The Voortman V320 is designed for plate drilling and cutting. It is equipped with a 40 HP servo drill unit and a 10-station automatic tool changer, so high speed carbide drilling processes are faster. The V320 offers flexibility with marking options – by milling or plasma.
A HyDefinition plasma torch is standard and allows for precision plasma cuts with minimal dross. Fumes and dust generated during the production process are extracted by a fume extraction unit for clean and safe operating. Gripper feed clamps reduce scrap while maintaining precise and accurate positioning.
Voortman V320 Details: AUTOMATIC DISCHARGE TABLE The Voortman V320 can automatically discharge cut products (up to a dimension of 500 mm x 500 mm) after the cutting process. The discharge table first lowers 75 mm to take the products out of the steel plate. Then by tilting to an angle of approximately 45°, the products will slide onto the product conveyor belt. The automatic discharge table allows the machine to operate entirely on its own for a considerable time, without the need of an operator to remove the products from the cutting table. With a bridge cut it is even possible to lower the table only once per several products, saving a few seconds per product.
PRODUCT OUTFEED CONVEYOR BELT The products that are discharged by the discharge table slide onto the product conveyor belt underneath the cutting area. The products are then transported to the side of the machine, enabling immediate pick-up and eliminates down-time of the machine. A bin (not included) can be placed at the end of the conveyor belt to collect all products.
TOOL CHANGER The tenfold tool changer on the Voortman V320 enables fully automatic production and fast tool changing.
LENGTH MEASURING The VD40 drilling unit is able to store its current tool at the corresponding position in the tool changer and then take a new tool from one of the other nine positions fully automatically. When the operator stores a new tool in the tool changer the length of the tool is automatically measured and saved. This enables the drilling unit to move towards the material with maximum speed. Just before the tool touches the material the drilling unit reduces its speed to the required feed rate.
AUTOMATIC LIFETIME CALCULATION Before a nesting starts, the software automatically calculates how many holes need to be drilled. If the number of holes exceeds the defined lifetime of the current drill, the software will warn the operator that a tool change is necessary during the drilling of the nesting. When an additional drill is placed into the tool changer with the same diameter as the currently used drill, the machine will automatically change to the additional drill when the lifetime of the currently used drill is exceeded.
SWARF BRUSH After the drilling process the swarf brush first swipes the most of the swarfs into the swarf bin and then starts rotating to brush the remaining swarfs into the swarf bin to ensure the plate is clean before the cutting process commences. To minimize the production time the swarf brush only cleans the drilled section of the plate.
AUTOMATIC HEIGHT ADJUSTMENT TO PLATE THICKNESS The swarf brush is electrically driven and the operating height is adjusted automatically by an air cylinder for an optimal surface cleaning.
LAYOUT MARKING Marking your material can be useful to identify cut plates to ease up the production and assembling process. The Voortman V320 can be used for layout marking by plasma or layout marking by milling. The choice of which marking technology to use depends on several requirements, such as:
Allowed (or disallowed) heat distortion
Required marking speed
Required number of characters and data size
Depth of marking based on post processes
Technology or marking costs
MARKING BY PLASMA Marking by plasma creates a surface discoloration and vaporizes a small amount of material. The advantage of plasma marking is that it can be done with the same plasma unit that is used for plasma cutting. The plasma unit will automatically switch to Argon gas for optimum marking results. Marking by plasma will increase your consumable costs and is more expensive than marking by milling. The speed of marking by plasma depends on the depth of the mark but goes up to 7,5 m/min (24-1/2 ft/min).
MARKING BY MILLING From all marking types milling creates the highest quality mark which is even visible after shot blasting, painting or galvanizing. A high air output motor in the marking tool runs at 20.000 rpm to rotate the carbide milling tip to mark with a depth of approximately 1 mm (3⁄64”). The depth can be manually adjusted with the VACAM control software. The carbide milling tip has four useable sides which minimizes the marking costs. Marking speeds are possible up to 6,5 m/min (21 ft/min).
VD40 DRILLING UNIT The Voortman VD40 drilling unit (with a SK40 mount) is suitable for HSS drilling, carbide tipped drilling, solid carbide drilling, thread tapping, counterboring, countersinking and center point marking. Drilling is possible up to a diameter of 40 mm.
The drilling unit is mounted on double linear guides. Servo driven ball screws guarantee precise and fast drilling, with extremely high feed rates. Hydraulic clamping prevents the plate from moving during the drilling process and eliminates vibrations resulting in more accurate drilling and extended tool life. The drills are cooled internally by a mixture of oil and air, for a long lifetime of the tools and to eliminate cleaning after drilling.
CARBIDE DRILLING The high powered drilling unit (30 kW / 40 hp) of the Voortman V320 maximizes the benefits of carbide drilling. Carbide drilling is up to three times faster and has a longer lifetime than HSS drills. There is also no need for a drill sharpener.
HSS DRILLING The advantage of HSS tools are the low costs but the drilling speed and feed rates are much lower. Because the hardness of a HSS drill is also lower than the hardness of a carbide drill, the drills are getting blunt faster and require frequent sharpening.
THREAD TAPPING Thread tapping on the Voortman V320 is possible from M6 to M30 and the parameters are all standard included in the VACAM software.
COUNTERSINKING / COUNTERBORING Because the top of the plate is constantly measured, counterboring and countersinking blind holes is also possible on the Voortman V320. Several sequence options are possible based on the chosen drill / mill type.
AUTOMATIC PLATE ALIGNMENT Heavy plates are hard to manually position exactly against the datum line. Time is wasted during loading the machine because the operator is busy with aligning the plate on the machine. The Voortman V320 can be optionally equipped with hydraulic pushers to eliminate this downtime and speed up your production.
With hydraulic pushers the plate can be loaded on the rollers in the loading area. The hydraulic pushers pull the plate towards the datum line to assure optimal alignment. Depending on plate width, the position of the pushers can be adjusted for faster plate alignment. The pushers can be operated by the VACAM control panel.
EASY TO USE CONTROL SOFTWARE Real-time information Authorized persons can retrieve real-time information about the production process and machine status. For a more detailed report, the Production Data Exporter module can be used for feedback, allowing real-time information sharing about fabrication. All operations and motions performed on the system are stored in a SQL database for sharing with any ERP, MRP and MIS software system.
E-mail notifications VACAM has the option to send automatic e-mail notifications on upcoming events. This function can be useful when for example the machine stopped on a tool change, an error or any other message on the screen. The notifications are easy to configure, depending customer demands. For proper operation of the e-mail notifications, a broadband internet connection is required.
VACAM office edition The VACAM Office Edition is developed in the same style, and works in a similar way as the VACAM Machine Edition. It can be installed at the office to create products and monitor the production process in real-time. The VACAM Office Edition has a reduced user interface, because it is not used for machine control.
VACAD EDITOR Easy modifying and creating of products VACAD Editor is a flexible drawing tool, integrated in VACAM. It can be used to create and modify contours, holes, imprints, marks etc. for cutting and layout marking processes.
Saving your own templates The VACAD module shows the actual dimensions and is a pleasant tool to work with. Created contours can be saved in templates, which can also be inserted in other products.
MASTER AND SUPPORT GRIPPER By utilizing two measuring grippers the plate always moves highly accurate through the system. The master gripper on the back secures the plate with three rigid clamps, while the support gripper at the datum line secures the plate with two rigid clamps. Because the support gripper moves independently from the master gripper the whole plate length is covered. The support gripper is always close to the processed area and allows the Voortman V320 to process flat bars as well. Processing full plate nestings or short plates is no problem because the support gripper is retractable, this means as much material as possible can be processed.
HELICAL RACK AND PINION AND HIGH PRECISION LINEAR GUIDANCE The movement of the master and support grippers is servo driven with a helical rack and pinion transmission with minimum backlash. A high precision linear guidance moves the trucks in the length direction of the plate for highly accurate cutting and drilling results.
PRECISE DRILL AND TORCH MOVEMENT The torch and drill modules are both positioned by servo driven ball screws over the width of the machine to ensure precise cutting and drilling.
LIFTABLE DATUM LINE The liftable datum line secures the correct position of the plate before the start of the process. The operator or the optional hydraulic pushers moves the plate against the datum line. When the measuring system transports the plate towards the machine the datum line lowers below the conveyors
LARGE 30 KW SERVO DRIVE FOR EXTREME ACCELERATION RATES Using synchronized servo drives with ball screws for each movement as well as a large 30 kW servo drive for the drilling spindle results in extreme acceleration rates and high velocities.
MAXIMUM FEED RATE TOWARDS MATERIAL When the operator stores a new tool in the tool changer the length of the tool is automatically measured and saved. The top side of the plate is constantly measured. These two measurements allow the drill to move with a maximum feed rate towards the material.
Just before the drill touches the material the software adjusts the speed to the specified feed rate for the drill type and material combination for optimal drilling results.
OPTIMIZED MOVEMENT When multiple holes are drilled with the same diameter the drill stays as close as possible to the material and does not retract after each hole. The elimination of idle movement ensures a capacity increase of 20% in a fully nested plate.
AUTOMATIC CLUSTERING Holes with the same diameter are automatically clustered to eliminate redundant tool changes.
HIGH DEFINITION PLASMA The plasma sources suitable for the Voortman V320 are all equipped with the latest technology called High Definition plasma. High Definition provides the plasma arc with more stability and energy which enables even higher cutting quality results. High Definition plasma even provides similar quality results as cuts made by laser in terms of angularity and dross.
Voortman offers various plasma sources with cutting currents from 300 up to 400 amps which allow our customers to cut plates up to 120 mm (4-3/4“) thick. The new Hypertherm XPR300 plasma source can now be offered. From Kjellberg, the Smartfocus plasma sources are available as well.
OXY-FUEL CUTTING The Voortman V320 is standard equipped with an oxy-fuel torch to cut thick material up to 75 mm.
VACAM CONTROLLED PROPORTIONAL GAS VALVES The oxy-fuel torch is fitted with proportional gas valves which automatically control the gas flow for automatic pre-heating, piercing and cutting. The gas mix is selected based on the thickness and nozzle size from parameters stored in the VACAM software. Pressure and gas flow can be controlled from the VACAM control panel so even heavy parts are easy to produce. The flame ignites automatically so no manual proceedings are required to start the cutting flame. It is possible to interrupt the pre-heating process and start cutting immediately by using the control panel.
AUTOMATIC HEIGHT CONTROL An automatic height console controls the height of the oxy-fuel cutting torch with a capacitive sensor during pre-heating, piercing and cutting.
COMBINATION OF PROCESSES The drilling unit can be used to create start holes to eliminate the piercing cycle during oxy-fuel cutting. This creates an even more stable process. Products can also be cut with a combination of oxy-fuel cutting and plasma cutting. For instance, the outer contour of the product is cut with plasma while the inner contour is cut with oxy-fuel. These combinations of processes create the most preferable cutting quality without the interference of an operator.
XTENSIVE HOLE PERFORMANCE Voortman further optimized the Hypertherm® True Hole™ and Kjellberg® Contour Cut range by creating a perfect match between the technology and dynamic movement of the Voortman V320.
Perfect results with the True Hole™ technology and Contour Cut technology can only be accomplished with highly accurate motion capabilities. The Voortman V320 is executed with helical rack and pinion transmissions to enable high accelerations and decelerations, which are required for cutting a great quality hole.
SLOT HOLES Xtensive Hole Performance is also applied on small to medium sized slot holes and square inner contours. Damage by lead-ins and lead-outs is eliminated, creating nothing but a perfect slot hole / square inner contour.
ADVANCED NESTING SOFTWARE Voortman offers the advanced nesting engine SigmaNEST for increasing material optimization and cutting efficiency. Advanced nesting algorithms ensure a better part yield and maximize material usage while optimizing the cutting cycle times.
AUTOMATIC NESTING AND NC PROGRAMMING A powerful automatic nesting algorithm minimizes material scrap. The NC-path for the plate cutting machine is automatically created based on customer preferences. Plates can also be automatically cropped and remnants can be automatically created when desired.
INVENTORY MANAGEMENT AND STOCK CONTROL The inventory management system within SigmaNEST offers a clear view on the available sheet stock and remnant stock. Remnants, once destined for the scrap yard can now easily be saved for future use. Traceability of remnants is also further increased in SigmaNEST version 10 because remnants can be marked with material certificate numbers, thicknesses and other preferred settings.
BRIDGE CUT The number of pierces, material waste and/or the cutting length can be reduced with options such as bridge cut and common cut. Big advantage of bridge cut with a Voortman V320 is that the product removal cycle only happens once every several products. This will optimize the production time even further.
ACCURATE COST AND TIME ESTIMATION During the quote stage accurate cost and time calculations can be made with SigmaNEST based on the cutting length, drilling length, positioning time and number of pierces. Cutting and drilling time can also be used to streamline the production process and optimize planning.
PRE-PIERCE AND PIERCING ZONES Pre-piercing allows piercing with older consumables or creating a drilled starting hole for an edge start. This decreases the intensity of the initial pierce and therefore decreases the consumable costs. The cut can be started with newer consumables with an edge start, starting from the edge of holes which keeps the cutting quality of the products high. Piercing zones can be set to optimize the cutting path and cutting speed when possibly crossing slag from a previous pierce.
OPEN ARCHITECTURE AND INTEGRATION WITH MRP SigmaNEST is .NET compliant with an open architecture and offers automated links to MRP/ERP software for batch and Bill-of-Material (BOM) processing.
