Designed for hard turning use, CNC bar and chucking lathes lift the performance / price index by as much as 30%, in terms of productivity on a very wide range of applications.
Designed for hard turning use, CNC bar and chucking lathes lift the performance / price index by as much as 30%, in terms of productivity on a very wide range of applications. The Hardinge US produced Quest 8/51 and 10/65 models in their SP (Super Precision) execution, could not have been designed to be more suitable for hard turning applications. Developed and built to out perform the heavy duty Conquest T51 and T65 CNC Bar and Chucking lathes, the 8/51 and 10/65 model designations reflect the smaller Quest's 8 in (200mm) chuck size and 51mm through spindle bar capacity (a superb global mixture of units).

With the high value SPC capabilities demanded by more and more customers, on part operations that were previously produced by the grinding process, the Quest SP's specifications and performance meet these demanding requirements exactly.

0.1 micron programmable resolution for positioning and offsetting, on length and most importantly on diameter, enable the SP Quests to produce 5æm tolerance production parts with a Ppk value greater than 1.0.

Another capability with SP resolution is being able to programme out tapers and face geometry errors caused by component deflection, without leaving a significant witness where the correction was made.

Having 10 times as many steps in a combined axis move produces dramatically improved surface finishes, on angles and profiles, compared to conventional, general precision machines with only 1 micron programmable increments.

Other Quest features which all add up to grinding machine performance on hard turning operations are: * Harcrete synthetic granite enhanced vibration damping base construction, providing better surface finishes and longer tool life / lower PCBN tool costs.

* Sub 0.5 micron spindle runouts for improved roundness and concentricity.

* Super finished linear guide slideways for seamless axis reversals, free from stick-slip.

* Hardinge direct seating spindle tooling options for rigidly and accurately locating / relocating parts without distortion.

* linear scale position feedback for the X and Z-Axis minimises warm up periods and reduces the impact of temperature variation in the workshop.

But, that is where the Quest similarities with grinding machines and grinding methods end:- The Quests are all about high speed operation, quick set up and changeover.

A peripheral mount VDI-30 turret, indexing in just 0.1 seconds is the start of a long list of high performance / high speed features and options, to match the Quest machine specification to the work required.

This can equally be a single tool hard turning operation, or a complex multi-tool complete machining process, requiring front and back end work, with or without driven tools Y and C-Axis operations on both ends.

Traverse rates are an impressive 28m/min for the X-Axis and 38 m/min for the Z-Axis and the sub-spindle slide.

The basic Quest 8/51 and 10/65 machines have 4,200 and 3,429 rpm maximum spindle speeds, which suits their universal application for bar and chucking work.

Both the GP Quests and the SP machines have a high speed, high acceleration and deceleration, wraparound main spindle drive option, with 8,000 rpm and 6,000 rpm on the 51 and 65 respectively.

These can be matched to a 10,000 rpm wraparound motor driven sub-spindle, for the ultimate in back end working speed capability.

It is anticipated that these high speed spindle options will be particularly suited for hard turning small diameters and bores, or at the other end of the machineability stakes, for high speed machining on non-ferrous applications.

Overall, the Quest 8/51 and 10/65 in all of their optional configurations are very worthy successors to the Conquest T51/65 machines and lift the performance / price index by as much as 30%, in terms of their productivity on a very wide range of applications.