Always striving for continuous improvement to better serve the Southeastern United States, and beyond, Horton Machine & Custom Design continues to invest in, and update, their world-class inventory of precision machine tools to further enhance their large part machining capabilities with the latest addition to their machine inventory — the HNK-HB-150X horizontal boring and milling machine.
The HNK HB-150X CNC horizontal boring and milling machine is a very precise yet robust machine providing superior rigidity for heavy duty machining demands. It comes with the FANUC 31iB Control system and all the standard accessories one would expect of such a desirable machine.
Some particular noteworthy features of this machine are as follows:
| HNK HB-150X CNC | |
| 5.9” | Spindle Diameter |
| 157” | X-Axis Travel |
| 98” | Y-Axis Travel |
| 78” | Z-Axis Travel |
| 27.6” | W-Axis Travel |
| 78.7”X 86.6” | Table Size |
| 44,000 Lbs. | Rated Table Capacity |
The HNK HB-150X is not only equipped with all of the standard options; it also has number of desirable optional accessories as-well. Several of these deserve additional attention. They are as follows:
Big Plus Spindle
Horton Machine specified Big Plus tooling system given the advantages it offers. The Cat 50 Tooling system provides simultaneous contact of the face with the tapered seat contact
Big Plus system uses simultaneous face and taper contact to combat spindle bell-mouthing at high speeds. The dual surface contact (of taper and face) provided by this tooling system is without equal in stabilizing and maintaining Z-Axis accuracy.” In addition, the BIG PLUS, Cat 50 tooling, helps with the following:
- Significantly reducing and eliminating vibration commonly associated with heavy or high speed cutting operations
- Significantly helps at high spindle speeds in stabilizing and countering the effects associated with centrifugal force and heat encountered
Blum Probe System
Benefits of component set-up
Probing eliminates the need for expensive fixtures and manual setting with dial indicators. Probes are spindle-mounted on machining centers and turret-mounted on turning centers, giving the following benefits:
- Reduced machine downtime.
- Automatic fixture, job alignment and rotary axis set-up.
- Manual setting errors eliminated.
- Reduced scrap.
- Increased productivity and batch-size flexibility.
Benefits of On-Machine Inspection
Spindle and turret-mounted probes can also be used for in-cycle gauging and first-off inspection. Manual gauging relies on operator skill or the removal of parts to a CMM, which is not always practical. The benefits of inspection probing include:
- In-cycle part measurement with automatic offset correction.
- Increased confidence in unmanned machining.
- Adaptive machining, providing process feedback to minimize variation.
- First-off inspection with automatic offset update.
- Reduced machine downtime awaiting first-off inspection results.
230 PSI Thru Spindle Coolant
Improved coolant flow through the spindle, and tooling, during cutting operations offers a number of advantages. They include but are not limited to the following:
- Improved chip control and expulsion of chips from cutting area.
- Quicker quenching of chips results in smaller chips allowing them to be flushed away more quickly so they aren’t machined again.
- More efficient cutting, by reducing the numbers of times chips are re-cut, contributes significantly to increased tool life and improved surface finishes and better control of tolerances.
- These benefits all combined contribute to increased speeds and feeds allowing better performance thus improving quality conformance and resulting in better overall parts and tolerance control.
The added options of this machine, as impressive as they are individually – and even mightier when coupled together as a system, are further enhance when coupled with the Gibbs Cam and SolidWorks systems. The end result allows Horton Machine to produce the highest quality work for their customers while providing it to them in the most time and cost efficient manner they can provide.
