From design to reality

About £1m has been invested in engineering equipment at the JCB Academy, the UK's first University Technical College dedicated to engineering, including top-end IT hardware, 3D design technology and several CNC/manual lathes and turret mills supplied by XYZ Machine Tools, which enable students to turn their design ideas into reality.

XYZ supplied four 5.75 kW/2500 rev/min ProTURN 1630 lathes with 760mm between centres distance, and two 2.2 kW/3600 rev/min Proto TRAK SMX 2500 bed mills with 1245 x 228mm tables. All are guarded to comply with the latest CE regulations to ensure operator safety.

Ease of use was a key element in the selection process. The XYZ machines have a ProtoTRAK CNC system, which means they can be operated under manual control or use the program and run modes that give full CNC capability. The user can program at the machine by following plain English prompts on the screen, with Auto Geometry Profiling on the mills providing the point-to-point capability to calculate missing dimensions. It is also possible to program off-line.