Companies can now enjoy the ultimate in production flexibility and productivity for both high volume and variable part manufacture with the Chiron Flexline 'diverse manufacturing' philosophy. With Flexline, any combination of three to eight Chiron FZ12S or FZ18S Magnum vertical machining centres are linked by a linear fixture carrying robot to gain all the benefits of a flexible transfer line and flexible manufacturing system or cell - but without the drawbacks.

Because each unit is essentially a standard Chiron vertical machining centre, the resulting system is not only easy to program and operate but it is also one of the most cost-effective, fastest and efficient manufacturing systems available, thanks to the machines' characteristic fast speed of operation and attractive prices.

For example, each FZ12S Magnum VMC used in Flexline has X, Y and Z axis travels of 550 mm x 300 mm x 425 mm, rapid traverse rates of 60 m/min and boast a tool change time of only 0.9 sec with chip-to-chip being 2.4 secs. Spindle speed up to 20,000 revs/min. The complementary robot workpiece carrying system operates at 250 m/min, feeding the machines' NC rotary table. It is this impressive specification - and that fact that all machining programs and tools are housed in the machines - that makes Flexline the ideal choice for producing complete families of parts in small or large batches either simultaneously or consecutively - in other words, diverse manufacture.

Workpieces are manually/ automatically clamped onto a fixture plate which has an HSK interface at its rear for location into the carrier robot, and subsequently into one of the individual VMCs. Larger components are handled using a trunnion fixture with two HSK locations.

With either system the workpiece can be manipulated under NC to machine four faces in a simple fourth axis rotary indexer, and any compound angle using a fifth axis tilt and rotary device. Compared to so-called flexible manufacturing systems, which feed single-spindle machines with complex and expensive multiple-nested tombstone fixtures, Flexline utilises a minimum number of simple pallets with the maximum number of production spindles.

And unlike special-purpose rotary or linear transfer machines, which are product specific, Flexline can accommodate product changes with ease, and dissimilar parts at the same time.

Flexline can be easily and quickly re-tooled and re-programmed. It all adds up to a level of production flexibility that enables users to achieve just-in-time production of single components or volume parts in the most cost-efficient manner and with high SPC accuracy.

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