Pallet Changers Accommodate High Volumes, Tight Tolerances

Midaco has expanded its line of pallet changers to accommodate high-volume, large, precision parts machined to tight tolerances for the aerospace, energy, automotive, medical, military, power generation, and oil and gas industries.

The pallet changers are designed to eliminate unnecessary spindle downtime. They adapt to most machining center brands and models, accommodating large bridge mills, travels up to 190" × 88" (4,826 × 2,235 mm) a weight capacity of up to 32,000 lbs (14,528 kg).

Once a pallet or load of parts is complete, the next pallet or job is transferred into the machine automatically from a side-mounted shuttle onto the receiver mounted to the VMC table. All part loading and job set-up tasks are performed offline, eliminating the need for an operator to lean into or climb into the machine. The company’s automatic pallet systems are easily installed on the right side or the left side of a VMC, or on both sides for machines which do not move in a Y axis. All automatic models offer CE Guarding with either a three-sided door option or a light curtain option with light emitters, mirrors and sensors.

The automatic pallet changers are servo-driven and are designed to offer a fast pallet change time, decrease load time by switching parts outside of the machine tool and eliminate overhead obstructions for crane access. There are multiple dedicated pallets, providing additional setups if needed. Large-capacity machines are available, including single-shuttle systems, dual-shuttle systems and single/dual-shuttle systems.