Sodick Releases HS430L High Precision High-Speed Mill

Sodick's HS430L high-speed mill has a 17-inch x 14-inch x 8-inch axis travel. The mill is designed and built for the precision machining of mold and dies. It can machine materials up to 70HRC with a 10RMS surface finish, which can eliminate or vastly reduce hand polishing. The HS430L is so precise it machined 110 Japanese characters onto a single grain of rice, the company said.

"The HS430L has a compact design requiring only a 6-feet x 9-feet floor space," said a spokesperson. "Its rigid structure uses high quality FC300 & FC500 sperodial castings. This material is known for its strength and its ability to resist temperature changes and provide excellent shock and vibration dampening characteristics. The castings have uniform soundness and fine dense grain structure resulting in machine rigidity.

"Sodick high-speed mills use linear motor designed axis drives. Linear motors have no moving parts (ball screws, ball nuts, rotary motor). Therefore, there no ball screw to heat up and expand and no backlash in the system. Linear motors are a non-contact system, provide high acceleration (1.2 G) and high axis speed (1,440-inch/min.). Unlike ball screw drives, linear motors eliminate backlash, are vibration-free and will last forever. Since high-speed mills take shallow cuts, it is a perfect fit for linear motor drives. All axis drives are coupled with 7-nanometer glass scale feedback, which ensures cutting accuracy and repeatability. The 40,000 RPM oil-air lubricated spindle is designed to run at a high RPM while maintaining rigidity without over heating. The HS430L uses shrinkfit tool holders. The shrink-fit type tool holders (HSK-E32) are heated until it expands enough for the tool to slide into the holder spindle. Upon cooling, the holder contracts around the tool. This method provides the most accurate fit for mills with spindles above 30,000 RPM.

"The machining center can support a workpiece weight up to 130 lbs. The HS430L LN2X CNC control has a large 15-inch touch screen LCD display. The 1,000 block look ahead feature ensures that the received data will be handled quickly and efficiently. Programs can be transferred via optional USB port or a high-speed 3mb/sec Ethernet connection. Sodick HS430L high-speed mill can reduce or eliminate secondary polishing operations by machining a 10RMS surface onto materials as hard as 52HRC.

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