a51 Horizontal Machining Center

The new Makino a51 horizontal machining center (HMC) is intended to increase product line positioning by offering a more competitively priced, high-end production unit than ever previously marketed. Customers will now have access to a economical, yet high quality machine series for manufacturing applications that require less precision but with the same through-put and reliability of Makino's premiere A-series machines.

Compared to the high performance, premium A-series machines, the compact and versatile a51 will have streamlined options and features and contain less moving parts. Yet, the a-series contains many of the standard Makino horizontal machine features in order to provide the performance and reliability required in today's manufacturing environments. The a51 will be more compact, simple to operate, easily maintained and quickly re-deployed.

Makino President Don Lane notes, "The customer is paramount to Makino, and we have heard their requests for more value without losing advanced technology. We have provided this with the a51, which is an expansion of machine sophistication intended to significantly broaden our product line positioning over the next year."

a51 Features and Benefits
The 400 mm pallet Makino a51 comes with a 12,000 rpm spindle standard, with exceptional acceleration characteristics and minimal vibration and a high powered spindle option. It also has a ring-type 60 tool magazine standard, with an option for a 40 tool magazine.

Other features include an automatic pallet changer with safety guard, a standard three-point support system, an ergonomic swing operator control panel, safety-designed 4 layer protective operator door window, a standard air filtration unit and overhead shower coolant.

High volume chip evacuation is facilitated by a wide center trough with rear discharge lift up chip conveyor standard that includes a coolant leakage protection design. The a51 also has a smaller footprint than most competitive units, and is designed for easy maintenance access around the entire perimeter.

Makino's proprietary, next generation (GI) servo control with Radical Mode, will be a standard feature on all a-series machines. GI with Radical Mode helps provide the lowest cycle times achievable while maintaining accuracy and meeting the customer's CPK requirements.

The primary benefits of the Makino a51 include; swift axis movement and faster spindle acceleration and deceleration than competitive HMCs. The index table is even faster than the current A55E at 47 rpm. Quicker automatic tool changer (ATC) speeds, mean even faster tool to tool and chip-to-chip times are available on the a51. Tool search times are also minimized so time out of cut is diminished. The a51 is also capable of simultaneous B axis movement with tool change and X, Y, Z axis positioning.

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