3-axis machining centre | LF Technologies

Customer

Materials

Our client is a large manufacturer of openings for the building industry.

Manufactured product

Aluminium or plastic profiles (door frames and thresholds)

The door frame is the frame of the door that is fixed to the wall to support the door leaf. A door sill is the bottom rail of the door frame, whose purpose is to protect the interior of a room from outside infiltration.

Objective

To carry out automatic machining of holes and milling on profiles (door frames and sills).

Problematic issues

To produce a 3-axis machining centre that is very simple to program and use, easily controlled by all types of operator, including non-machinists.

The machine must be designed to limit all idle times (tool change, workpiece clamping, etc.)

Solution and result

The technical solution provided by the LF Technologies teams was to develop a machining centre consisting of several removable spindles, each with a different tool for machining, in order to drill holes of different diameters adapted to each profile, without changing tools.

The profile to be machined is placed manually on a removable support, equipped with a precise positioning device and an automatic locking system controlled by the operator. The machine is equipped with an optical sensor that allows the machining programs to be automatically aligned with the end of the profile.

The machine is also equipped with a numerical control in 3 axes (X, Y and Z) which carry out 3 movements:

The profile is attached to a carriage moving on a double rail support for a 3m stroke, this movement is applied by a ball screw with a rotating nut (X axis) ;
A fixed frame, located at mid-length, accommodates a rigid frame with vertical plane and horizontal movement. This frame slides on two precision linear guides and is driven by a horizontal axis ball screw (Z axis);
Another frame with vertical plane and vertical movement slides on the previous frame with horizontal movement. It is driven by two synchronised ball screws with vertical axis (Y axis).

Depending on the application programmed by the operator, the electrospindle machines the aluminium profile, with the possibility of X, Y, Z movements. The machining centre is equipped with 2 software programs that indicate the position of the tools in X, Y, Z, and that also allow the storage of an unlimited number of machining programs. This programming software is very easy to use and intuitive, as requested by the customer.