Chiron high speed plus is a real winner on throughput times

With a spindle speed of 20,000 revs/min combined with traverses of 60 m/min and 1g acceleration in all axes, a Chiron FZ12W HS+ vertical machining centre is fast proving a real winner for British Flyreels by enabling the company to cut machining times by half!

With X, Y and Z axes of 550 mm by 300 mm by 425 mm, this is the first high-speed machine of its kind to be installed in the UK by Chiron Werke UK Ltd. And the Falmouth (Cornwall) based world-leading supplier to the angling industry describes the performance of the Chiron FZ12 HS+ as “superb”, according to production manager Stan Latosinski.

“Aluminium is the major material in our manufacturing programme,” he continues, “being used widely across all our reel designs for the main bodies and spools in both cast and bar stock forms. We needed a machine which would enable us to compete with the far eastern manufacturers, without resorting to sourcing from them.”

“Because we often remove as much as 95 per cent of the original billet in reel body manufacture, we needed a machine that could do that comfortably at high speed without creating burrs - which can be a problem when you're machining at any reasonable speed.”

“By halving our throughput times, the Chiron HS+ tackles the job superbly,” he adds.

Used in conjunction with special tooling and fixturing developed to British Flyreels' own designs, the machine selection process was based as much on supplier performance as it was on machine specification.

With four other Chiron VMCs in situ - all FZ12W - British Flyreels didn't have to go far to appreciate good back up from the machine supplier, comments Stan Latosinski.