Hydrafeed Extends Barfeed Range for Large Bar Production
30 March 2015
When Hydrafeed launched its new line of MSV short magazine barfeed systems at MACH 2014, the company couldn't have envisaged the success of the 65 and 80mm capacity units. The exceptional sales of the high quality barfeed units has now led the Milton Keynes manufacturer to extend the range by offering an 110mm capacity MSV110 barfeed for feeding turning centres with large diameter bars.
Like the smaller MSV65 and MSV80, the new MSV110 is a full servo-driven barfeed system that eliminates the need for compressed air by utilising servo technology that is unrivalled for performance and accuracy. It incorporates a wealth of technology as standard that can only be found as optional extras with alternate systems. As standard, the MSV110 offers complete servo control on all axes with precision ground servo driven ball screws. These precision ground ball screws utilise the same technology that is incorporated into high-end machine tools, ensuring that Hydrafeed's new system can guarantee a bar positional accuracy of 0.1mm, far beyond anything else available on the market. To support the robust nature of pushing large and heavy bar into the turning centre, Hydrafeed has created particularly large and robust ballscrews for the new MSV110.
Commenting upon the introduction of an 110mm barfeed, Hydrafeed's Managing Director, Mt Martyn Page comments: "We worked tirelessly on the smaller MSV65 and MSV80 barfeed units to ensure Hydrafeed has the most productive, precise and user friendly barfeed solution available. With such a high quality barfeed that has proven a resounding success since the 2014 market introduction, we wanted to extend this offering to manufacturers turning larger parts on more robust machine tools."
The introduction of the MSV110 has a standard bar diameter range of 8mm to 110mm with the capacity for bar lengths from 200 to 1650mm with bespoke solutions available to suit the individual customer. Additional standard features on the MSV110 include bar length measurement with the ability to accept random bar lengths, a barfeed or shaft loading system, a push-rod backstop facility and a user friendly HMI screen to display the 100 part program storage system.
The new bar loading mechanism ensures the bars are 'soft' loaded from the storage magazine onto the rollers to provide minimum friction as well as the ability to load irregularly shaped bars or bars with a rough surface finish. This mechanism prolongs the service life of the MSV110 whilst giving the end user greater flexibility in the type of bars that are loaded. The new barfeed is operated via the HMI screen that accepts all values and stores production information, so changeover times are literally a case of keying in alternative bar diameters.
This intuitive system has been designed with the end user in mind, delivering ease of use and simplifying and reducing the time of the changeover and set-up processes. Further simplifying the set-up process, the MSV110 is fixed to a floor mounted sliding rail. Once the MSV110 has been moved from the home position, the turning centre can be accessed safely, efficiently and quickly thereby further reducing the set-up times for the end user.
With a height range of between 860 to 1300mm, the MSV110 has an overall weight of 650kg, which demonstrates its robust and rigid build quality. The compact overall length of 2180mm with a depth of 1250mm enables the MSV110 to fit into the most compact of machine shop environments to deliver a robust and extremely accurate barfeeding solution that will enable customers to improve the quality and surface finishes of their components by eliminating vibration and bar movement.