Living Large – Vertical Turning

From the gargantuan to the Rube Goldberg, it’s gravity that makes the improbable practical

As a precision machine shop, we at Greno Industries invest in top-of-the-line equipment to be ready for unusual, challenging jobs. Our large vertical turning lathes (VTLs) take the idea of a CNC horizontal chucker lathe and turn it on its head.

Using the power of gravity and an ever-evolving range of attachments, Greno’s VTLs can turn, drill, tap and mill applications ranging from 10,000-pound turbine rings to lightweight, high-precision aluminum parts for aerospace and information technology companies.

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The key to this versatility is gravity. For large pieces, constant downward force on the workpiece provides extra stability. A vertical spindle can be supported 360 degrees, increasing the maximum weight allowable and eliminating droop.

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On delicate parts, gravity lessens the clamping force needed to keep the part in the chuck. The forces created by heavy or interrupted cutting are dissipated, allowing for more precise flatness and perpendicularity.  Smaller, fragile pieces that tend to distort under clamping in a horizontal spindle lathe, as well as unbalanced work pieces or parts with interrupted cuts, benefit greatly from vertical turning.

“There’s a certain satisfaction with taking a rusty hunk of metal and cutting it into something that’s going to help power India,” chuckled Chris Daum, who has been a machinist and estimator with Greno for more than a dozen years.

“We do plates for MRI machines, for example, that are very large in diameter – 75 inches or so – made from thin aluminum,” Daum said.  “Because of the sheer size of them, and the tight tolerances on the location of the holes that need to be milled out, sometimes the client has trouble sourcing a mill like us that is able to accommodate the job.”

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For more than 50 years, Greno Industries has led the precision machine parts industry, evolving from a supply company to an industrial manufacturing operation producing intricate parts with tight tolerances. Working from a broad selection of fine metals and high-temp alloys ranging from carbon steel to exotic metals, Greno’s capabilities include vertical and horizontal turning and milling; kitting; welding; Cad/Cam drawing and programming; non-destructive testing; shipping and exporting; laser cutting; CMM precision measuring; black oxide; plasma cutting; bright dipping; water jet; sand blasting; heat treating and plating.

Staying on the cutting edge, so to speak, with multi-axis, large-chuck, wide-swing, long-traveling lathes is especially important for Greno as we expand our service to the aerospace and defense industries. The addition this year of AS9100D certification and registration for International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) qualifies Greno to manufacture and export precision parts for defense contractors covered by the United States Munitions List.

“A lot of things we do are proprietary,”  Daum said. “It could be one of two thousand parts that are going into something. We don’t need to know the function of a part, necessarily. We just need to know the exact specifications.”

Greno’s VTL Capabilities:

For complicated jobs, such as diaphragm segments for turbines, Greno uses a Toshiba TUE 200 vertical turning lathe.

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“We  have a right-angle head attachment that allows us to do work like drill, tap and mill the sidewall of a part,” Daum said. “That means if a part has holes not only through the face, but also through the side, you can do both with the same setup.”

That reduces the need for another setup on a horizontal milling machine, increasing accuracy and reducing the time and cost involved in producing the part.

Another type of job the large vertical turning lathe is perfect for is machine work on features of fabricated components with big weldments.

A typical specialty job is the turning and milling of blowout prevention valve components used to seal, control and monitor oil and gas wells and offshore oil rigs. They’re generally about three feet tall and five feet around and weigh as much as five tons.

“They’re gigantic pistons,” Daum said.“They look like a big top hat with all sorts of grooves cut into it.

“We have a wide variety of tooling that these machines will accept, and we’re able to purchase or modify existing tooling to accommodate the features that are required by the customers’ needs.”

Contact us for a quote on precision milled parts for aerospace, defense, military, power generation, oil & gas, compressor & pump, transportation, research & development, mining, alternative energy, pulp & paper, food processing and healthcare.

Greno Industries, PO Box 542, Schenectady, NY 12301-0542 United States

Eileen Guarino 518-469-3984 eguarino@greno.com

Thomas Finnigan 518-281-3184 tfinnigan@greno.com