Fanuc VMCs machining aerospace parts
The first UK installation of the high speed Fanuc F-Series vertical machining centres has gone directly into production of Airbus and Boeing aerospace components.
The first UK installation of the latest high speed Fanuc F-Series vertical machining centres (VMC) with 24,000 revs/min spindle, 54 m/min rapid traverse rates and 1.6 secs chip-to-chip toolchange has gone directly into production of Airbus and Boeing aerospace components at Protocon Engineering.
The T21iF machine joins three existing Fanuc machining centres and a Fanuc wire EDM – all supplied by 600 Centre of Shepshed near Loughborough.
Matthew Smith, director of family-owned Protocon Engineering, explains: “We are enjoying the highest order book ever in our 43-year history – and we are still being asked by customers to increase production further and provide shorter deliveries as well as tool up for new contracts. This is where the Fanuc machines are playing such a critical role.”
Matthew Smith reports that customers in the medical, MoD and motorsport sectors all seem to be busier than ever and are putting more work to capable subcontract companies: “We would really be under considerable pressure if we had not invested in the right equipment to produce the type of work now being presented to us.”
Matthew Smith and his father, managing director Geoff Smith, chose the latest Fanuc VMC based on their experiences over many years with the Fanuc machine range.
Protocon Engineering began life in 1964 as a prototype machinist under Matthew’s grandfather using manual equipment. It moved into pre-production work then eventually offered a full production turning, milling and drilling service with a very early Fanuc Drill Mate from 600 Group.
The Drill Mate’s reputation of being a workhorse led Protocon to install a Fanuc Robodrill T10A through 600 Centre, which was eventually traded-in for a much improved performance Fanuc T14iB VMC. Over the last few years, two further Fanuc T21iD VMCs have been installed alongside the T14 to create a bank of machining centres characterised by quick cycling as well as common setting, tooling, programming and operation.
With a total of 18 CNC machines in the 5000 sq.ft. premises, Matthew Smith maintains he always checks out competitor specifications and prices, but such has been the positive feedback from the Fanuc installations that it would take a major discrepancy to direct Protocon to another supplier. “The on-going support received from 600 Centre also makes us reluctant to change our source for milling and drilling capacity,” he maintains.
Protocon’s capability has been well-rewarded with both civil and military aerospace contracts including a wide range of small components for Airbus A320 and A380, Boeing 777 and C17, Typhoon and F22. In the past, the company has also supplied Nimrod, Jaguar and Tornado plus several helicopter projects.
Typical components include items for fuel management, power generation, fly-by-wire control, relays and actuators that demand strict attention to tolerance, geometry and surface finish, and they reflect Geoff Smith’s ‘roots’ as an apprentice in an aerospace systems company.
Protocon's prototype-to-production capability has led the business into the medical sector for components used in drug testing devices, computerised medical trolleys, fibroscopes and endoscopes as well as parts for the MoD and motorsport – thus reducing risk and total dependence on one sector. A wide spread of ferrous and non-ferrous materials – including aluminium, various alloys and stainless steels, Titanium, brass, copper, nylon, phosphor bronze, nickel iron and nickel silver as well as the occasional difficult to machine Inconel - are machined in batches that range from 50 to over 1100 parts a week through the Fanuc machines.
Most of the materials are processed on the Fanuc machines, and Matthew Smith quotes the recent machining of a part from a solid Inconel billet that was extremely complex involving very detailed milling and drilling. “The material was very difficult,” he maintains, “and certainly brought all our toolroom skills into the production equation. We were not hogging out material, rather it was a delicate process involving small tools but here the Fanuc T21iF was able to maintain the five micron tolerance on one particular feature right across the batch.”
The Fanuc T21iF has a working volume of 500 m/min in X by 300 mm in Y and 330 mm in Z and incorporates thermal displacement compensation in each axis to provide the advantage of an enhanced repeatability and accuracy over long periods of production.
The high speed 24,000 revs/min spindle provides the capability to increase feed rates above the D-Series machines and effectively use small milling cutters and drills to advantage on the typical fine detail demanded by many of the parts produced. The new machine is already proving highly productive, with its 54 m/min rapid traverse rates reached with an acceleration of 1.5g. When this high speed positioning capability is coupled with a 1.6 sec cut-to-cut tool exchange,very competitive cycle times are produced.
Adds Matthew Smith: “Once we start downloading programs that have been used on the other machines for repeat orders, we expect to achieve quite significant savings on cycle times and especially reap benefit from the new processor in the Fanuc Series 31i-A5 control system. The ability to switch programs and tooling between the VMCs is important to Protocon because it leaves the GibbsCAM offline programming system to be used on new work in support of the Fanucs and other CNC lathes in use. However, the Fanuc wire EDM is always programmed at the control due to the ease of the system in its role in producing an aerospace component such as a stainless steel fuel pump impeller, with up to eight vanes that are wired from solid."
