Machining Center Turns, Mills, Drills on 5 ½ Sides of Workpiece

The Mikron Multistep XT-200 machines challenging workpieces in a single clamping operation and with a chip-to-chip time of less than 1 sec. According to the company, the machining center can be retooled in just a few minutes. As many as four machining spindles are always in simultaneous use, contributing to a lower cost per part for production machining of parts such as turbocharger casings and impellers, nozzle holders for common-rail injection systems, hydraulic pump housings, and heat sinks.

The Multistep XT-200 machining center combines the productivity of a transfer machine with the flexibility of a machining center. The system consists of a loading and unloading module and as many as four machining modules. The machining modules contain two working spindles, each of which can access a magazine disk with 18 tool slots. Workpieces with dimensions ranging to 200 × 200 × 200 mm can be machined on 5 ½ sides without the need for re-clamping, even when being transported between modules.

Depending on the variant, the machine tool can perform as many as 40 machining steps, such as turning, milling and drilling, including loading and unloading, in a fully automated process. A range of measuring and monitoring systems, the clamping device with Erowa interface, the rigid design and the stable B/C axis all promote maximum precision. The machining center is said to achieve tolerances of ±25 microns.