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Performance Expectations of Matsuura MC1000VF

gmc1724

Aluminum
Joined
Oct 24, 2013
Location
United Kingdom
Hi all, I'm looking at a 1993 Matsuura MC1000VF, ex aerospace machine, seems to be well looked after with 15k spindle and high pressure coolant. Control is an i80. Thing is, I have 2 very old Matsuura's in the shop that are great for low rpm heavy milling, they have been great machines for the many casting jobs we do, I just don't know what to expect from a high rpm spindle. Any thoughts on what's possible with this machine, depth of cut achievable with a 100mm face mill in stainless would give me some idea. Also are there any weaknesses with these machines?
Any feedback would be appreciated.
 
If you can find out about replacement history on the spindle it would be good to find out. When Matsuura first brought out their 15K spindle in the early 90s they had lots of troubles. One shop I know of had a pair of Matsuura HMCs from the same year as the VMC you are looking at. They had something like 7 spindles replaced in the first 24 months before Matsuura finally got the design/assembly tweaked to be reliable. Matsuura stood behind the machines and warrantied every one of those, but the resulting downtime was brutal for that shop to deal with. Also, that shop ultimately stopped trying to run at 15K at all and set a 14k limit on all programming.
 
Thanks for that info, I wouldn't use anything over 5000rpm but if the spindle is known to be brittle I think I'll look elsewhere...
 
I think VanBiker is thinking of the early 2000's 15k spindles when Matsuura tried going to grease pack, away from their original air oil 15k spindles.

I have a Matsuura 15K air oil spindle from the mid 90's that has over 40k hrs on it, never been rebuilt, and it's good for hogging or running flat out at 15k all day. Mine is in a FMS so it gets plenty of use both ways. It has enough torque to pull the taper out of the spindle (yes the retention pressure is good, around 2400lbs) We've drilled 10's of thousands of 2" diameter holes with Sandvik 880 drills in 304 stainless on this spindle, it's a workhorse.

The 15K spindles of this generation are 15hp and make a maximum torque of 146 ft/lbs from 50-530 rpm. Which is a ton, more than many modern 30hp spindles have today. The 8k spindles of this generation also have 15hp but a whopping 258 ft/lbs of torque, which is ludicrous, and is enough to break almost all tooling you would put in a 40 taper interface.
 
I think VanBiker is thinking of the early 2000's 15k spindles when Matsuura tried going to grease pack, away from their original air oil 15k spindles.

No, the spindles that I was talking about were on a pair of 1993 MAM600 horizontals in a 27 pallet cell. Air/oil mist lubed. Some of the replacements were installed by the Selway tech and some by a Matsuura tech. Sometime in 1995 they finally got it together and that set of spindles lasted until somewhere in the early 2000s. Those spindles were fine and what one would expect of Matsuura.
 
Interesting, I've never heard of issues with these spindles. I know of at least a dozen of them that are running daily, and original.

If I were looking to buy an early to mid 90s 15k spindle Matsuura, I'd just try to learn if the spindle had been replaced. I'd expect by now most are on replacements or rebuilds. Anything after the mid 90s would be no concern at all.

The two machines I mentioned were troublesome in many areas besides the spindles also. Quite unlike Matsuura's in general. Always wondered if they were some of the first machines of the MAM series released. They were the first and last Matsuuras purchased by that company. They had been primarily an Okuma shop before, and after the Matsuuras switched to mostly Makinos with a few Mori Seikis in the mix.

I got a bit of a black eye over it as I had been asked my opinion of Matsuura before they ordered the cell. I gave Matsuura a thumbs up based on working on several of the RA series machines at another company.

IME all the best builders have had the occasional problematic models. The real test of a builder is what they do to stand behind the product until it lives up to its expectation.
 








 
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