Dimac Tooling: Focus on productivity and the environment

It’s all about productivity and the environment on Dimac Tooling’s stand (584) at this year’s Austech exhibition in Melbourne from 24 to 27 May 2011.

Among the company’s exhibits will be several recent additions to the company’s already impressive line-up of CNC machine tool accessories. Here are some of the new products, all designed to increase shops’ productivity and reduce the environmental impact of machining processes to a minimum:

Coolant maintenance

In order to deal with the huge amount of oil used and swarf produced during machining processes, Dimac offers a range of coolant maintenance products, which will be demonstrated on the company’s impressive stand over the four days of the show.

“Machining coolant (or metalworking fluid) maintenance is still considered an art in many machine shops,” Dimac Director Paul Fowler says. “Smart users know that well maintained cutting fluids can last for years, not weeks or months.”

Dimac offers the Zebra range of oil separation systems to skim up the surface oil coming from a machine’s lubrication system. The oil is skimmed on the belt, comes out of the unit into a gravity separator and is then returned at the back of the machine while the coolant is returned to the machine. The Zebra Oasis portable coalescer extends the life of your coolant and tooling and prevents shop mist or any health issues.

“Keeping your coolant in a good condition can prolong the life of your coolant for up to three years,” Mr Fowler concludes. “As a result, machine shops can save costs while at the same time increasing productivity and part quality.”

Clean air workshops

For clean and healthy air in workshops, Dimac showcases the German-made REVEN Recojet oil mist separators and Ultra Cleaners, highly efficient mechanical air filtering units using mechanical separating system X-CYCLONE. Air pollutants and contaminants from oil, emulsions and other fluids are separated from the ambient air as aerosols to a very high extent. This equipment dispenses with auxiliary energy supply as well as any auxiliary material (fabric, etc.).

The units are particularly well-suited for the separation of harmful substances from the air including air pollutants in the form of aerosols, mist or vapour (saturated) as well as fine dust. These particles are conducted together with the transporting medium air into the X-CYCLONE separator by forced ventilation (fan). The collected fluids are returned to your equipment and your working environment is mist and particle free.

High-pressure coolant

Expanding Dimac’s line of versatile CNC machine accessories designed to improve productivity is the Cooljet high-pressure coolant system. “During the metal cutting processes, significant heat is generated at the tool and workpiece interface, primarily from the effects of friction, which can be detrimental to the tool and the workpiece,” Mr Fowler explains.

With the on-demand Cooljet coolant system cutting fluids are pumped to pressures of 1000psi (70 bar) or more, and are accurately directed to the cutting zone through an appropriate nozzle. The resultant jet stream of coolant is able to penetrate the high temperature cutting zone, delivering vital lubricants to the cut.

“If you are targeting to reduce process cycle times, you will find that your tool life will be significantly extended, and the quality of the cut is considerably increased after applying high-pressure coolant. Its applications are extensive from drilling, grooving, boring, cutting of hard metals which have a high nickel content, to small tooling applications.”

Quick Jaw Change

Dimac will have a wide range of fixtures, vises and chucks on display, including the expanded range of the new Kitagawa DH Series Collet Chucks, now including the new DHP-42 (42mm diameter capacity) version, which will be available soon and joins the DHP pull back versions currently available. The DH Series is available with quick release gun and specialised collets and is the newest addition to the wide range of quick-release and standard collet chucks already available from Kitagawa.

For efficiently changing chucks Dimac will demonstrate the Kitagawa QJR series (Quick Jaw Release), a quick change power chuck. Using a quick change base jaw system it can accept standard metric serrated top jaws from existing B200 and BB200 chucks. These base jaws can be changed quickly and easily using the hand-operated key.

For more information please visit www.dimac.com.au.