High technology and reliability – Specialists in turning

IMT Intermato can boast great competence in the stock removal world, confirmed also by facts: as a matter of fact, more than two thousand plants have already been delivered all over the world and are used by the most important global producers, both in stand-alone version and integrated into automatic production lines

IMT Intermato represents the best of the Made in Italy in the turning sector. Established in 1983 at Crosio della Valle, in Varese province, and located on an area that presently covers about 15,000 square metres, IMT Intermato has become a reference partner for the design and implementation of high speed CNC vertical lathes for the turning of metals, both small-size models mainly intended for the automotive industry and big-size lathes able to perform machining up to seven metres of diameter.

In 1996 they implement the first automatic line for machining light alloy wheels, while in 2004 they overcome the threshold of one thousand machines installed, with a production of about one hundred machines per year. In 2005 they install the first automatic volume-manufacturing line for the machining of pistons in the automotive sector, In 2006 the products of the “Standard Line” VL range make their debut and finally in 2007 IMT-Procast Line was born, thus widening the range of turning centres up to over seven metres of turning diameter. Today IMT Intermato is the main Italian manufacturer of CNC vertical turning, drilling and milling centres for light wheels for cars, motorbikes, industrial vehicles and for the aeronautical sector, too.

The first target was the starting up of a widespread presence in Europe through direct branches with spare part magazine, after sale service and sale assistance, besides centres specialized in supplying the technical after sale service only. A presence today extended also to Asia, with subsidiaries in Shanghai, Indonesia, Korea, Singapore and China, thanks to the distributor Shanghai H&D Science Technology Trading Co. Ltd. in Shanghai for sales, after sale service and spare part warehouse.

A development that has allowed IMT Intermato to become a leader in the field of machine tools specifically designed for machining aluminium wheels for cars, whose production exclusively takes place in Italy, a credit recognized on a world scale.

The production by IMT Intermato is subdivided into three main competence sectors. The first is represented by the vertical lathes of the WN series, mainly dedicated to the machining of light alloy wheels for automotive applications, for over twenty-five years the reference machines in the world for the machining of light alloy wheels. The lathes of the W series, manufactured in several hundred units mainly in the four-axis palletized version, have given birth to the new generation of WN lathes with a wide range of machines for the sectors of wheels for motorcycles and for industrial vehicles.

The vertical lathes of the A line are dedicated to the car industry and in particular pistons. They are very compact, modular and customizable machines, able to execute all turning and milling machining on various components.

The second is constituted by the vertical lathes of the two-axis VL range, which are the entry model of IMT Intermato: high performance products at relatively low costs.

The range is completed by machines able to satisfy the demand for big vertical-turning applications. The products of the P families with fixed crossrail, NTM with single column and VBM with double column offer versions with one or two vertical carriages, tool magazines adjusted according to users’ needs and automation systems through single or multiple pallets.

A range completely described by the 3D visualization, which allows presenting each product in the slightest structural and functional details.

The vertical machines are four-axis models with two turrets, generally equipped with automatic pallet system that allows the piece loading/unloading without affecting the machining cycle times. The pallet system permits to achieve the sequence of the operations requested by the turning cycles of wheels, that’s to say: first machining, successive reversal of the piece and execution of the second operation thus obtaining the finished piece, with the use of a single machine and without problems of time balancing between the two operations

IMT Intermato machines can be adapted to all the needs of the engineering sector, from the typical special alloys in aeronautics that call for low speeds and high precisions up to the versions needing very high cutting speeds, to satisfy machining cycles operating twenty-four hours a day and six days a week.

The rapid machining and cutting speeds of axes and spindles depend on the equipment size: the cutting speed requested is about 2,500 m/min with spindle rotation attained also through synchronous electrospindles while, as far as the axes are concerned, 30 m/min solutions are available. In the range of W-series machines for the production of wheels, the need of mass productions and low manufacturing times prevails and this determines the separation between turning operations and drilling machines and, when necessary, milling machinery.

IMT Intermato has taken care of the whole productive aspect concerning the production of wheels, creating machines for special super-finishing machining called “Mirror” and a machine called WB24 of which it holds the patent in various nations. It is a machine that carries out the correction of the unbalance through the asymmetric machining of the wheel profile, solution very appreciated on the market because it allows attaining great productive and economic benefits.

It is then available a range of multi-process and multi-purpose machines for multiple-axis machining, that’s to say multitasking, where turning, turning-milling and turning-milling-grinding operations are performed on the same machine.

They are the machines of the S and the P series, machines with fixed crossrail and turning equipment diameter up to 1.2 m and 2 m.

Last but not least the NTM and VBM Series, mobile crossrail lathes that reach seven metres of turning diameter. In the models with turning size exceeding three metres, the turning spindles with hydrostatic bearing prevail. The materials that can be machined by the W Series are mainly aluminium and aluminium alloys for the automotive and the aeronautical sectors.

If we refer to general mechanics, are widely used all the materials that this sector requires, especially for aeronautics, such as high-resistance materials, for which the high 350-bar pressure of the coolant is needed. The S, P, NTM and VBM Series mainly machine special cast irons, steels with high carbon content, stainless steels, inconel and titanium.

Some of the main application sectors of IMT Intermato machines are, for the W Series, the automotive and the aeronautical industry, while for the S-P-NTMVBM lathes the prevailing fields are the traditional energy ambit and the nuclear sector, the earth handling, the production of bearings and so on. Other customized applications at companies’ in the sector of the manufacturing of large rolling mills provide for the supply of dedicated machines for precision turning machining coupled with grinding with wheel change.

The mission of IMT Intermato is to allow its partners and customers to obtain safe results in short times, studying tailor-made solutions, both in terms of technology, layout of plant installation and of ergonomics, user-friendliness and easy maintenance of each equipment, with the shortest possible times for the interventions of this kind and the warranty of an efficient direct after sale service at customers’.

Visit www.imtintermato.it for further information