Never content to sit back and enjoy the rewards of success, Haas Automation engineers are always designing new products or thinking up ways to improve the existing ones. While some new products are variations on existing themes, others break entirely new ground. Here are a few examples of what’s in the works at Haas: 

Gantry Mill
One exciting new machine under development, and designed to take advantage of a growing market for large-capacity machines, is a large -frame Gantry Mill with 200" x 84" x 24" travels and 72" between the columns.

Designed for heavy milling of extremely heavy parts, the Haas Gantry Mill features a powerful 30-horsepower, 50- taper spindle and 20-pocket automatic tool changer.  Driven through a precision two-speed gearbox, the vector drive spindle yields 450 ft-lb of low-speed cutting torque for heavy cuts, yet provides speeds to 5,000 rpm for finish cuts and milling aluminum. A precise rack-and-pinion drive system provides motion on the X axis, and additional sections can be bolted together to accommodate very long parts. With such long travels, workers can load parts on one end while the machine is cutting at the other.

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High-Pressure Coolant
A high-pressure coolant system is now available on all new SL-Series lathes. This new system provides 300 psi of coolant to the cutting edge for deep-hole drilling, heavy cuts, faster feed rates and better surface finishes. Activated by an M code in the part program, this dual coolant system provides both high- (300 psi) and low- (30 psi) pressure coolant via the same delivery system, either through the tool or through standard coolant nozzles. The result is high productivity and reduced cycle times. 

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High Speed Control

The latest High Speed control software for Haas mills provides a powerful tool for reducing cycle times and improving accuracy for many applications, including tool & die, molds, patterns, electrodes, aircraft components and other 3-, 4- and 5-axis parts. Using a motion algorithm called “acceleration before interpolation,” combined with full look-ahead of up to 80 blocks, the new High Speed software provides very high feedrates with little risk of distortion to the programmed path. All programmed motions are accelerated before interpolation, which ensures that the movement of each axis will not exceed the acceleration capability of that axis. The look-ahead algorithm determines the feedrate at which one stroke can be blended into another without stopping. The result is higher accuracy, smoother motion and a higher actual feedrate – even with complex geometry. 

Here’s How It Works

The new High Speed CNC software controls machine motion exactly the same at low feed rates as it does at high feed rates. A queue of motion strokes is built from axis motion data found in the G-code command program, and a look-ahead function determines the maximum velocity that can be maintained at each stroke junction. Junctions of linear strokes with very shallow blending angles, or circular strokes which are tangent to the velocity vector, require no reduction in velocity and can be negotiated at the maximum programmed feedrate. Stroke junctions with greater angles are negotiated at lesser velocities down to zero at the greatest angles. 

For very fast feedrates up to 400 ipm, and very short command block stroke lengths, the look-ahead function can look ahead as many as 80 blocks to find where velocity must begin deceleration to be slow enough for a sharp corner or exact stop. At low feedrates, or when executing long command block stroke lengths, the look-ahead distance may only need to be one or two blocks.

The model of a television remote control was machined in 35 minutes and 24 seconds using the new Haas High Speed software (version 10.6), versus a time of 1 hour, 43 minutes and 25 seconds using previous software version 9.61.

Significant improvements in cycle time are possible, with the control planning the acceleration profile over many motion blocks instead of dealing with blocks independently. Accuracy is also greatly improved because the abrupt changes in direction are visible far enough ahead of time to compute the required acceleration necessary to bring velocity down to a value appropriate for the direction change.