Anilam CNC Retrofit Keeps Medical Support Team In Great Health
By retrofitting an Anilam 3000M Series CNC to an Avon knee-type milling machine, ACI Europe agent Machine Tool Controls of Pontypool has implanted an unrivalled level of user-friendliness into machining operations at the United Bristol Healthcare NHS Trust's Medical Equipment Management Organisation (MEMO).
The retrofit – which involved extensive re-wiring of the machine - was efficiently carried out on-site by Machine Tool Controls, and saw the Anilam 3000M three-axis CNC replace the G-code based original control. The result is that the machine is now much more suited to MEMO's requirements.
Jemma Thompson, clinical technologist at the Bristol Royal Infirmary's engineering facility, explains that MEMO undertakes a wide range of tasks as part of its support role for the Directorate of Medical Physics and Bio-engineering - for example, the service and maintenance of the Trust's radio therapy, X-ray machines and scanners, patient monitoring and life support equipment.
"CNC machining can be considered just one aspect of our work," she says, "since we are asked to design and develop anything, in a variety of materials, that will support MEMO's brief."
A good example is the production of 240 mm by 240 mm by 40 mm thick perspex ‘phantom' blocks that are used to gather performance data from X-ray and radiation machines.
"In certain circumstances we do offer our machining capacity on a sub-contract basis," she continues, "but mainly the work that passes through the shop are complex one-offs and small batches, so the need for a user-friendly, easily programmable CNC was essential.
"We've had the mill for probably 15 years, since new in fact, and because the machine is not used full-time on a daily basis and is largely processing ‘soft' materials such as perspex, its mechanical qualities were sound. But the old control system was causing problems particularly in terms of programming, so in conjunction with Machine Tool Controls we decided to upgrade to a modern Anilam system."
The two-/three-axis 3000M CNC features a minimum of 8 Mbytes of RAM (up to 64 Mbytes) and incorporates Anilam's renowned easy-to-use Machinist's Language, coupled with a wide range of standard cycles such as peck drilling, pocket milling and face milling; advanced cycles including ellipse, spiral, helical, tapping, irregular pocket milling and profile milling, as well as special cycles that include counterboring.
Illustrating the system's ease of use, the standard cycle for bolt hole patterns enables patterns of any configuration to be quickly produced by answering five simple questions. Likewise, after answering a few questions, the drill cycle takes users through simple drill, peck drill and boring routines.
Sitting alongside a mixture of CNC and manual machine tools, the performance of the new-look milling operations are, confirms Jemma Thompson, just what the doctor ordered!
Source: ACI Europe Ltd, of which Anilam is a division