Hurco Slant-Bed Lathe Features Live Tooling Capabilities

Hurco Co. Inc.’s TM8MYi lathe is said to fill the gap between Hurco’s general purpose TM series and high-performance TMX series of turning centers.

This true slant-bed lathe features live tooling capabilities and a Y-axis that makes it possible to machine a pocket with straight walls and flat bottoms, as well as perform off-center machining operations. It features a BMT55 turret, which is said to be more robust than the more commonly used BMT45, enabling maximum rigidity. The TM8MYi also has a bi-directional, servo-driven live tool that delivers speeds up to 5,000 rpm for dynamic milling, drilling and tapping.

Engineered for durability and performance, the TM8MYi features a Renishaw swing-down toolsetter for quick setups, linear roller ways to reduce vibration and increase rigidity and direct-drive linear axes for faster axis response and improved accuracy.

With an 8" chuck, maximum turning diameter of 12.60", drag-and-drop tailstock, A2-6 spindle nose and spindle bore diameter of 3.07", this lathe can handle a range of turning operations. The main spindle, delivering 15.5 hp and 72.4 ft-lbs of continuous torque, can provide reliable performance for heavy-duty applications.

The TM8MYi comes equipped with the intuitive Hurco control, including both conversational programming and NC in addition to NC/Conversational Merge, a specialized feature of the Hurco control.

A few of the other Hurco control features include UltiPocket, Advanced Verification Graphics with 3D Solid Rendering, 3D Import and Data Block Search.

UltiPocket adds custom cutting routines for machining pocket boundaries with islands. This option can provide complete cleaning out of odd-shaped pockets without cutting the islands programmed inside the boundary. The software automatically calculates the tool path around islands, eliminating the long task of plotting these shapes.

The Advanced Verification Graphics feature lets the user view a solid rendering of the tool path that displays dynamic rotation, tool cut simulation and dynamic view manipulation. This feature can reduce scrap, programming time and prove out the part program.

3D Import includes Solid Model Import and 3D DXF. Solid Model Import enables the user to program at the CNC control directly from a STP file. 3D DXF provides the ability to gather dimensional information from the DXF file and program from splines.

The Hurco control can also simplify the task of searching for a data block or line of code during the editing process with its Data Block Search feature. Users can touch the selection they need to edit on the graphics screen and the cursor will jump to the corresponding program selection.