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IMTS Show Review

Tonytn36

Diamond
Joined
Dec 23, 2007
Location
Southeastern US
So, I've been two days now and am through the South, North, East and just started on the West late in the day, so a report is doable now.

South - Machine Tools:
Mazak is showing a new VCN400 in both 4 and 5 axis versions. These appear to be stout machines. There will be a pallet changer offered in the future as another option.
They also have quite a few machines on display including the VCN-Compact 5 axis machine.

Kitamura is showing a small footprint 4 axis horizontal that also can be outfitted with 2x rotaries for a full 5-axis horizontal. This thing looked to be only about 7' wide and maybe 12' long, and available with a 27k spindle.

Makino has two VERY tiny 5-axis horizontals on display...I'm talking 5' wide x *maybe* 10' long. - Only a 7.5 hp spindle though.

DMG/Mori has a unique tilting main / B axis machine in a smaller footprint.

Brother has a S2DN with a 27,000 RPM spindle.

Hurco was showing several new machines including a small footprint 5-axis vert that looked pretty slick and quick.

Robotics:

Nothing in the motoman booth impressed me much, standard dog and pony show, do nothing displays.

Kuka on the other hand.........was milling aluminum with a robot. Said they could hold roughly about 0.01", which would be fine for roughing in most applications - fairly impressive if you ask me.

Lots of other stuff I don't remember right off......there is just SO much...

Guys & Gals, please add to this review.
 
Thanks for the review, nice to see Brother finally putting a fast spindle option, hopefully with enough hp behind it.
 
Good review Tony. I arrived at IMTS today...but late, didn't have time to see much. Should have full day tomorrow however. Investigating MTConnect further... did you look at that in the Emerging Technologies Center (North Building as you enter on right) and if so do you see useful applications for your company ?

www.mtconnect.org
 
I have been here for two days and I will be here tomorrow. I am wearing a blue dot, but have not seen any other PM folks except MickeyD (we came together). My overall impression is that there is an enormous number of companies in competition for the CNC market. Many that I have never seen before. I am not really an expert on this subject, but I was at IMTS last time and it seems to me that many more small and some apparently large companies are in the game. The machine that I though was impressive was the Mori Mill Tap. Around 33hp, 10k spindle with a kind of bridge mill arrangement. They have reduced the tool change time over the published number to less than one second - chip to chip is just over 1.1 seconds. The machine I saw had a pallet exchange running. It is a pretty expensive machine at ~130k, but I am not sure any are really sold at that number.
 
I have been through there a couple times, but haven't stopped to look Don. That is on the agenda for tomorrow as the remainder of the West shouldn't take the full 4 hours I'll have available before heading to the airport. Amazing how you learn after a few trips to IMTS how to walk on by and stop and look at ONLY what you are really interested in.

Some more review:

Okuma seems to be targeting the large part market to a huge extent this year, they only have a couple of smaller machines in the booth from my impression.

Doosan seems to have a very wide variety of machines in the booth.

I went by the Haas booth, seems to be much smaller this year than 2010. I did not go in, just by.

Sharp has just a few machines, but they do have the SV2412

Schuitte and Index both have multi-spindles up and running
 
I have been through there a couple times, but haven't stopped to look Don. That is on the agenda for tomorrow as the remainder of the West shouldn't take the full 4 hours I'll have available before heading to the airport. Amazing how you learn after a few trips to IMTS how to walk on by and stop and look at ONLY what you are really interested in.

Some more review:

Okuma seems to be targeting the large part market to a huge extent this year, they only have a couple of smaller machines in the booth from my impression.

Doosan seems to have a very wide variety of machines in the booth.

I went by the Haas booth, seems to be much smaller this year than 2010. I did not go in, just by.

Sharp has just a few machines, but they do have the SV2412

Schuitte and Index both have multi-spindles up and running

Any YMT / Quasar stuff?
 
Tony, I think the sharp is a 2414 now, due to customer request. I could be wrong, as I spent my time there slobbering over the 6633 ( or so) they offer. Thing weighs in at 37k, about twice what many 60 inch machines weigh. Its on my wish list. Well, it is my wish list.
 
The show was really impressive this year, everyone that I spoke with was busy with work and upbeat about the future. Like Bruce said, the Mori mill tap was crazy impressive, 33HP with 30 taper is insane. The Sharp 2414 with a swing arm tool changer looks a lot more refined than the older 2412. One thing that I noticed was that there were a LOT of updated designs/totally new machines, not just rehashes of old stuff. On the tooling side, both Iscar and Mitsubishi had new stuff to take advantage of all of the horsepower and faster speeds, plus even the little guys had a lot of innovative geometry on the carbide endmills. Well worth going to.
 
Just got back home a few minutes ago........long day.

Schunk was showing some totally new gripper designs.

Hainbuch was showing some quick change spindle adapters. These things rock.....and make changing the entire chuck *very* quick.

Almost missed this one..... Sugino... *very* small trunnion type 5-axis mill - more on it later as I did get a brochure.

To Don,
On the emerging technologies. I see one huge use for one item in particular from those displays, the Renishaw 3d laser printer. Keeping the use close to the vest though.
 
One of our local endmill shops were there. Destiny Tool. Great family run company. Give them a look if you are at the show.
 
The dmg/mori 700 drill/tap is rated at 4.5kw/100% duty for 10K spindle, 4kw for 24K spindle. Just saying.
 
Mickey - Noticed that with the new machines myself. A *lot* of brand new designed iron. Everything Hurco had was brand new it seemed, lots new with Mazak also. That Makino small footprint machine was also a brand new machine design. Can't list them all.....

This is a sign that at least the MTB's have endorsed the improving economy or they wouldn't be investing in new machine design. Like Mickey, everyone I talked to was busy or just flat buried and upbeat about the future.
 
Couldn't make it (again) this year but have enjoyed reading everyone's reviews and comments.
Any observations on cutting tools or holders??

tia

X
 
The show was good. I didn't make it everywhere I wanted to go because I had a knee reconstruction surgery 7 weeks ago which made it not so fun after 5 hours of walking/standing. I didn't make it to about 70% of the work holding booths and I wish that I did.

Iscar had IQ tool line release there that was a little overdone IMO.

I some time in the Haas booth looking at a few machines. 1 machine In particular fits the bill for my work so my two older Mats are being traded in for it.

Doosan had some nice stuff out as tony said

Hwacheon was another builder that had some good iron in their booth.

Hurco had the all new machine style there.

citizen and tsugami had a very nice range of machines in their booths as well.

Index's booth was smaller but what they had running was amazing.

The big big iron was present and very impressive. I could not believe the size of machines some builders brought in.

I spent a lot of time in the fowler booth looking over there sylvac and bowers offerings mainly because one of my good friends is their technical director.

Overall the show was fantastic, I spent too much money:D(more to come on this) and Chicago is a great city.

Im going back every year I can.

Jason,
 
This year was a lot more upbeat then 2010. This was one of the exhibits that really caught my eye this year.

That's something! When I was a teen going to school my job was doing just that in Boston, on the rip track, in the summer time. Only difference was I had a mini crane that was all wheel steer, gas over electric and i picked up the wheels by a chain with two hooks that grabbed the outside of the rims, it could boom and slew, raise and lower even had mini outriggers. I took them into the wheel house, put them on a little turntable and wheeled them into the wheel lathe. Not as precise but I think mine was more fun.
 
Home at midnight last night - still in recovery mode, my feet hurt! We had a list and went from vendor to vendor on our list, some social visits, and some fact finding. High point was talking to a vendor, and having him flag down an acquaintance walking down the aisle, who may be very helpful with an application issue we're having. I don't think there was as high a percentage of machines making chips as there have been in the past - lots of cutting air, and perhaps as fast as machines have become, they just can't keep that much material in the booths. Or perhaps they are running out of electrical power, and have to limit usage??? (And who ever dreamt they would need a convention center to hold that much weight??) Least number of scantily clad women luring people into booths that I've seen in over 20 years of attending most of the shows, and I think that a good thing. Index was very impressive, as was EuroTech. Fanuc was a huge disappointment, "Well, I think you should schedule someone to come out and . . . You're right, there won't be much change left from $2000." Something the right person (see 3rd sentence above) could have answered on the fly!

I can only think of one vendor we forgot to put on the list, one question I forgot to ask a vendor we did see, and one vendor I hoped to see, who wasn't there.

Ray
 








 
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