Haas VF-14/40

The Haas VF-14/40 is a 40-taper vertical machining center with 150 × 40 × 30 in (3,810 × 1,016 × 762 mm) of travel, an 8,100 rpm inline direct-drive spindle and a 30+1 side-mount tool changer. It is the VF-12/40 with Y travel extended from 32 in (813 mm) to 40 in. Haas lists a starting price of US$433,995.

That is a great deal of travel for a 30 hp (22.4 kW) spindle with 90 ft-lbf (122 N·m) at 2,000 rpm, and the combination shows what the machine is for. Large, light work: aluminium plate and panels, long tooling plates, plastic or composite sheet, patterns, big frames that need holes and pockets in many places. The spindle nose can sit from 4 in (102 mm) to 34 in (864 mm) above the table and tools can be 16 in (406 mm) long, so deep sections are reachable. Each tool is limited to 12 lb (5.4 kg), and to 2.5 in (64 mm) in diameter unless the adjacent pockets are empty, when 5 in (127 mm) fits.

The table itself stays at 150 × 28 in (3,810 × 711 mm). Y travel is therefore greater than the table depth, and wide parts overhang the table or sit on a sub-plate; both count against a 4,000 lb (1,814 kg) table load. For a wide aluminium plate that limit is rarely the constraint. For steel plate of the same size it can be. The VF-14/50, with 340 ft-lbf (460 N·m) at 700 rpm, carries the same 4,000 lb rating, so stepping up the spindle does not raise the weight the table accepts.

One row in Haas's table describes something the base machine does not have: an optional gearbox, giving 250 ft-lbf (339 N·m) at 450 rpm. Motion figures are 600 ipm (15.2 m/min) rapids on Y and Z but 360 ipm (9.1 m/min) on X, where the rapid and the maximum cutting feedrate are the same number. Tool changes take 2.8 s tool to tool and 3.6 s chip to chip. Thrust is 3,400 lbf (15,124 N) on X and Y and 5,600 lbf (24,910 N) on Z.