<P>The installation of a Heckert HEC machining centre has given the Nuclear AMRC an unprecedented research platform for comparative milling, drilling and turning routines in a single set-up on a wide variety of test workpieces at the Sheffield-based site.Crucially, the machine has an integrated horizontal/vertical head (mechanically locked by a Hirth coupling). According to Nuclear AMRC head of machining and metrology Carl Hitchens, this multi-tasking ability will be put to full use in the centre’s research for improved efficiency and quality in exploratory machining experiments and the manufacture of test components for subsequent electron beam welding/weld preparation.</P>
<P>Supplied by Starrag UK - a Tier 1 partner with both the Nuclear AMRC and the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) with Boeing - the HEC 800 HV MT has a swing of 1,400 mm and axis strokes in X, Y and Z of 1,450 mm, 1,100 mm and 1,300 mm, respectively. It features a 65 m/min feed rate and rapid traverses.In addition, the main 30 kW spindle motor produces up to 6,000 rpm/min, and combined with a table loading capacity of 2,000 kgs on each of its twin pallets – these are balanced for turning operations at up to 500 rpm and complemented by automatic out-of-balance detection and weight-setting software.</P>
<P>Adds Hitchens: “Knowing that we have one, robust and accurate platform [positional accuracy is quoted as 0.006 mm] for a variety of machining tasks eliminates any positioning concerns about re-locating workpieces, safe in the knowledge that we can instigate a variety of strategies, in any order and in any orientation, from a known and precise location.
The machine, he adds, will be used “as a workhorse” on a range of heavy duty machining tasks by the 40-strong team of machining engineers and researchers at the Nuclear AMRC, which opened in 2011. It joins six other Starrag-supplied machines.</P>
