TechFront New Developments in Manufacturing and Technology Productivity Centers with Pallet Transfer, ATC T
he ICON-150 and ICON-250 flexible multiple-station machines from ICON Technologies, a Division of Hydromat Inc. (St. Louis), offer precision machining capability for a wide variety of workpieces from automotive to medical components. “The idea of the ICON flexible series of machines is to offer a cost-competitive precision machining solution with easier changeovers on the lower-volume-type products compared with traditional special purpose dial machines,” said Rodger Boswell, vice president of sales. “Changeover for the traditional dial machines involves difficulties refixturing and longer set- ups with manual mechanical settings, hard stops, and valve adjustments compared with the series of ICON machine technology.” The machines are a differ- ent breed, which is highlighted in the careful attention to naming the machines and the division, ICON and ICON Technologies, to distinguish them from the iconic Hydromat name. The series is available in two versions, the ICON 6-150 mill-turn machine for parts 6" (150-mm) cube or smaller
and the ICON 6-250 for workpieces 10" (250-mm) cube and smaller. The 150 series is also available in eight-station ver- sions. Each machining station is equipped with four-axis ma- chining modules with cartridge-style motor spindles available between 10,000 and 60,000 rpm depending on machine type and the application. Each machining module is equipped with its own 12-position automatic toolchanger for a possible total of 96 tools available on a fully equipped Icon 6-250/8. Each 6-150 or 6-250 machine has four CNC rotary tables installed on stations 2, 3, 5, & 6 with position accuracy of ±4 seconds. Each table is equipped with an Erowa zero-point clamping system to securely and accurately clamp the base pallet to the table with pallet positional repeatability of less than 0.002 mm. Workpieces are secured to the pallets using
standard or custom workholding that bolts on to the modular pallet systems. “Once the workpieces are secured to the pal- lets, either externally to the machine or internally on station #1, the loading station, they are transferred to five other sta- tions for cutting or auxiliary operations. With processes spread over four cutting stations, cycle times are greatly reduced, yielding higher productivity in a smaller footprint over other multiple stand-alone machining cells,” said Boswell.
ICON 6-150 multiple-station flexible productivity centers feature integrated Erowa pallet transfer workholding system that presents the workpiece to four-axis machining modules.
Pallet transfer with the Erowa integrated pallet transfer workholding system presents the workpiece in front of stan- dard four-axis machining modules. The heavy-duty integrated electromechanical pallet-changing system lifts, rotates, and places all size pallets and workpieces to the next station in 3.5 seconds for the ICON 6-150 and 4.5 seconds for the ICON 6-250. Maximum pallet payload is 55 lb (25 kg) for the 150 and 200 lb (90 kg) for the 250. “Target workpieces for the 6-150 mill-turn are parts that are typically produced on single-spindle Swiss machines,” said Boswell. “An ICON equipped with a 60,000-rpm spindle would easily produce products like the most delicate medical devices burr-free, eliminating the need for costly secondary operations in most cases. All spindles are a
June 2013 |
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