Every two years the world’s largest machine tool show, EMO, is held in Europe. This year’s show was in Hannover and will truly go down as a huge success for the industry.
Every two years the world’s largest machine tool show, EMO, is held in Europe. This year’s show was in Hannover and will truly go down as a huge success for the industry.
For the turned parts industry, striking highlights of the show were definitely a push of more companies introducing larger capacity Swiss style, sliding headstock, machines with the versatility to use with or without a guide bushing. CNC equipment continues to be the dominate showing with no machine tool building bringing any of their traditional cam actuated equipment for display even though some of them continue to report strong sales in the cam multi category.
New models of CNC Multi-spindle screw machines were being introduced by virtually every manufacturer but the real head turner was the new Tornos Swiss Multi 6X14. Several aspects of the machine place it in unique category. First, it is a sliding headstock machine with six independent spindles on a six spindle carrier. Second, the carrier has no hirth coupling or shot pin – it is totally servo controlled, eliminating numerous mechanical components and saving process time. Lastly, it provide unequaled tooling access, hydrostatic spindles, and a closed channel integrated bar loader using half length bars. At an asking price of $800K, I predict that this machine will be a huge success and a machine other screw machine builders will emulate.
