Matsuura Refurb Xtrac RA-2
17 October 2011
Every so often an established customer will approach Matsuura to refurbish a production machine. The drivers for this course of action vary from customer to customer, but the core motives are always the same: The Matsuura machine has performed a particular application accurately, reliably & profitably for a great many years, & the company do not wish to change the machine – just restore it to A1 performance condition.
(Picture: Dave Bassett hand scraping RA-2)
Sometimes this can be a total strip down & rebuild, with fine attention to the finishing – delivering an “as new” machine back to the customer, or can just incorporate re-working the major items on the machine, such as ballscrews, linear & or box slide ways, spindle rebuild to the latest specification & all other function critical assemblies & components.
One such customer in 2011 is Xtrac – one of the worlds leading transmission technology companies. Established in 1984, Xtrac designs & manufactures transmission technology for the toughest motorsport arena’s, including Formula One, World Rally, Indy Racing League Grand AM, World Touring Car Championships, Sports Prototype / GT, Rally Raid and specialist automotive application including hybrid and electric vehicles.
Virtually all of the world's top motorsport teams, and increasingly non-motorsport concerns, rely on Xtrac's expertise.
Operating from a bespoke 88,000 square foot facility in Thatcham, Berkshire the company has also established successful facilities in the USA – namely in Indianapolis & Mooresville.
The worlds leading technology companies possess the best production environments – they invariably invest in proven state of the art plant, machine tools & supporting technology to produce their world beating & market leading products. The competitive edge is understood very well at such companies - & utilising that advantage to profitable fruition comes as second nature. Maximising their return on investment in critical production technology is a vital element to their business ethos, continued growth & success.
In 1996 Xtrac purchased a new vertical twin pallet RA-2 machine from Matsuura for the hard milling of F1 gears. This pivotal investment & machine tool cemented the relationship between the company & Matsuura, performing impeccably with unerring accuracy for the best part of 15 years. Variants from Matsuura’s product range followed over the subsequent years, including multi pallet 5 axis & horizontal machines to accompany Xtrac’s growing list of Matsuura verticals.
The fact that the RA-2 machine was still undertaking its tasks right up to the day when it was decommissioned by Matsuura & taken to our Leicestershire facility is testament to the build quality of the machine – a build quality ethos that resonates to this day in Matsuura factories in Japan across all product ranges.
After a machine that is destined for refurbishment lands at Matsuura’s Leicestershire HQ, it is installed in a bespoke bay that is designed for purpose. The machine is powered, levelled, re-commissioned & tested for accuracy & functionality, generating reports for recommended work. The machine is then stripped back to begin the inspection process, with detailed photographs & reports kept – some of which are fed back to Matsuura Japan giving the parent company a critical insight into how the machine has performed over the decades.
David Bassett is the vastly experienced Matsuura Engineer tasked with adding years of profitable production to customer machines entrusted to Matsuura for refurbishment. Dave has been with Matsuura for 16 years & extensively trained in Japan on all product variants, & was previously Team Leader on Machine Assembly Production in the UK.
Dave says: “Matsuura machines are hand built – always have been & always will be. Refurbishing 10 – 15 – 20 year old Matsuura’s is one of the most satisfying aspects of my job. The machines are built to quality standards at each point of their commission on production – building in the longevity of performance & accuracy – the product is designed & built so well that it is never a titanic task to bring them back to A1 performance condition. Each commission stage ends with stringent quality standards that must be achieved before the machine can progress to the next stage – customers who periodically call in to see the progress of their refurb are amazed at the lengths we go to – but that’s the Matsuura way.
Hand scraping of mating faces is an essential ingredient as to why our machines perform accurately for many, many years.
The RA-2 from Xtrac is basically an X & Y axes & spindle rebuild – the Z axis passed muster with no issues at all. We will base the work on the customer’s application & requirement to maximise the longevity of their refurb investment. This can incorporate partial or full rebuilds.
The Turcite has been re-done – scraping in the Turcite works the accuracy into the meeting faces. The saddle assembly on this machine for instance, at the moment the new Turcite is too high at the front end by 8 microns – my task for today is scrape away to work that to zero zero accuracy – no deflection at all.
To say that this machine has been engaged in hard milling of motorsport gears for over a decade you would hardly tell under the covers & guards. We are stripping the X & Y back to its major castings, leaving the perimeter guarding intact & literally rebuilding these axes from scratch. All X & Y internal telescopic covers will be replaced, ballscrews out & replaced, new bearings – the saddle & APC removed & reworked – it is the kind of forensic job that most engineers love to undertake. The build accuracy will be “as new” – following exactly the same procedures & meeting the rigid QA standards that the RA-2 originally achieved all those years ago”.
Matsuura’s UK facility contains a Class 1000 Clean Room complex for Spindle build & refurbishment – unique for any UK machine tool concern. This facility is staffed by dedicated spindle build engineers – again all trained extensively at Matsuura Japan. Xtrac’s RA-2 8,000RPM spindle is not only being refurbished, it is being re-commissioned to current Matsuura spindle standards & build tolerances. All refurbished spindles are placed on test after their rebuild in a dedicated test rig area, with an array of sensors & specialised OEM software putting the rebuilt spindle through its paces for a full 24 hour period.
Full or partial resprays of machine tools can also be undertaken at Matsuura UK, the facility possessing a large capacity fully equipped spray booth.
Dave continued: “Any item or components that need replacing are done so with Matsuura OEM parts. In the UK we are the spares holding & distribution centre for the whole of the Eurozone. We hold millions of pounds worth of spares for immediate despatch to Matsuura companies all over Europe – usually shipped within 24 hours of receiving the order. We carry parts for Matsuura machines I have never seen – but somewhere in Europe there will be one of those models & on the off chance that a critical component does fail we can respond immediately to get the customer machine back into production – making components & making money.
“It is essentially shrewd business to fully refurbish a proven quality machine tool that undertakes a critical job for a company – if it costs tens of thousands of pounds to achieve & adds years of productive life to the process it can be a much more financially attractive alternative to actually replacing it with a new one”
For more information about Xtrac & their world leading products & technology, please visit their website at www.xtrac.com
For more information about refurbishing your Matsuura machine please call 01530 511445, or email service@matsuura.co.uk
