Lathe CNC Adds Features for Safety, Usability

Heidenhain has released upgrades to the CNC Pilot 640 lathe control. Most notably, a Turn Plus feature is now standard on new purchases, enabling the creation of a lathe program with the push of a button with up to 90-percent time savings, according to the company.

The control software also includes improvements such as added Functional Safety (FS) features and expansions that are said to provide the machine operator and the machine tool builder with more benefits.

The contouring control is designed for turning complex parts, as it combines simple operation with reliable, high-quality series production. It enables five-axis simultaneous machining and combined turn-mill operation. Additionally, it enables full-surface machining with B axis and counterspindle, as well as up to three channels for asynchronous multi-side machining.

Multi-touch operation enables swiping and zooming in and out, and high-resolution 3D simulation graphics have been added. Machining operations with one or several setups (multi-channel operation) can be programmed separately through structured programming. The maximum number of controlled axes and spindles has been increased to 24.

The control is available with two screen formats: 19" and 15.6" with up to 25 configurable fields. It also now works with the company’s display handwheels: the HR 520 FS and the HR 550 FS radio handwheel system. CFRCompactFlash memory cards and SIKs are also available.

For those interested in connected machining, the control can be incorporated into such systems by utilizing the Remote Desktop Manager and StateMonitor for capturing machining data.