The LaboFlex 60 is suited for the production of high-quality printed circuit boards and milling of 3D models. This machine is equipped with a 30.000 rpm spindle motor with manual tool change. The LaboFlex machines are not only fast and precise but very silent as well. This is made possible through the use of “state-of-the-art” electronics end the accompanying embedded software. This way it is possible to put the machine in an electronics lab.

As well as the CPR range, LaboFlex machines have been specifically designed for milling high-quality printed circuit boards. But the LaboFlex 60 has more to offer. This affordable machine allows you to mill 3D models as well, which makes this model quite unique. Nobody offers both of these technologies into one-and-the-same machine.

This machine uses a profile rail guiding system which gives a high positioning and movement accuracy. Because rolling resistance is used, high speed with low power can be obtained. These guidings have an extremely long life-expectancy.

The high-level machines use ball lead screws. They are nuts that are filled with small balls that glide over a spindle (screw thread). The standard systems however have a small bit of play. Having no play would cause the nut to block. This small bit of play causes some deviations which are nearly visible in common milling work, but come clearly forward when doing high-precision (µm) work. The Colinbus Laboflex 30 uses “Zero Backlash” technology. Special nuts are used that undo the “backlash” – as this play is called.

The Colinbus Laboflex 60 is built using Stealt Technology. This way moving parts remain light and rigid but the complete machine becomes strong and stable. Especially for PCB milling machines this is of extreme importance. This specific application requires machines to be able to produce fine-structured designs at relatively high speed. With this in mind the Colinbus PCB range has been developed. Four strong linear guidings, normally only used in big and heavy high-precision machines because of the price, make part of the design. But because these guidings are the n°1 when it comes to stability and precision they have been used in this PCB machine.

A heavy face-milled T-nut table forms the basics of a Colinbus LaboFlex 60 machine. This table in combination with the flexible software gives the user the possibility to fix the material in a number of different ways: by means of a movable strip in the middle of the machine, by corner alignment or by entering a new zero point anywhere on the table. Thanks to this system there is practically no limitation in the number of possible applications of this machine.

In order to mill “multilayer board” there is the well-known system using alignment pins. For the fixation of 3D working pieces there is the T-nut table with a lot of options. Also a vacuum table is available.

The combination of PCB prototyping and 3D modelling is not so obvious. A LaboFlex machine is a combination two quite different technologies. The built-in processor got two jobs assigned and the “embedded” software needed to be re-written. But also the Z-ax is special.
With a 70 mm Z-axis this machine has enough freedom of movement to mill most common 3D models. In the PCB milling position however this movement is restricted up to 8 mm. The unique engraving system makes it possible to adjust milling depths up to 1µm and that depth will always be constant even with irregular surface of the board to be milled. Also the high drilling speed is partially due to this unique technology.

To be able to mill fine structures a high-frequency spindle is needed. To get straight milling tracks high spindle rotation is required. The milling head itself has to be very precise because a small deviation results in large errors. The LaboFlex 60 is standard equipped with a 30.000 rpm high-frequency spindle.

Apart from being bad for the health dust also gives poor milling results. If dust remains on the board to mill, the “depth limiter” gets the wrong information and exact depth regulation becomes difficult. For this reason the LaboFlex 60 has been equipped with a cyclone-shaped dust extraction head. The dust is being extracted in the milling head itself to avoid dust getting in the open air or under the “depth limiter”. For 3D work there is a flexible dust extraction system that adapts itself easily to the job.

The LaboFlex 60 is ready-to-use. Included is professional CAM software to import and work with the commonly used electronics files such as Gerber and Excellon as well as software to generate 3D milling tracks. But the centre is the well-known Colinbus User Interface. This software makes machine handling extremely simple. No specific CNC knowledge as is the cases with other machines is required for the LaboFlaex machines. Even import of complex file formats is no problem at all. No G-code programming to do; no difficult commands but simply pushing some buttons.