Haas VF-7/50

For long steel parts that need real torque, the Haas VF-7/50 combines 84 in (2,134 mm) of X travel with a CT or BT 50 spindle driven through a 2-speed gearbox. Output is 340 ft-lbf (460 N·m) at 700 rpm and 30 hp (22.4 kW), with a ceiling of 7,500 rpm. Y travel is 32 in (813 mm) and Z is 30 in (762 mm).

Picture the typical job: a machine base, a press brake bed section, a long weldment that needs its mounting faces milled flat and its bolt patterns drilled and tapped. The 84 × 28 in (2,134 × 711 mm) table carries 4,000 lb (1,814 kg), and the 50-taper magazine accepts face mills up to 10 in (254 mm) across when the pockets either side are empty. Thrust along the long axis is 3,400 lbf (15,124 N); Y has 4,100 lbf (18,238 N) and Z has 5,600 lbf (24,910 N), so drilling and cross-feed milling have more push behind them than lengthwise passes.

Set beside its lighter-spindled counterpart, the difference is entirely at the spindle. The VF-7/40 reaches 8,100 rpm and 90 ft-lbf (122 N·m) at 2,000 rpm on the same table and travels, and ships at 25,600 lb (11,612 kg) where the VF-7/50 ships at 26,500 lb (12,021 kg). The gap in torque is large; the gap in top speed is small. Unless most of the work is small-tool machining in aluminium, the 50-taper version gives up little.

What it does give up is time at the tool changer, 4.2 s tool-to-tool and 6.3 s chip-to-chip, and it moves at 600 ipm (15.2 m/min) in rapid with feeds to 500 ipm (12.7 m/min). The starting price Haas publishes is US$224,995. The pallet it arrives on is 214 in long.