Leading British lathe manufacturer Harrison will showcase its Alpha 'T' and Alpha 'U' line-up at MACH 2002 - two exciting new concepts in lathe design which offer unrivalled productivity.

Leading British lathe manufacturer Harrison will showcase its Alpha 'T' and Alpha 'U' line-up at MACH 2002 - two exciting new concepts in lathe design which offer unrivalled productivity and ease-of-use while being excellent value-for-money. The Alpha T (T for Touchscreen) will appeal to sub-contractors, toolrooms, mould and die, R and D and educational training establishments, particularly those wishing to replace traditional centre lathe machinery. A highly affordable and extremely easy-to-use lathe, the Alpha T offers the user the benefits of both fully automated cycles and manual operation.

Key to the Alpha T's appeal is its menu-driven Fanuc touchscreen control that uses shop floor symbols and logical step-by-step messages to access a diverse range of functions.

Functions include a fully manual mode, automatic internal and external parallel/taper roughing and finishing box cycles, as well as left and right hand single and multistart threads including Acme, DP and MOD.

Complex contours and repetitive cycles can also be performed; while a further function is that each tool has its own independent constant surface speed.

As well as being extremely easy-to-use, the Alpha T has another unique advantage in that all machine controls are ergonomically mounted on a single console, so that operators can see controls, tools, workpiece and cutting area all in a single line-of-sight.

The Alpha T also has its own Intelligent Help Diagnostics System (IHDS), developed by Harrison to provide on-screen diagnostic messages in plain language giving the operator instant information.

A separate diagnostic LED array is also incorporated.

Entry model is the 330T (330mm swing x 1m bed), which is complemented by the 400T (400mm swing x 1.25m bed), 460T (460mm swing x 1.5m) and 550T (550mm swing x 2m bed).

Following on from the highly successful Alpha Plus S, the Alpha U (U for Universal) is an advanced, large capacity two-axis lathe designed for manual, sequential or full CNC operation for almost any batch size.

Control is from an easy-to-use Fanuc console with a twin keypad configuration, providing the operator with the choice of ISO CNC operation from the right-hand keypad and 'AlphaSystem' interactive operation from the left-hand keypad.

The right-hand, ISO keypad has full CNC facilities, utilising canned cycles G70 to G76, tool nose radius and wear offsets, tool path graphics, inch/metric conversion and background editing.

Programs can be entered and/or edited directly at the machine.

The left-hand 'AlphaSystem' keypad is simplicity itself, generating on-screen programmed sequential operations in simple question/answer page format for parallel turning, chamfer, radius, taper and multi-start threads.

The AlphaLink CAD/CAM system is capable of drawing the component and preparing the machining sequences 'off-line'.

Once the machining cycles have been prepared, the program can be saved in either Alpha format or ISO format, both of which can be downloaded to the machine through the RS232 port.

The Alpha U is constructed with a composite base assembly matched to an all-new 30-degree box section slant-bed, to form a single, rigid unit with unbeatable thermal, kinematic and dynamic damping characteristics.

Features include a radical slideway configuration, and direct drive spindle operating through a gearbox for automatic high/low range selection.

There are four models in the range - the Alpha 330U (330mm swing x 1m bed), Alpha 400U (400mm swing x 1.25 m bed), Alpha 460U (460mm swing, with choice of 1m, 1.5m or 2m bed) and Alpha 550U (550mm swing with choice of 1m, 1.5m, 2m or 3m bed).