Five-axis ultra-high-precision for optics, precision mechanics, and much more

Precision mechanics for internal applications and for customers  

Around 25% of the company's sales are generated by binoculars for private and sports use; 8% are generated in the military market; and over 60% in the contract manufacture of components and subassemblies for the electronics/semiconductor industry, measurement technology, medical applications and measuring devices, as well as high-precision parts for machinery and apparatus manufacture. Meopta – optika's Mechanical Division, headed by director and engineer Milan Ryšavy, makes components for in-house production operations as well as handling contract production of components and subassemblies on behalf of customers. "Our Mechanical Division employs over 500 skilled staff, who operate more than 120 CNC-controlled machine tools for precision milling/drilling, turning, engraving, eroding and grinding in a tolerance range of +/- 0.005 mm." The company processes materials including aluminium, stainless steel, copper, brass and magnesium. Turning operations are handled by almost 70 CNC lathes, with three- to five-axis milling handled by almost 50 CNC machining centres. Milan Ryšavy explains the thinking behind the Mechanical Division's machinery portfolio: "For five-axis/five-side complete and simultaneous machining we rely on high-performance five-axis CNC machining centres from Hermle. We use them because they are state-of-the-art in five-axis machining, because we are able to cover a broad range of parts with the available machine sizes, and because the automation of Hermle machining centres is customisable." The first high-performance five-axis CNC machining centre from Maschinenfabrik Berthold Hermle AG in Gosheim, Germany – a C 40 U model – was acquired in 2009. A further six Hermle five-axis machining centres have since been added: a C 20 U, a C 42 U, and four C 22 U units. Including a Hermle C 600 U machining centre acquired back in 1999, and still in use today, the competence centre has eight Hermle high-precision five-axis machining centres, of which one – the C 22 U model – is equipped with the pallet changer PW 150 (C 22 UP).

 

The basis of the five-axis machining competence centre: Hermle machining centres!

Meopta – optika Mechanical Engineering Manager Radomír Svoboda comments: "The Hermle C 22 U is the ideal size to cover the thousands of different workpieces we handle. Together with the two larger C 40 U and C 42 U high-performance five-axis CNC machining centres, as well as the C 20 U and the older C 600 U, we are able to handle any workpiece size that might occur, as well as producing in lot sizes from 1 up to about 800. About the C 22 U again, I should also add that it enables us to achieve traverse paths of X = 450, Y = 600 and Z = 330 mm, despite the compact machine dimensions. That allows for flexible five-axis machining of workpieces in 450 mm diameter x 370 mm height with weights up to 300 kg, or alternatively also flexible three-axis machining of workpieces in 450 x 600 x 330 mm size (X, Y, Z) with weights up to 750 kg. "Thanks to the possibility of machining a wide variety of different workpieces in a single, or just a few, clamp fixings, to the highest precision, on identically configured C 22 U or C 22 UP machining centres, we now have a high degree of flexibility to deploy our capacities directly, greatly aided by the other Hermle machining centres in terms of workpiece dimensions." We operate the C 22 UP high-performance five-axis CNC machining centre in combination with the PW 150 pallet changer both for automated production of single parts with longer running times and for the production of small and medium-sized lots. The pallet magazine linked to the PW 150 pallet storage can hold 18 pallets of size 320 x 320 mm with maximum pallet weights up to 2 x 150 kg (referred to the pallet changing and handling system). This machining centre also differs in its additional ZM 87 tool magazine, featuring an extra 87 tools (making a total of 152) enabling highly automated complete machining even of very complex workpieces.

The right machine for every machining job!

Hermle Ceska Republika field sales executive Martin Skukalek comments on the Hermle success story with Meopta – optika: "The rapidly available, high-performance C 40 U machine, backed by the renowned Hermle service quality, enabled us to install another machining centre with them: the C 20 U. The C 40 U machine has been used from the beginning to mill high-quality base plates for measurement and semiconductor systems with schematics of maximum accuracy and in supreme precision." The C 20 U as well as the C 22 U and the UP variant handle most of the industrial component production. In fact, the C 22 UP is sometimes run for weeks at a time producing entire component families comprising 160 medical technology workpieces, each entailing running times of an hour and more. By contrast, the C 42 U is used mainly for the flexible machining of single parts and prototypes. "Owing to the complexity and value of the high-end workpieces both for in-house use and for customers, all machines are run under operator control in all shifts. In view of that, 18 specialists are currently being trained on the Hermle machining centres in order to safeguard production capacity." Word-of-mouth is attracting more customers to Meopta – optika as the sustained and steadily growing success of the machining specialists in Přerov becomes ever more widely appreciated. In order to serve that customer base even more efficiently, an air-conditioned factory complex is currently under construction which will likewise be fitted out with high-performance five-axis CNC machining centres from Hermle. Milan Ryšavy sums up: "We see the Hermle machines as the basis of our high-precision machining operations. Apart from the components we make for in-house use, almost all our output is exported – meaning we are in a constant struggle against global competitors. In view of that, it is certainly good to know that we are running high-end, high-precision, reliable machining centres capable of precise workpiece reproduction which are really user-friendly and easy to operate."