A CUT ABOVE THE REST

Located near Bilbao at Vitoria-Gasteiz, part of the industrial heartland of Spains Basque country,
machine tools manufacturer Zayer S.A. has spent over 50 years offering their customers milling
machines and machining centres of the highest quality.
sing the very latest technologies,
Zayer offers strict manufacturing
processes, quality levels of the
highest order and ongoing design
improvement. The company considers
this continuous improvement to be the
only sure way of enabling it to stay ahead
in the market as a global leader.
Zayer is a joint-stock company
although its shares are not quoted on the
stock market. It began life in 1950,
starting with the manufacturing of knee
type milling machines.
At present time Zayers facilities cover
an area of over 25.000 m2, almost 20,000
of which are built on, and it has a workforce of 225 people. There are no
immediate plans to increase the
size of the companys facilities but its a different story with
regard to new

Horizontal and vertical

machining centre, 30KCU AR
32 Industry Europe

products. Managing director, Mr. Luis M

Molinuevo explains: We are permanently
innovating and launching new products, at
least every two years, at the same time as
dropping other, older products in favour of
new ones. Its a permanent company policy.

Range of products
Zayer offers a wide range of milling
machines and machining centres with the
latest technology, specially for die and
mould manufacturers, as well as for the
aerospace, wind power and railway
industries and for general machining.
Their products include bed type milling
machines and machining centres; moving
column with versions of independent table
and fixed table on which the column moves;
bridge type with fixed or movable crossbeam and Gantry type.
Some of the products are high performance machines, like the models 30
Industry Europe 33

Big dimensions workpiece

for aerospace industry

Wind component machined in

a 30KCU machining centre

Milling hydraulic turbines

KFC/KFCU AR and KPC/KPCU AR, and

others are high speed machines, like
models KMC/KMCU AV and MEMPHIS.
The high performance machines are
characterized by their excellent capacity
for chip removal in roughing operations
and their good behaviour in finishing operations. These machines are specially suitable for the automobile, aeronautical,
aerospace industry, etc.
High speed machines are characterized
by their high work speeds, with excellent
dynamic behaviour and high accuracy.
They fully meet the increasing requirements
from the market, especially for workpieces
meant for the automobile and aerospace
sectors. Its symmetrical design guarantees
a balanced distribution of thermal deformations. The balanced distribution of the
masses and a detailed calculation of the
kinematics of the movable elements, give
excellent dynamic behaviour, as well as
high accuracy and productivity levels.

Machine equipment
Zayer machines can accommodate
a wide range of equipments to satisfy
the needs of the customers. Thus the
machines can be equipped with a great
number of accessories, and also with
different types of heads, and even in
some cases with automatic movable quill.
One of the most important characteristics of Zayer machines is the possibility of
fitting different heads, optimizing in this way
the functionality of the machine, adapting it
to the characteristics required for each job
or type of machining.
The variety of heads, with manual
or automatic change, that can be
fitted include:
Direct outlet heads.
45 heads.
Angular TWIST heads.
L shaped heads.
Special heads, according
to the customer needs.

Other specifications of the machines are:

Inserted hardened and ground steel
guideways (58-62 HRc)
Roller packs and SKC-3 in counterguides
Ball screws with double preloaded nut
(vertical movement)
Rack and pinion with double motor
system (longitudinal and cross movement)

Technical innovations
One of the main characteristics of most of
the the machines that Zayer makes, is the
use of rack and pinion with double motor
system in X and Y axes longitudinal and
cross movement. The electronically preloaded system improves the dynamics
and eliminates any backlash.
In addition it makes possible machines
with larger travels than those than can be
obtained with ball screws.
Another great improvement achieved
with the rack and pinion with double
motor system is the increase in acceleration. a parameter that until recently was
not considered important, as the work
feed speeds were relatively low.
Currently, due to the programming
system used in complex forms of machining,
this parameter is of great importance, and
thanks to this, it is possible to obtain up to
30 per cent machining time reductions.
The digital technology applied in the drives
allows the use of these systems with maximum accuracy and reliability.
A head patented by Zayer, with automatic positioning each 0,001, enables
the tool to be set at any angle with

Gantry machining centre, GPCU 30000 AR

34 Industry Europe

accuracy. The type of head with 37 kW

and 6.000 rpm can be equipped with
coolant through the tool.

Leadership vocation
Zayer continues to promote the agility
and flexibility of its machines, aspects
that are required more and more by the
market, but without forsaking the traditional reliablility and great precision of its
machines, says Mr. Molinuevo Therefore
our manufacturing range is being extended
with the addition of multifunctional solutions that combine in the same machine,
milling, boring and turning operations,
reducing the clamping times, improving
accuracy and reducing costs.
The companys commitment to leadership also implies a global presence in the
market, The most important challenge in
relation to the manufacturing of our
machines, says Mr. Molinuevo is, is
maintaining the differentiator aspects of
quality and precision that we have always
had but at the same time we must be aware
that the market is more and more globalized and requires from us an active commercial and technical universal presence.

in China, India, the eastern Europe countries and Russia, he says.

Zayer has exported during the last five
years more than 75 per cent of its production, mainly to technologically advanced
countries such as Germany, France, Italy,
etc. To us, Germany has been traditionally the most important exporting market,
says Mr. Molinuevo. But with the difficult
economic situation in Germany in the last
few years, it has been hard to maintain
our export volumes. Now.however, we
see evidence of recovery in the German
market, which, if it is confirmed, will also
have a beneficial effect on other European
countries, due to the pulling force of the
German economy
In spite of the difficult circumstances
that the machine tool manufacturing
sector has experienced worldwide in
recent times, Zayer sees the future with
a moderate level of optimism, says Mr.

Molinuevo, the crisis in the sector has

forced us to reorganise our production
system, which puts us in a better position
than the competition to take advantage of
the recovery when it comes.

Machining center, Memphis 8000 U

Sales network
Zayer has its own offices in France, Italy,
Brazil and Mexico. In Spain it has an
extensive commercial network that covers
all the industrial areas of the country, from
north to south and from east to west. In
Europe it has distributors and agents in
Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic,
Denmark, England, Finland, France,
Germany, Holland, Norway, Poland,
Portugal, Slovakia, Swiss, Switzerland
and Turkey. In addition it has distributors
in Argentina, Australia, Canada, Colombia,
Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Korea,
Morocco, Peru, Singapur, South Africa,
Thailand, the U.S.A. and Venezuela.
Mr. Molinuevo confirms that Zayer is
keen on embracing new markets in developing countries as well as maintaining the
companys position in more traditional
ones We want to intensify our presence

Mould machining for car industry

in a memphis machining center.

Industry Europe 35