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Lehmann Rotary Table provides ‘Astronomical’ Advantage

15.07.2021

A recently installed pL LEHMANN CNC rotary table is enabling a Bostomatic high speed milling machine belonging to Thomas Keating Toolmaking Ltd to perform highly efficient 5-axis machining.

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Located in Billingshurst, West Sussex, Thomas Keating Toolmaking Ltd can trace its roots back to the mid-18th Century. The company’s remarkable longevity and enduring success can be attributed to the business’ innate ability to continually adapt to the times it operates in. Never has this family business better demonstrated its capacity to change and to meet contemporary needs, than under the current leadership of the fourth generation of the Wylde family, Managing Director, Dr Richard Wylde FREng. 

2T1-507510.LL TAP1 rotary table from pL LEHMANN. 

Building on its 75 years of in-depth experience in the production of precision toolmaking, over recent years the ISO 9001:2015 registered business has made substantial investments in advanced CNC machine tools and significantly expanded its capabilities. 

In addition to serving a wide range of demanding industries, including the medical, aerospace and motorsport sectors, the company is also a specialist designer and manufacturer of scientific ground and satellite based THZ instruments.

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Due the demanding nature of the machining undertaken when manufacturing scientific instruments, rather than invest in a 5-axis machine tool, the company recently took a more ‘bespoke’ route. Having decided that a pre-owned, 3-axis Bostomatic milling machine had the ideal, stable machine structure to support the company’s challenging 5-axis work, the machine was comprehensively re-built and fitted with a Heidenhain TNC640 5-axis controller by ACC Systems Ltd. To complete the Bostomatic’s conversion to 5-axis work, company Managing Director, Dr Richard Wylde searched for a suitably accurate and flexible CNC rotary table. The answer was found in an advanced pL LEHMANN T1-507510.LL TAP1 model.

Dr Wylde explained. «The combination of our first-class tool making skills, high-quality machine tools and software, together with our physics-based intellectual property, allows us to serve a relatively small but world-wide scientific instrument market. Reflecting our ability to compete with much larger high-tech businesses around the world, in 2012 we won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for International Trade.» 

«We are constantly searching for ways to improve our capabilities, hence the recent Bostomatic machine tool, Heidenhain control and Lehmann rotary table purchase. When judged against the alternatives that I considered, the pL LEHMANN T1-507510.LL TAP1 rotary table best met our exacting technical criteria and also represented excellent value for money. Now installed in our re-built Bostomatic machine, it is in daily use and is helping us to perform exceptionally accurate and highly efficient 5-axis machining.»

«In addition to the advantages the rotary table has provided to our tool making activities, it has proven extremely useful when we manufacture our high-precision scientific instruments. For example, we are currently involved in the production of the next generation of satellite-based weather prediction instruments. The precision 3+2 axes capabilities provided by our Lehmann rotary table have been invaluable when undertaking this challenging work.»

«Equally, when recently manufacturing thin, metal film coated dielectric mirrors for use in Dynamic Nuclear Polarization instruments, the use of our new rotary table enabled our complex 5-axis machining tasks to be performed with ease. In addition to delivering 5-axis capabilities our new Lehmann rotary table has considerably increased our manufacturing speeds.»

«So successful has our use of a Lehmann rotary table been when used in our Bostomatic machine tool, we are currently in the process of purchasing another Bostomatic machine that will be fitted with a second Lehmann rotary table.»

t is estimated that 90% of machining procedures carried out by 5-axis machining centres are basic five-sided processes. Therefore, the fitting of a CNC rotary table, that costs a fraction of the price of a 5-axis machining centre, to an existing 3-axis VMC, represents an excellent alternative way of achieving 5-axis capabilities. It also results in a rapid ROI.

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pL LEHMANN’s advanced CNC rotary tables are based on an ingenious modular design concept that enables a range of high-quality standard components to be used to produce a comprehensive series of product variants. Each of the company’s rotary tables can be further refined according to customers’ specific needs. This innovative approach provides pL LEHMANN’s customers with several major advantages. For example, rather than accept a ‘nearest-fit’ rotary table solution, pL LEHMANN’s customers are able to receive a CNC rotary table that exactly matches its intended use. In addition, efficiencies gained by pL LEHMANN’s modular approach allows the delivery of Swiss quality products at affordable prices. 

The advanced designs and relatively small footprints of pL LEHMANN’s rotary tables ensures that, when installed in VMCs, such as Thomas Keating Toolmaking’s Bostomatic machine, they occupy minimum bed areas. As well as freeing-up room for the fitting of additional vices and other workholding devices, the space-efficient nature of the rotary tables means that, when a VMC is not undertaking 3+2 axis work, they are able to remain inside the machine when 3-axis machining is being performed. Furthermore, the compact size of pL LEHMANN’s CNC rotary tables helps to take full advantage of the available working volumes of the machine tools that they are fitted to. 

pL LEHMANN’s heavy-duty rotary tables have earned a global reputation for their outstanding quality and longevity. The company’s robust products benefit from excellent clamping torque, load weight and accuracy specifications. In addition, pL LEHMANN CNC rotary tables are able to interface with the vast majority control systems.

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For more information, please visit www.lehmann-rotary-tables.com

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