Multifunctional Machining Platform Offers Versatility in Job Shops

Drake Manufacturing Services Co. (Warren, OH) recently introduced its latest machine solution designed for a multifunctional machining platform. With its internal thread, external thread, and profile gear grinding capability, Drake’s Ultimate Job Shop Thread, Worm and Gear Machine (Model GS:JS) offers the versatility required in a job shop environment for half the cost of three separate machines. This universal, 4-axis CNC machine was developed for grinding internal and external threads, as well as profile grinding gears.

Features include a cast polymer base for thermal stability and dynamic stiffness, linear motors, fewer mechanical parts, and low-maintenance operation. It also features a high accuracy workhead—0.002 deg index accuracy and power helix for quick changeovers and +/-90 deg helix/lead angles.

Stig Mowatt-Larssen, Drake’s R&D manager, stated, “This machine is ideal for production of small batches in a cost-efficient manner. Our product development team fine-tuned this machine with a gear & thread job shop in Japan, grinding everything from fine pitch pinions against a shoulder with a 25mm diameter wheel to ball nuts to lead screws. The JIS Class 0 pinions measured great, and the customer appreciated no wheel run-out into the adjacent bearing journal”.

“We worked with this high-quality prototype shop to upgrade our Gear SmartTM software to include simpler form modification menus and the ability to more simply ‘dial-in’ the tooth form for a first-good-part that is so important for job shops” said Rick Sanders, systems engineering manager and chief software architect.

www.drakemfg.com