championship, machine their car bodies utilizing machines they purchased from Breton at three different times over the years.  
Our offer range increased considerably with the passing of time, and today it's no exaggeration to say evenly that, in this connection, we are the leader both in quality and quantity. Indeed, our offer in this field begins from the two Matrix (800 and 1300), ideal to machine all the components of a car which, after being assembled, are used to realize the complete model under study, and ends with the Flymillwhere the subject is the whole model in full scale.
Among the different companies which chose to follow this path, we can number Saab, Volkswagen and General Motors in Australia.
With Matrix and Flymill, we entirely encompass the style process of the car, therefore it's no accident if, besides being used by car constructors, our machines are installed by many independent style centres and car designers

Tuesday 16 November 2010

BRETON SPA and OZ RACING : A WINNING TEAM

Il team Red Bull vincitore del Mondiale F1 utilizza cerchioni OZ-racing lavorati sul centro di lavoro ad alta velocità XCEEDER 1200.

OZ RACING, one of our customers, is a company internationally acknowledged and famous for its products – from aftermarket high-performance alloy car rims to technologically advanced and sophisticated products for the world of racing from rally to Formula 1 Grand Prix.
OZ RACING has purchased a BRETON interpolated 5-axis high-speed work centre XCEEDER 1200 RT. Thanks to this new work centre OZ can maximise rim structural efficiency  while drastically reducing production times.
In fact this work centre, purchased from BRETON SPA, and thanks to the technological partnership secured between these two companies, OZ RACING has developed superior performance rims for the Red Bull F1 cars which will be racing in this coming season.

Friday 8 October 2010

MAXIMA 1600 - installation at customer's site

MAXIMA is a vertical multi-purpose 6-axis high-speed machining centre designed for milling and turning operations and machines parts with diameters up to 3500 in superalloys (titanium, Inconel etc), steel, aluminium and composites.

MAXIMA is the perfect solution for turning, milling, boring and tapping complex 3-D components  used in the aeronautical, energy and precision engineering industries. A single machine for transforming  raw materials into a finished product minimising workpiece repositioning times.

The linear axes can reach speeds of up to 60 m/min and worktable rotary speeds of up to 500 rpm. The axes are structurally robust and the milling/turning worktable can be supplied with  diameters of up to 3000mm,  operational torques up to 28000 Nm and loading capacities of 12000 kg.

MAXIMA can be supplied in a  choice of configurations allowing you to perform complex machining jobs with maximum flexibility, performance and efficiency with work ranges spanning from 2200x2500x1200 mm3 up to 10000x3500x2000 mm3 and over. 

This range incorporates an automatic head changeover system and six interpolated axes making these machines highly flexible when performing milling, turning and vertical turning operations. When milling the entire work area is exploited in full. 
The 5-axis milling head - with continuous axis C rotation, axis A rotation up to 135° -  mounts spindles with a torque output of maximum 1300Nm and can be positioned at any angle and is locked in place by powerful hydraulic brakes.    Special heads are available for internal and external turning operations.

Machining and finishing precision is guaranteed thanks to the limited geometric tolerances, thermal stability and the implementation of a specific software for compensating  spindle thermal expansion and  drifts which occur when machining and production conditions vary. 

The range of electrospindles enhance the MAXIMA range of machining centres  satisfying specific  production requirements.  And more detail:  M 1000/06 (100 kW, continuous torque 1000 Nm  in S1 and rotary speed of up to 6000 rpm) has been designed and developed for heavy-duty machining operations for milling steel and superalloys from rough milling to precision finishing; M 300/14 (75 kW, continuous torque 300 Nm in S1 and 14000 rpm) is the ideal solution for steel and aluminium from rough milling to precision finishing operations; M 51/28 (40 kW, continuous torque 51 NM in S1 and 28000 rpm) is the perfect choice for high-speed machining operations for steel and light alloys from rough milling to precision finishing  operations.
 

Tuesday 5 October 2010

Breton technological innovations at BIMU Milan

Dear Customer,

Breton S.p.A. is pleased to invite you to the next BIMU exhibition in Milan, to present you the new range of products and solutions, developed to reach the top in high-speed precision machining. In particular, you will see the following machining centres:
Ultrix 1000 RT HD, highly automated high-speed machining centre with 5 axes, engineered for milling, turning and grinding operations on up-to-1200mm diameter pieces. This machining centre is equipped with a powerful 75kW, 300 Nm, 14.000 rpm/min spindle and with software for the cut of Klingenberg and Gleason bevel gears. This is Breton’s answer to the constant demand for quality and precision in high automation production systems for the machining of medium and small parts. Read more >>
Raptor 1200, the new range of machines, designed for milling operations on light alloys and composites. Read more >>

We will be waiting for you from October 5th to 9th at the Bimu exhibition in Milan, in Hall 9 Stand C16/D15.

Our best regards.

Breton SpA
Sales management 


Tuesday 14 September 2010

NEW LOOK


Nuovo Look!Concurrently with the opening of IMTS in Chicago, Breton's Machine Tool site is renewed.
 
New graphics, many information concerning the vertical high-speed machining centres, video clips, photogallery, tables and catalogues.

What are you wating for? ... visit our new site and tell us your opinion!

IMTS 2010  from 13 to 18 September 2010 – CHICAGO

Breton Booth #: S-9319

Friday 3 September 2010

Breton FLYMILL at IMTS 2010

 FLYMILL – A series of High speed vertical machining centres with 5 continuous axes, with the flexibility to perform a wide range of milling, drilling, boring and tapping operations on large and very large parts made of various grades of steel, aluminum, composite, and resin.
The Breton FLYMILL series consists of four models with Z axis 1000 mm (39,4”), 1300 mm (51.1”), 1600 mm (63”) and 2000 mm (78.7”).
All machines are offered with three different X axis capacities measuring 2.500mm (98.4”), 4.000mm (157.5”) and 3.500mm (137.8”), while standard Y axis travels start from 2.000 mm (78.7”) and are customized for special applications.
The large capacity worktable, the rigid structure and the wide working range are ideal for machining large single work pieces as well as cycle time sensitive production machining operations with working axes feed rates of 40 m/min (1,575 ipm), and rapid traverse to 60 m/min (2,360 ipm).
 The FLYMILL is equipped with a 40kW (53Hp) power continuous “C” axis Direct Drive head with rotation speeds of up to 100 rpm and “A” axis rotation of -105°/+ 120°, allowing this machine to perform dynamic and complex 3D and 5-axis machining  including complex undercuts, all without repositioning the work pieces.
The models available feature High-performance electrospindles with rotation speeds up to 40.000 rpm and continuous torque up to 100 Nm (73.7 ft.lb).
The FLYMILL can be configured with dust extraction systems, tool magazines from 30 to 150 tools, complete machine enclosure, laser probing, laser tool presetting, custom high pressure coolant solutions and can be outfit with custom engineered fixturing or complete turnkey solutions.

SEE THE BRETON FLYMILL AT:
IMTS 2010  from 13 to 18 September 2010 – CHICAGO
Breton Booth #: S-9319


Friday 30 July 2010

MAXIMA - Multipurpose Machining Centres for Milling and Turning Large Workpieces

Breton introduces the new MAXIMA range of multipurpose gantry machining centres, specially designed for the complete machining of mid-sized and large workpieces made of composite materials, resins, aluminium, steel and superalloys, particularly in the aerospace, energy, and transport sectors, that require both turning and milling.

These new machines available from Breton S.p.A. are powerful and dynamic thanks to their heavy-duty structure and turning and milling tables offering diameters up to 3.000 mm, torque up to 28.000 Nm and load capacities that can range as high as 12.000 kg.
MAXIMA's different models make it possible to carry out even the most demanding machining with top flexibility and operating efficiency, on machining ranges from 2.500x2.500x1.200 mm up to 8.500x3.500x2.000 mm and over.

MAXIMA centres also feature a rapid speed up to 60 m/min in the linear axes and a rotary speed up to 500 rpm.


An automatic system for head change, six interpolated axes and a design that allows using the work area to its full potential, help making this machine range extremely versatile. 
The 5-axes milling head with continuous C-axis rotation, A-axis rotation up to 135° and the usage of spindles providing a max. torque up to 1.300 Nm, enable its positioning without any angular limit, also thanks to high-powered hydraulic brakes. All this contributes further to increase MAXIMA’s power and versatility. In addition, special turning heads to perform both inside and outside turning are available.
For further productivity advantage, these centres can carry out turning, milling, drilling, tapping and grinding operations in just one setup.
The wide range of MAXIMA models ensure that even the most demanding and peculiar production requirements are met and exceeded.