Chiron's turbocharged cycle time savings at Holset Engineering
The ability of Chiron vertical machining centres to achieve massive reductions in turbocharger bearing housing cycle times at Holset Engineering has led to further expansion of the Chiron VMC-based manufacturing cells at the company's Huddersfield plant.
With two existing cells based on FZ18W Magnums - which have X, Y and Z axes travels of 630 mm by 400 mm by 425 mm and spindle speeds up to 20,000 revs/min - Holset has witnessed "considerable cycle time gains over traditional manufacturing routes", says production engineer Ken Battye.
"Following the success of the first Chiron cell as a replacement for rotary transfer machining, the second Magnum emphasised how we were gaining cycle time reductions of at least 40 per cent," he comments.
The cast iron bearing housings require a series of drilling and tapping routines plus a small amount of milling, and are machined in batches of between 10- to 250-off. Each cell is dedicated to a particular variation of housing.
Now, with the increased worldwide success of the product - which is mainly supplied by Holset to its parent Cummins Engines Group as well as other OEMs - Holset has another Chiron Magnum on order.