A typical application for our FLEXcnc controller is it’s use to control this engine-type lathe which was converted from a manual machine to a CNC controlled machine.

The primary use of the machine is to produce short-run, turned parts for a manufacturer of heavy-duty farm equipment. The cost justification for the project was that it was a smaller & more secure investment to convert a lathe to automatic operation than the alternative of hiring two additional employees to operate additional manual machines.

The machine is especially useful where a combination of both standard turning & milling work is required for a part because of the implementation of a servoed spindle, using a Flux-vector drive on the existing main motor. The operator mounts an air motor on the tool-post when needed to provide side-drilling & low-precision milling of “flats” The availability of full CNC functionality in the controller allows operators to perform any work this shop may require.

The machine frame was constructed using standard, available castings. Standard ball screws were installed & standard PMDC servo motors & drives were used in 2-axes of motion. A 5hp induction motor with FB encoder & a standard Flux-vector drive were installed for the spindle. Our FLEXcnc controller was used with FLEXcam software running in the Front-end computer & FLEXcnc-T firmware controlling the machine.

More Details in PDF

file name?