Rotating Workpieces with a Robotic Lathe

A lathe is a machine tool which rotates the work­piece on its axis to per­form var­i­ous oper­a­tions. When this process is auto­mat­ed, it saves both time and money.

A robot­ic lathe has boost­ed vehi­cle com­po­nent pro­duc­tion by half at GKN Dri­v­e­line. Instead of using angle-approach grinders, hard-trun­ing lath­es have been used for machin­ing crit­i­cal fea­tures on an extrud­ed steel com­po­nent at this auto­mo­tive sup­pli­er. They expe­ri­enced an increase of 55% and a reduc­tion of oper­a­tors to run the auto­mat­ed lathe cell.

Fuji uses Fanuc con­trols as com­po­nents in their auto­mat­ed lathe sys­tems. The Fuji ANS-series, TN-series, CS-series, and ANW-series use Fanuc 0i-TD Con­trol. The ANS-series inte­grates a mod­u­lar sin­gle-spin­dle machine with a turn­ing, milling, or cut­off lathe to increase through­put. The TN-series offers a mod­u­lar machine with a spin­dle, a tur­ret, and a gantry robot, suit­able for line inte­gra­tion. The CS-series of two spin­dle CNC lath­es fea­ture slides for heavy cut­ting, supe­ri­or sur­face fin­ish, and longer tool life. Final­ly, the ANW-series can machine a work­piece front and back with turn­ing, fac­ing, thread­ing, groov­ing, and bor­ing in a sin­gle unmanned set-up.

The Fuji VN-series uses Fanuc 18i-TA Con­trol to increase prof­its while decreas­ing machine floor space. Large and heavy parts are eas­i­ly handled.

The FS4-series uses Fanuc 21i-TB to achieve the fastest high-vol­ume lathe automa­tion in its class with 2.5 sec­onds load/​unload time.

The TNW-series 6‑axis twin with an inte­grat­ed gantry loader com­pletes turn­ing, milling, drilling, and tap­ping oper­a­tions all on one machine. Mate­ri­als in a raw state are trans­formed into com­plete­ly fin­ished parts with Fanuc control.

If you are inter­est­ed in manip­u­lat­ing your parts with a lathe, con­tact us at Robots​.com to dis­cuss mul­ti­ple options that are avail­able online or at 877−762−6881.