Multi-function Machines Ease Creation of Precision Medical Instruments

Established in 1977, CNC Industries, a division of XL Engineering Corp., is a highprecision, 20person shop in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. While its parent company is diverse in its markets, CNC Industries has evolved from primarily a military subcontractor into its current model as a supplier of highpremium, productionrun medical instruments.

As its name implies, this shop focuses on CNC machining operations, mostly milling and turning. As Kurt Wendhack, general manager, explains, The majority of the work we do today is in stainless steel, primarily heattreated 174 ph. This particular grade of stainless has excellent strength and hardness combined with superior corrosion resistance, making it ideal for various medical, surgical and dental apparatus.

At the heart of this operation are three DMG TWIN Series dualspindle turning centers, used for multiple tasks, according to Wendhack. These turning centers are typically used for highlevel machining of bar, shaft and chuck work pieces, with a unique work area designed around the dualspindle configuration. With integrated drives on both the main and counter spindles, these TWIN Series turning centers provide indexing 12x servo turrets with 0.1second indexing, 1.0g acceleration, rapid traverse to 1181 ipm and 8000 rpm spindle speeds. The overall control is a Siemens SINUMERIK 840D Powerline CNC, used for axis movement and spindle movement. With a PCtype Windows operating system, the complex and powerful CNC is nonetheless easy to use and allows us to store our programs right in the machine hard drive, though we maintain backup files, as well, observes Wendhack.

He continues, Setups on a multifunction machine like the DMG TWIN 32 models we have at CNC Industries can be an arduous task. So a key part of our buying decision was the ease with which setup data could be input into the machines controller. The functionality of the 840D addressed this concern and made a significant impact on our buying decision.

The SINUMERIK 840D is a sophisticated CNC that offers a wide range of specialized functions for milling, drilling, turning, grinding and handling technologies. It provides users innovative features that increase productivity on the manufacturing floor, especially the challenging segments of highspeed and fiveaxis machining.

From the builders perspective, DMG uses various controls on its broad line of eight turning center families, though the vast majority utilize Siemens CNC units, some with the companys ShopMill and ShopTurn software packages. These complement the DMG suite of software programs, designed especially for the job shop sector, to provide faster programming, tool path simulation and machine kinematic data.

Bob Reed, the DMG area sales manager serving CNC Industries, comments, We had an ideal combination of machine, control and software to offer this customer. The materials they run, combined with their typical production quantities, translate into a real challenge for a machine tool builder. We needed to help them optimize their efficiency on the very first part, while providing ongoing flexibility to meet the variety of their workload. In the TWIN 32, with the Siemens CNC onboard, we are able to provide this customer the whole package.