Visit to Wickman Reveals Interesting Machine and Application
One of the machines that caught my eye is the model 675, which stands for six-spindle, 75-mm diameter.
Chris Barrett, director at Wickman, Coventry, England, gave us a tour of the company's operation.
Last spring at PMTS, I met with Jeremy Rose who heads up the U.S. operation for multi-spindle builder, Wickman. He wanted me to visit the company's headquarters in Coventry, England, because he said the company is doing some interesting things.
Well, I made it, and he was correct. Chris Barrett, director, was my host and showed me several machines in the build and run-off stage.
One of the machines that caught my eye is the model 675, which stands for six-spindle, 75-mm diameter. As Mr. Barrett says, this is about as far as the technology for Wickman goes. It is a 28-axis machine with CNC and compound axes of all of the cross slides.
What's really interesting is the application. The customer makes electrical connections, which are an assembly comprised of six parts. Each spindle makes one of the parts, so when the machine indexes, a complete assembly is produced. This makes double-drop pale in comparison.
My hope is to write a feature article in PM next year to tell you all about it.
