CNC West Feb March 2019

24 www.CNC-West.com CNC WEST February/March 2019 with the benefits of 5 axis machining a few years ago,” tells Marcelo. “Fewer setups reduce the interaction with the operators, minimizing the opportunity to make mistakes. With the tolerances we hold all it takes is a little error loading a part to make a huge impact. A single setup is a great thing. Since all the features are being machined in one pass it has allowed our operators to run multiple machines during the longer cycler times.” BLM’s newest acquisition is a Chevalier QP5X-400 5 axis mill that they worked with NuTech Machinery in Ontario to purchase. It was bought right off the Chevalier showroom floor in Santa Fe Springs, CA. and been in production for just over a year. “I’ve noticed over the last few years the Korean and Taiwanese machines have really stepped up their game,” describes Jeff. “The machines are smarter and everyone is raising the bar. They offer a great bang for your buck. Chevalier is known mostly for their grinding and 3 axis machines. The 5 axis was a new product line for them. It was the first unit sold on the west coast, if not in the USA. It is hard to sell a new machine when there are no others out running in shops for us to see, and admittedly we were skeptical. I sent Marcelo down multiple times to feed it code and check things out.” Jeff freely admits that price was a driving factor in choosing the Chevalier over competitors, but the decid- ing point was the commitment and faith that Chevalier had in their own product. “The QP5X-400 has a lot of features and capabilities,” touts Jeff. “If it lived up to the Bob Lewis Machine has a wide variety of milling and turning centers ranging from 5 axis mills to compact turning centers. Brands like Chevalier, Nissin, Kiwa, Fadal and Hyundai make up the milling department while Mori, Okuma, Hyundai and Hitatchi get the job done in turning.