Opinions on a Kitamura Horizontal....

[Thee Dragracer1951]

I asked about this before. Some people told me of reliability issues.

I have been talking to the Kitamura rep, and he took me to see three different shops that are using them.

So....

I'm going to ask about SPECIFIC reliability issues.

And the companies that own those machines.

Please feel free to email me that info instead of putting it up on the forum.

I'm not asking about opinions, I'm asking about verifiable relaibility issues....

Thanks.

 

This owning a shop stuff is tricky, huh?

[crazy^millman]

I think they are great machines, but like anything if you do not take care of them they will not hold up.

[TR Mfg.]

quote:

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This owning a shop stuff is tricky, huh?

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Ya! Why dose it have to be so hard?

[Steve Hattori]

I have a 2000 Kitamura Vert w/pallet chgr, and I can say, it's been a pretty reliable machine. You need to stay on top of the gibb adjustments and leveling to keep it cutting true, but we have not had any major failures. Well, other than going thru spindles at first- the last one they put in has gone 6 years, and no probs. It is more reliable than the Mazaks we have, by far. I would recommend getting the maximum available control options, like a Dataserver of whatever Fanuc is calling it these days, especially if you plan on high-speed surfacing.

 

Just my .02... good luck!

[Charlie Pierson]

We have 6 Mycenter 3x's w/ 2 pallet changers.

On the whole, they have been pretty reliable.

The only issue I have w/ them is as they get older, the prox switch plug connectors located

under the saddle at the XY table junction seem to fail due to coolants deforming the plugs.

PITA to access and repair. We usually remove the plug and solder the connections, but we are still looking for a way to make then absolutely watertight.

 

cp

[PeterM]

We have a 2003 HX400. I have had a fair number of problems with this Horizontal. I had to put in a value into the universal shift because I could pick up a workshift position, bore a hole in the same position, and have the 2 holes run out to each other, BTW I never got an answer let alone a solution from the service techs. I have had numerous tool change hangups that are not that simple to straighten out(I had to write my own tool changer procedure as Kitamura never wrote one) and most bothersome, we have had to change servo coolant fans some five times, those things should last forever. My boss fell in love with this thing because it is a box way machine with twin lead screws in all axis, a 13000 rpm spindle and 1450 ipm, but it has never been the work horse that it should have been.

[gms1]

We dont own a horizontal but we do have a 4xif vertical and we have had nothing but problems with the tool changer. The owner of the company was ready to call the riggers and have them ship it to the front door of our tech place.

[Roger D]

We have a 2Xif sparkchanger vertical,we too had a lot of problems with the toolchanger as PeterM says.We found the limit switch to show the pot is up allowed the tool magazine to rotate before the pot was fully up,smashing pots.We adjusted the switch and it doesn't smash pots anymore, just the regular hangups.

 

Roger

[1 master]

Ive never seen one that didn't have problems. in 1999 we had 3 and all 3 went thru spindles of either 2 - 3 a year. they said that we put in the wrong kind of lubes and maintains was bad. it was funny because they were the ones who did all of the service. i too am looking for a new horizontal and gave them another look just to make sure. but again i decided not to go with them.