Hedelius FORTE 7-3600 NEO

At 3,600 mm (141.7 in) the Hedelius FORTE 7-3600 NEO has the longest X travel of the FORTE 7 NEO series. It is a 3-axis travelling column machining centre with a fixed 4,080 x 700 mm table that carries 3,000 kg (6,614 lb), 700 mm of Y travel and 800 mm of Z.

Length is easy to add to a machine and hard to keep fast. Hedelius addresses that with a travelling column on a bottom-mounted cast iron bridge, and quotes rapid motions and feeds of up to 40 m/min for it. The feed force is 25,000 N at most, and positioning accuracy is stated as A=6 µm/1,000 mm to ISO 230-2, in other words per metre of travel and not over the full axis.

A table this long is seldom filled by one part. More often it holds several set-ups in a row, or it is run in oscillating mode, which Hedelius lists for this model as a way to reduce downtimes in series production. The tool magazine with 45 pockets moves with the column, so the spindle never has to return to one end of the machine for a tool. That matters more here than on the shorter models. Chip-to-chip time is ca. 10.5 s.

Hedelius describes the spindles as liquid-cooled motor spindles with speeds of up to 18,000 rpm and outputs of up to 35 kW. In detail the data sheet lists SK40 / BT40 at 14,000 rpm with 117 Nm and 22 kW or 183 Nm and 29 kW, and HSK A63 at 18,000 rpm with 136 Nm. The machine weighs 14,700 kg (32,407 lb).