in May 2024. This investment was triggered by a complex component for a plastics recycling machine that requires turning and milling, and numerous holes have to be drilled at different angles. In this recycling plant, the used plastics are heated to around 400 degrees after shredding. A spindle presses the liquefied mass through a plate with tens of thousands of holes about 0.2mm in diameter, which retains contaminants. A permanently rotating scraper disc removes these. The cleaned plastic flows to a cooling station and is cut into pellets. Neuson Hydrotec manufactures the housing for this laser filter. It contains intricate contours and numerous channels through which the contaminated and cleaned plastic first flows.“ One hole runs through the entire component, and other channels meet at a certain angle,” says Karl Kordik.
High precision is required for fluidic reasons where the channels must not be offset when they meet.“ We manage this because we achieve a positioning accuracy per hole of less than 0.03mm,” adds Kordik.“ Although that doesn’ t sound particularly difficult, the value corresponds to only a few μm per axis if the holes are drilled at 45 degrees.”
Complete machining saves non-productive time
Until recently, the contract manufacturers were producing this housing on a vertical turning and boring mill and a three-axis milling machine, in seven clamping positions. When the customer ordered significantly larger quantities, Neuson
Hydrotec decided to modernise production to reduce manufacturing times. The solution pursued was complete machining on a 5-axis machining centre with a turning function.
There were several reasons why the decision was made in favour of the HEC 800 5X MT. According to Kordik, one crucial factor was that the HEC 800 allows the component to
be clamped vertically:“ These components can only be clamped on a horizontal turning and milling centre with great difficulty. Fast, automated workpiece replacement is even more difficult. The HEC 800 has a standard dual pallet changer, enabling setup parallel to the primary processing time.”
Bed extension for deep holes
On the HEC 800 5X, the 5th axis is located in the workpiece, not the tool.“ That saves us from having to reclamp,” says Kordik. Ultimately, however, the decisive factor was the possibility of obtaining a bed extension along the Z-axis and an extended Y-axis. Kordik describes the background:“ We want to clamp components with a length of 1.1m and drill through them. The standard Z-axis path of 1.3m is insufficient for this.” Starrag supplied the HEC 800
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