rcoope
Stainless
- Joined
- Sep 25, 2010
- Location
- Vancouver Canada
This is a major back fill as this actual move happened September 2018, and then we spent some time getting our TRT-160 five axis unit up and running (our timelines mostly) so it got put off. But I finally got some highlight pictures together so here we go. This is a biomedical prototyping and clinical maintenance machine shop in a large Vancouver hospital. We had done a major equipment upgrade in 2007 including a Haas TM-2 with 4th axis which had given stellar service on numerous projects including early stage prototyping that helped get around four university spin off companies off the ground. So with this stellar record and a proposal for some ongoing clinical component manufacturing I will leave out for now, the powers that be smiled upon us and produced the capital dollars to upgrade to a VM-3 ultimately with the new compact TRT-160 5th axis module. There were a few reasons for this choice, and you can actually watch NYCCNC's video on this topic if you want more VM-3 explanation, but one consideration for us was to put the largest machine we could in the floor footprint we had. The TM-2 had originally come in through the doors and down some stairs that aren't shown in these photos, but the VM-3 was way to big, so when the rigger visited, we quickly concluded we had to go through the 12' high, 10' wide window.....
This is an old photo showing the TM-2 with a 48" press brake hard next to it. This was never satisfactory and the latter has now moved to the mezzanine.
Around a week before delivery a crew showed up to remove the window. This was a multi-day ordeal, in part because when they built the building they inexplicably used a 350lb square steel beam in the non structural window frame. On re installation it got replaced by a plywood box!
We had to lose one of our two Bridgeport type mills, so this one was donated to colleagues at the university. Alvin from F&G Trucking is a great Hiab operator I can tell you.
While the window was coming out, the shop staff had been moving machines and getting ready. The TM-2 was traded in as part of the deal so it is about to leave here, having had the outer sheet metal removed. We would have loved to have kept it but there is just no space.
On to the rigging. The problem was that we had 12' of height to rig this 8' plus machine. The theoretical clearance was going to be around a foot if I recall, and that was only if the machine was quite flat during the lift. That all precluded a regular sling and instead required the bar here, but it took the crew around three hours to get it so it was properly balanced, and that was after doing an entire practice lift at their warehouse. They actually used extra straps and wooden blocks to generate friction against the front of the casting to prevent it from rocking. It was very stressful to even watch!
End of Part 1
This is an old photo showing the TM-2 with a 48" press brake hard next to it. This was never satisfactory and the latter has now moved to the mezzanine.
Around a week before delivery a crew showed up to remove the window. This was a multi-day ordeal, in part because when they built the building they inexplicably used a 350lb square steel beam in the non structural window frame. On re installation it got replaced by a plywood box!
We had to lose one of our two Bridgeport type mills, so this one was donated to colleagues at the university. Alvin from F&G Trucking is a great Hiab operator I can tell you.
While the window was coming out, the shop staff had been moving machines and getting ready. The TM-2 was traded in as part of the deal so it is about to leave here, having had the outer sheet metal removed. We would have loved to have kept it but there is just no space.
On to the rigging. The problem was that we had 12' of height to rig this 8' plus machine. The theoretical clearance was going to be around a foot if I recall, and that was only if the machine was quite flat during the lift. That all precluded a regular sling and instead required the bar here, but it took the crew around three hours to get it so it was properly balanced, and that was after doing an entire practice lift at their warehouse. They actually used extra straps and wooden blocks to generate friction against the front of the casting to prevent it from rocking. It was very stressful to even watch!
End of Part 1