MACH 2010 – NEC BIRMINGHAM – 7-11 JUNE 2010

Hall: 5 Stand: 5450

NEW VERSION OF WORLD’S TOP-SELLING L-SERIES CITIZEN LAUNCHED AT MACH WITH UP TO 32 TOOLS

It needed highly innovative solutions from Citizen’s development engineers to improve the flexibility for setting, achieve higher productivity through control and software development and introduce the ability to carry additional tools while enhancing the level of higher performance to cost ratio on the world’s most popular CNC sliding head turn-mill centre – the Citizen L-Series.

The first of the ‘best of breed’ will be shown at MACH 2010 by Citizen Machinery UK of Watford in the guise of Citizen L20E (E for Evolution). It breaks new ground in combining enhanced mechanical and innovative electronics and software to achieve a totally new capability in short cycle machining and has the capacity to hold up to 32 tools.

The L-Series follows the trend set by Citizen in the K- and A-Series to eliminate losses due to idle time in a machining cycle and such has been the achievement, that on production trials of various components typical idle time reduction against the previous generations has averaged 35 per cent and in some cases up to 60 per cent.

The new L20E has a 20 mm capacity by 200 mm machining length, has a 3.7 kW, 10,000 revs/min main and 1.5 kW, 8,000 revs/min subspindle. It has the capability to carry up to 32 tools of which 22 can be driven by 1 kW, 50,000 revs/min motors. The rapid traverse rate is now 32 m/min in each axis which has proven to be significant in the success of the Citizen A-Series machine.

Important features that are major contributors to minimise losses due to non-cutting actions revolve around the new CNC control that employs the latest version of the popular ‘Streamline’ dynamic software developed by Citizen. Streamline control enables independent management of the two-axis ganged rotary tool post, opposed tool holder and back rotary tool holder to emphasise the advantage of overlapped movements such as driving the next tool into position as the previous tool retracts. Direct spindle indexing eliminates any designated steps to stop, reference and index the spindle with significant improvements in acceleration and deceleration.

Greater flexibility for setting will provide an important contribution to raise machine utilisation and satisfy the trend to smaller batch sizes and the worldwide drive to produce a component from bar in a single cost-effective cycle. The increased versatility of the Citizen L-Series means it can be specified with a bias towards turning, cross-drilling or a greater need for face working. There is a complete portfolio of different toolholder combinations that can now be added to customise or increase the inherent operational flexibility for single-hit machining cycles.

Through the addition of a back driven tool unit, four positions are available to accept static or driven tools or carry a back slitting spindle. This unit can be indexed 90 deg to provide back cross drilling. There is a front three position toolholder able to carry deep hole drills up to 100 mm long and a three tool front holder that can be positioned for cross or end face machining. A front triple tool and back end face dilling/milling spindle able to hold two tools is available and a two tool drill/mill spindle for front and back machining. As a result, off-centre features can be produced simultaneously on both front and back end faces.

In addition, a fully integrated workpiece collection system able to accommodate longer workpieces with conveyor can be specified to assist unmanned or limited manning operational scenarios.