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think in the machining side of TFT," says Cory Mack, production supervisor. Beyond Turn-Mill Most recently, TFT began using a simultaneous fve- axis turn-mill that has allowed the company to further reduce cycle times for key parts, which it never could have imagined—despite the company's experience with top turn- mills. Te result has been improved part quality, even less processing time per fnished part, and expanded production capacity in the already well-equipped shop. Tere are not only one, but two Index R300 fve-axis turn-mills at TFT. Te machine uses two independent fve- axis subsystems, each with one motorized milling spindle and one assigned work spindle, and is able to completely machine complex parts, short bars as long as 102 mm and chucking as large as 315 mm in diameter, simultane- ously. Te machine is geared toward applications where large chuck parts require a lot of milling and drilling work, such as farm machinery and machine construction, in toolmaking, moldmaking or in the aerospace industry. From simple to highly complex components, the main beneft is that the complex machining operations are possible simultaneously on the front and rear side, and, at the same time, are highly productive with the two motor- ized milling spindles. Te R300 is also capable of hobbing or deep-hole drilling with single-lip tools and high pressure coolant to 80 bar to the tool edge through the motorized milling spindle. Many Tools Shorten Processing Times TFT can carry out full backworking as well as parallel machining with identical sequences. Both heavy-duty roughing operations and fne-turning operations can be completed simultaneously on the main spindle and counterspindle. A large-capacity toolchanger (as much as 140 tools in the double-chain magazine) ensure short setup times even for small batches. Te tool storage capacity also allows TFT to store enough tools for complete processing of several diferent parts. Change-over is only a matter of choosing the program. "Te 12 stationary tools on the tool strips of both milling spindles bring the total number of tools to 152 tools available for a virtually unlim- ited range of operations and machining fexibility," :: TFT's Blitzfre XX600 aluminum has been used to help hone the company's multitasking skills across various machine platforms. The Index turn-mill that the part is now machined on has performed best in terms of cycle time, quality and programmability. :: Cory Mack (right) is the production supervisor at TFT. Brandon Marcotte operates and programs the company's multitasking machines. Multiple Ops on One Machine productionmachining.com :: 35