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High Speed vs High Torque

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ultraguy

Plastic
Joined
Nov 9, 2021
I have an older 1998 Robodrill with an 8k spindle and after looking at the newer models it seems to come down to either a 10k high torque spindle or 24k high speed spindle for new machines.

I do a lot of mixed work and I was wondering if you could only get one new machine to do all types of work inside 700x400mm what would you go with?
 
Need to be more explicit than "mixed work". Drilling a lot of holes in stainless with a few pieces 2024 once in a while, is different than mostly 3d contouring in aluminum plus a few mild steel triangles for frame gussets once a year.
 
I work almost exclusively in steel…no aluminum or stainless. I have a hard time drilling a 5/8” hole in my high-speed Speedio but no problem at all in my high-torque Speedio. And I almost never even go above the max speed of the high-torque machine IN the high-speed machine so it’s kind of a waste for me…if I could trade the high speed for a high torque I would. So I guess it comes down to what do you think you’ll make more of…tiny holes or large holes? You can interpolate larger holes with high speed machine but there must be a limit to how small of a hole you can drill with a high-torque. 10,000RPM is 160SFM for a .0625” drill. Good luck!
 
I was debating the same question. Make sure you examine the power curves for the various spindles. The high speed spindle actually has more torque than the HT and standard spindles in the RPM range greater than 6k. This was for the newer models, about 2012 and newer. Really, the power curve is just shifted for the different spindles. However, the high speed has ceramic bearings and requires more maintenance.
 
I can Ford v. Chevy the Robodrill v. Speedio question all day long, for entertainment.

Having said all that, the Brother Big + 16k Spindle is the goldilocks winner. 10k is just too low for anyone who ever needs to do any volume of aluminum or plastic parts. The Robo 24k is a bit meh, and nobody ever runs them above 20k for extended periods of time (this has been mostly fixed on the new ADV machines that moved to servo turrets). The Brother 27k is the better high-speed spindle, but no TSC is dumb.

The Brother 16k though, does most things very well, and everything pretty OK. The flexibility and reliability is a sweet spot for job-shop work where you don't want many limitations on what walks through the door.
 
Obviously thee OP needs a full-boat European vmc with all the thermal bells and whistles and a 40K rpm spindle with 100% duty cycle and a price to match.:D
 
I would go high speed all day long. 16k speedio is what we have. 10k is just way too slow for smaller tooling.
 
Had our 24k Robodrill for a while now and very happy with it for the all aluminium work we are doing, everything sub 10mm tool stuff - Cycle time is reduced by over half compared to our 10k machines (not robo's)

Getting into the inevitable Speedio V Robodrill argument - we probably would have gone for a 16k Speedio if it hadnt been 20% more expensive with much lower spec rotary table, plus Fanuc sales and support impressed (in the UK)

Now we have it here working and running a lot of small tools at 20k I think it is faster for us than the 16k Speedio would be too, not that at our level it makes any meaningful difference when comparing the two - It also suits us for future automation options - Fanuc are obviously hugely experienced here.
 
ultraguy said:
I do a lot of mixed work and I was wondering if you could only get one new machine to do all types of work inside 700x400mm what would you go with?
Click to expand...

Brother Speedio S700X2 10k HT without question. The 16k spindle is awesome, but if you plan to drill/tap any decent size holes in steel/stainless/etc the 10k HT spindle is going to outperform the 16k. I can live with 10k max rpm and make it work in most, if not all cases, but not being able to drill/tap big holes in certain materials might be a deal breaker on some jobs.

We have 16 Brothers at work and most are 10k HT, but most of our work is in PH Stainless. The R450's are 16k that we have but we're rarely going higher than 10k anyways.

If I could only have one spindle it would be the 10k HT. Bigger bearings, Dual Contact out the box, WAY more torque and ramps/stops just as fast.
 
Depends on what is being cut and average tooling diameter.
.032 endmills like speed. 4 inch milling cutters not so much.
Aluminum likes lots of speed, 4140PH or hard D2 not so much.
Life and bearing wear is an inverse square thing with speed.
There is a reason they make both. Think what is most of your use and which fits.
Bob
 
couch said:
I can live with 10k max rpm and make it work in most, if not all cases, but not being able to drill/tap big holes in certain materials might be a deal breaker on some jobs.
Click to expand...

You can make the lower torque higher speed work in those cases by helix boring with a high feed endmill and threadmilling. Not as fast, but get's it done. Just a question of what you'll do more of, as said already.
 
mhajicek said:
You can make the lower torque higher speed work in those cases by helix boring with a high feed endmill and threadmilling. Not as fast, but get's it done. Just a question of what you'll do more of, as said already.
Click to expand...

Absolutely, we do that on our 16k machines because they can’t handle just drilling thru, but it’s more cycle time. As mentioned, really going to depend on what’s needed. I’ve stalled the 16k spindles enough times to know I like the 10k HT the most.
 
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