like almost any CNC lathe

Specializing in R&D work for the fusion research program worldwide, the Special Purposes Workshop provides the machining expertise for the UKAEA (Fusion) Special Techniques Group based at the Culham Science Center near Abingdon. Gordon Harrison is the manager of the Special Purposes Workshop. "Promtech had previously undertaken two Bridgeport Interact CNC Vertical Lathe with Heidenhain controls both with four axis capability, "Mr. Harrison says. "This gave us the confidence in its ability to undertake the work on the BOKO that has now returned the machine to as good as new' condition with the retrofit, adding more flexibility in the type of work undertaken on the machine. This helps us to be competitive in bidding for work in our specialist field. "Now, the upgraded machines run more productively. The underlying lathes were all over ten years old. With the newer, more rigid axis drives, the machines cut accurately at higher speeds and feedrates than the previous drives would permit. At the same time, there is now far less time lost to manual toolchanges. The retrofit kit includes a gang tooling system allowing the machine to employ several tools in one cycle, like almost any CNC lathe. And because the machines are now Vertical Lathe, they deliver these performance gains regardless of the skill level of the operator. The retrofitted machines also improve the efficiency of the shop's process overall. A part featuring a surface finish requirement of 15 microinches illustrates this. Using the manual machines, the shop couldn't hold this finish consistently, so bench work was needed. But since the retrofit, "those parts come off of the lathes smooth enough to ship, " Mr. Reed says. Benching has been eliminated. For other parts, savings come from eliminating expensive time on more costly machines. Like many automatic machining contractors, Mansfield Screw Machine uses CNC equipment for secondary operations. However, to provide customers with just in time delivery, this shop routinely runs blanks in large volumes on the automatic machines, then performs the CNC machining in small batches, to complete the parts only as the customer needs them. But now there is an alternative to higher end CNC equipment for some of this work.