Soraluce Summit 2024 Technology meets pioneering spirit

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From June 12 to 14, 2024, Soraluce hosted the Soraluce Summit at their facilities in Bergara, Spain. The event showcased the company's leading-edge innovations in milling, turning, multitasking, and automation solutions, solidifying its position as a front-runner in the machine tool industry. 

As a world premiere, Soraluce presented its revolutionary high-gantry portal milling machines of the Dynamic Line. These machines represent precision, dynamics, and efficiency and, according to Soraluce, would revolutionize manufacturing processes in various industries.

Soraluce's high-gantry portal milling machines were developed for machining complex, high-precision workpieces. They offer high machining performance thanks to a high volume of metal removal time. Due to the high-gantry concept, they achieve tremendous accuracy and are supplemented by specific cutting-edge technologies.

Gallery

The Dynamic Line includes three machine models that meet the requirements of the aerospace industry, tool and die making, and general mechanical engineering. The focus is on machining different materials such as composites, aluminum as well as metal and steel alloys.

In addition, the machines are equipped with a complete spray guard cabin, which ensures cleanliness and safety at the workplace. Various extraction systems, integrated both in the machine room and on the milling heads, facilitate the removal of dust and deposits that arise during the processing processes, thus ensuring a high level of cleanliness throughout the entire work process. This aspect is of crucial importance for the health protection of the operating personnel (preventing the inhalation of toxic fumes/fibers) and for the safety of the work area.

Soraluce HGA

As part of the summit, Soraluce introduced the high gantry portal milling machine Soraluce HGA, which was specifically developed for the machining of large composite or aluminum components for the aerospace industry. The HGA on display was specifically designed for the machining of aircraft fuselage structures—including cutting and drilling of composite materials. It has a longitudinal travel of 10,000 mm, a vertical travel of 1,600 mm, and a cross travel of 4,000 mm. The spindle speed of the fork milling head is 20,000 min^-1. In addition, the HGA features two workstations for pendulum processing, dust extraction directly at the milling head with axial movement according to the tool length, and a table with a vacuum plate system of 10,000 x 3,500 mm for the integration of various devices in different positions and a tool magazine with cladding, which supplies both work areas via two changeover arms.

Soraluce HGR

Soraluce also presented the most versatile model of the series with the high gantry portal milling machine Soraluce HGR, as a large selection of milling heads and axis travel paths allow for numerous customer-specific configurations. This model is designed for the machining of large molds, tools and dies as well as steel alloy workpieces. The machine on display had a longitudinal travel of 4500 mm, a vertical travel of 1500 mm and a cross travel of 4500 mm, as well as a mechanical simultaneous swiveling 5-axis milling head with 37 kW, 7000 min^-1, and 900 Nm torque. In addition, it was equipped with a complete spray guard cover with bellows roof and the patented DAS+ damping system.

The most important features of the new high-gantry portal milling machines

- High-speed milling: Maximum efficiency thanks to the high-dynamics function with axis speeds of up to 60,000 mm/min and accelerations of up to 4 m/s².
 - Versatile: The machines can be equipped with either 5-axis contour milling heads or high-torque milling heads.
 - Innovative 5-axis milling heads with speeds of up to 30,000 rpm offer not only high speed, but also precision and efficiency. These milling heads enable the machining of complex geometries, whether for the construction of aerospace components, the production of complex molds and tools or the roughing and finishing of steel and aluminum. With up to 60 kW, the milling heads deliver outstanding cutting performance. A large selection of 5-axis milling heads with torques of up to 2000 Nm is also available.
 - Highest surface quality for the most demanding machining operations: In precision engineering, a perfect surface finish is essential. An important factor here is thermal stability, which ensures that performance remains constant even with fluctuating temperatures and demanding machining processes. The stability of the Dynamic Line is proof of the careful design of the new machine models.
 

Automation solutions at all levels

Another highlight of the summit was Soraluce's automation solutions. The company presented high-productive, unmanned machining processes that cover projects at all levels: from the single machine with pallet changer to complex flexible machining cells consisting of multiple machines with workpiece and tool feeding systems, controlled by the Soraluce Control System automation software. This customized software manages the machining cell based on the orders and integrates all the elements it consists of, such as machines, workpieces, pallets, tools, and CNC programs, to facilitate its operation.

Focus: aerospace

Another focus of the summit was solutions for the machining of aerospace components. For this segment, Soraluce presented technologies for machining engine, aircraft and landing gear components using current application examples. In addition, tailored manufacturing solutions for machining different materials such as Inconel, alloyed steels, titanium, aluminum or carbon fiber were showcased, complemented by multitasking solutions for milling and turning on one machine.

According to the different requirements, a large selection of mechanical 5-axis milling heads with high torque or with electric spindle for high speeds can be variably selected. The pendulum machining, already mentioned earlier in the text, with several workstations as well as Soraluce's patented intelligent technologies such as DAS (Dynamics Active Stabiliser), Modular Quill or Ram Balance were also introduced to the summit participants.

This article was first published on our sister brand 'SMM – Schweizer MaschinenMarkt' (Suisse Edition) Vogel Communications Group AG