The Collaborative Imperative!

Mills CNC, the exclusive distributor of Doosan machine tools in the UK and Ireland, has recently entered into a collaborative research partnership with Irish Manufacturing Research (IMR), a leading independent and not-for-profit research and training organisation (RTO) based in Mullingar, County Westmeath. To support the organisation’s research program in the Irish market, Mills has supplied IMR with a new Doosan Puma 2600SY II lathe.

The advanced 10“ chuck box-guideway multi-tasking lathe, a firm favourite amongst UK and Irish component manufacturers ever since its introduction in 2018, features a powerful built-in spindle (22kW/4000rpm), a Y-axis (+/-52.5mm), a sub-spindle (15kW/6000rpm) and driven tooling capabilities (7.5kW/5000rpm).

In addition to its high specification, the model supplied to IMR also featured a number of ancillary technology additions to increase its productivity and efficiency. These included:

• a Hydrafeed servo-driven bar feeder
• a Filtermist oil/mist extraction unit
• a Renishaw optical workpiece inspection probe
• a LNS swarf conveyor system
• a FSE filtration system
• Hainbuch collet chucks

The lathe was also supplied with an auto door and a robot interface (to facilitate automated workpiece loading/unloading in the future).

The Puma 2600SY II was installed at IMR’s 35,000 sq. ft. Technology Centre in late August 2020.