POSTED ON 9/12/2023 – Mazak’s Kentucky-built SYNCREX Series – the company’s entry into the Swiss-style turning machine market – provides shops a feature-rich machine platform that meets the growing demand for both low-mix/high-volume production and high-mix/low-volume production. While they are especially adept at machining complex, unconventional parts, the machines in the series can also run any part that could be turned on a standard lathe.
Swiss turning has become much more popular and flexible and is no longer limited to just high-volume production. More job shops in high-mix/low-volume production environments are producing families of smaller parts from 12-ft long bar stock that is 1.5” in diameter and less. It is for this reason that Mazak developed the SYNCREX Series machines that improve upon existing market designs and technologies to take Swiss-style machining to the next level.
Mazak’s Swiss-style machines come in four barstock capacities (20-, 25-, 32- or 38-mm) and set themselves apart from the ground up. Built on one-piece High-Damping Composite Castings (HDCC), the machine bases weigh approximately 3,400 pounds and are 10% more rigid than cast iron for superior surface finishes compared to their cast-iron counterparts. This polymer-composite footing provides a stunning 80% reduction in vibration at the cutting point, which helps increase tool life by 30%. Additionally, the HDCC technology reduces thermal distortion, lessening part variation by 25% for more consistent and reliable production.
High-volume and lights-out production is aided by Mazak Dynamic Chip Control (MDCC), which effectively manages long, stringy chips that are often the byproduct of long periods of uninterrupted turning. Instead of a “bird’s nest” of chips that can cause tool breakage and mar surface finishes, MDCC oscillates the Z axis to create chip flakes with no significant decrease in surface finish due to the HDCC technology.