Metro North Machine & Design Inc.
When Metro North Machine & Design Inc., North York, ON, had to purchase a machine to produce parts for the injection moulding industry with a long length-to-diameter ratio, Glen McMullin, president, knew he would need a sliding head style lathe, (Swiss style) that could accommodate long, slender parts and machine them quickly.
The machine tool he had in mind wasn’t readily available. His machine tool distributor, SMS Machine Tools, Toronto, offered him an alternative, the Hanwha XD 35H automatic lathe.“It has the same capabilities as the one we were considering, but it was an unknown. When we began to run with it, we were satisfied with the performance and the quality of it. It functioned exactly as the other machine would have. The Hanwha has a Fanuc control, so it’s familiar for our CNC people and the machine construction and workmanship is of high quality; all precision components and I could see that the builder hadn’t cut any corners in making the machine.”
McMullin purchased the first Hanwha two years ago and impressed with the performance, last year purchased a second Hanwha XD 35H lathe.
The seven-axis machines have two spindles that operate simultaneously (built-in motors on the main spindles, which run at 8000 rpm and sub spindles, which run at 7000 rpm) and can be equipped with live tooling. The main spindle features X, Y, Z and C xis motion and the sub-spindles has an X, Z and C axis. Maximum turning diameter in the main spindle is 35 mm and maximum chucking in the sub spindle is 35 mm.
McMullin says he’s impressed with the durability of the machines that routinely run 16 to 18 hours a day, usually six days a week. “We can run unattended for a few hours, when working on a known process.”
If business continues to improve, he says he’ll consider another sliding head lathe, but smaller capacity diameter-wise.
