Factory floor space is often one of your most valuable assets so, naturally, you want to make every square foot as dollar productive as possible. Which means that if you frequently machine multi-sided parts, you should consider making your next CNC machine tool investment a horizontal machining center (HMC). The reason is quite simple: In many cases one horizontal machining center replaces multiple vertical machining centers (VMC).

For example, machining a part on vertical machining centers most often requires the operator to move the part seven or more times, typically in and out of four different vertical machining centers to accomplish all of the tasks required. On the other hand, the same operator can completely machine a six-sided part on a single horizontal machining center. Thus you save all of the floor space that three of the four vertical machining centers occupy, which adds up to a lot of real estate that you can use more productively.

Add to this a significant reduction in labor costs per part, thanks to the operator touching the part only three times with a horizontal machining center versus seven times on four vertical machining centers. Plus, you’ll also save on the cost of fixtures, since the horizontal machining center requires fewer changes in the position of parts from one operation to another. Finally, because spindle utilization on a horizontal machining center is 85% versus 25% for vertical machining centers, your overall manufacturing operation will become far more productive.

The Gosiger manufacturing technology experts can give you all of the facts on Okuma horizontal machining centers for general machining, heavy machining and high speed machining needs. So contact Gosiger today.