SUPPLY SIDE SODICK EUROPE PLANS FOR THE FUTURE
low single-digit
micron levels,
temperature drift isn’t
acceptable. Quite simply,
the company will be able to
demonstrate locally the machining
capability that it previously had to call on
Japan to produce. Capp again: “If we’re
cutting parts to two microns, there’s no
point in doing that if we’re in the middle of a
factory, so the showroom here is plus or
minus one degree. This will help us service
another market, where the only way we
could have done so before was to send that
part to Japan, have it cut, returned and then
shown to customers. We don’t do that
anymore. We invite customers here and
show them rst-hand. We have cut parts to
plus or minus two micron in the showroom.”
This has allowed the company to bring in
machines that it simply couldn’t before,
because their accuracy couldn’t be fully
demonstrated. The ALC400P super-accurate
wire EDM, speci cally, and which got its
European premier at last September’s EMO
exhibition held in Hanover.
EDM is Sodick’s lead technology, but it
additionally manufactures machining
centres, hybrid additive manufacturing/
milling and injection moulding machinery.
But when it does make other machines,
these are not for run-of-the-mill applications;
top level, highest precision machining is
where these are pitched. And the new
showroom allows this other technology to be
demonstrated to best effect, too.
Speci cally, the ultra-high-speed milling
machine UH650L and the MS100 injection
moulding machine, both again receiving their
European debuts at EMO last September.
The UH650L is a 620, 500, 300 mm (X, Y,
Z) travel machine that boasts Sodick’s
latest generation linear motors having 0.03
micron feedback. Acceleration of 1 G and a
40,000 rpm spindle (60,000 rpm option)
are other technical features. Hard
material machining with fast,
light cuts is the method.
And when employing the Jig
Grinding Function, the
need for single-purpose
jig grinders is obviated.
In the UK, an aerospace
company is actually interested is the
machine for aluminium plate machining,
because the plates must all be identical.
“You know, we did the test. We sent the
parts off, they sent them to the inspection
department, the results came back and were
sent to us. I said, ‘you’ve only had the one
part checked’ – there were 18, I think. And
he said ‘no, they checked all of them and
they’re all the same’. We were talking
microns,” highlights Capp.
Linear motors are a key Sodick
differentiator, it should be said. It has
produced some 57,000 since 1999, when it
introduced them. It offers a 10-year
positioning accuracy guarantee. Something
that will be underscored at MACH 2020, as
it happens. One of the exhibits will be a
20-year-old wire-cut EDM unit that has been
serviced and brought back to original spec,
without replacing anything.
Moving onto another technology not seen
The ultra-high-speed milling machine
UH650L, suited to hard materials
Inset above: Peter Capp holds a
fi nished machined part
Inset right: machining in close-up
Sodick Europe’s new HQ in Coventry is also
home to UK agent Sodi-Tech
Inset: Peter Capp, second from left, CEO
of Sodick Europe and director of Sodi-
Tech, takes part in a traditional Japanese
ceremony at the offi cial opening in July
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